The term 'diploma mill'

As we all know there are "colleges" that hand out diplomas in exchange for cash where the student does zero work. I get the feeling some people also apply the term to colleges that could be described as easy-to-get-accepted-into and have less than excellent standards. I also have a co-worker who has used it to describe some unaccredited, online, for-profit, accelerated, business-oriented colleges.

There is a difference between the last two and the first. The last two involve real course work and require real study. The first does not.

Are people using the term "diploma mill" too liberally or is it broader than I thought? Or am I not hearing correctly?

 

You've got it. The term gets wide usage, just as you described.

In one sense, a diploma mill is a fake-degree-selling sham. In another, it is a snide, elitist term for a school that graduates a lot of people, one that does not have exclusive admission standards. In yet another, it applies to a school with (perceived or real) substandard requirements.

Steve Levicoff tried to distinguish between the terms "degree mill" and "diploma mill." According to Dr. Levicoff, a "diploma mill" was an operation that sold fake degrees (like St. Regis or Knightsbridge), while a "degree mill" was an inferior, normally unaccredited school (like Kennedy-Western University). Steve's distinctions didn't catch on. In real life, the terms are used interchangeably and, unfortunately, sometimes when discussing real, legitimate, accredited schools.

 

It's a pretty broad term, in the sense that it can be used in different ways on different occasions.

The imagery in 'diploma mill' seems to be a factory churning out diplomas.

That might in turn suggest degree-for-dollars scams where phony diplomas are simply manufactured and sold.

Or it might suggest something like the University of Phoenix where business degrees might appear to some to be mass produced.

Or it might be used to criticize open admissions standards or what are perceived as easy degrees, where program requirements are reduced in order to increase admissions and graduation numbers.

I've used the term to refer to DL programs that eliminate labs in the hard sciences. I've used it to refer to successfully testing-out of subjects in which the student knows nothing. And I've also used it to refer to the disturbing trend towards masters degrees becoming first degrees in new subjects unrelated to the student's undergraduate major.

I've even seen the term applied to UC Berkeley, because of large auditorium lecture classes in introductory subjects.

I think that 'diploma mill' is always meant perjoratively, but the precise reason for the disdain depends on the particular occasion when the term is used.

 

As long as the university is RA I think it is safe to assume that it's not a mill. There will be always some one who will call a legitimate school a mill especially if the school has non traditional approach to education or enrolment etc.

Learner

 

I would include other forms of recognized accreditation, as well as foreign equivalents.

 

Originally posted by Rich Douglas
You've got it. The term gets wide usage, just as you described.

In one sense, a diploma mill is a fake-degree-selling sham. In another, it is a snide, elitist term for a school that graduates a lot of people, one that does not have exclusive admission standards. In yet another, it applies to a school with (perceived or real) substandard requirements.

I have been in conversations with many of my academic peers that have used this term precisely as Dr. Douglas describes above. Often, the University of Phoenix or Nova Southeastern University are targets of these snide remarks. On more than one occassion, I have pointed out that graduates of Phoenix are successful in obtaining jobs and advancing to graduate programs (the two measures that matter most to college grads). Nova Southeastern, for its part, graduates more minority doctorates than any university in the country (making it now difficult for my most liberal colleagues to attack it). Speaking of elitist, my colleagues are usually amazed that Nova also has a medical school (something that most of our universities do not). Nova and Phoenix also have substantial brick-and-mortar face-to-face programs.

So far, none of my colleagues has offered a comeback, other than, "Gee, I had no idea..."

Steve Levicoff tried to distinguish between the terms "degree mill" and "diploma mill." According to Dr. Levicoff, a "diploma mill" was an operation that sold fake degrees (like St. Regis or Knightsbridge), while a "degree mill" was an inferior, normally unaccredited school (like Kennedy-Western University). Steve's distinctions didn't catch on. In real life, the terms are used interchangeably and, unfortunately, sometimes when discussing real, legitimate, accredited schools.

something like this would be very useful. The fact that there are no generally accepted guidelines for degree/diploma mills is a source of frustration for those of us who try to educate people about them.

Tony Piña
Administrator, Northeastern Illinois University
AA, BA, EdM, Brigham Young University
EdD, La Sierra University

 

Gosh! Could it be a mill if it is mere humble NA?

 

Not likely. The requirements of both regional and national accreditation are such that they preclude accreditation of a degree mill.

Tony Piña, Ed.D.
Administrator, Northeastern Illinois University

 

Nationallyl Accredited schools are just as legitmate as a Regional Schools. They are both recognized by the U.S. Dept of Education and CHEA.

 

Hi Dr. Pina (sorry, not sure how to insert the tilde)

I often hear the same comments about UOP, and yes you are correct, they have thousands of graduates with successfull careers (doing a google search for "graduate of the university of phoenix" will yield some good results) and several students in well known brick and mortar grad programs.

As i've said several times, UOP is what it is, and has several problems (hence why I am applying to work for AMU/APUS), but is is legitimate and does provide a valuable service to several people.

I recently met a graduate of Nova's doctorate in education program, he is extremely intelligent, and is now working as an administrator at American University, a very well known school.

 

I remember Steve used to classify them as Diploma Mill type 1 and type 2.

leaner

I have a copy of name it and fraim it.

To bad Steve is not posting as often as he used to.

Learner

 

People with doctorates from Nova Southeastern can be found all over the place-both inside and outside academia. Of course, many of them did not get their degrees via DL. Nova has a very good program in Instructional Technology & Distance Learning.

Tony

P.S.: To do the "n" with tilde: Hold down the ALT key and type 0241 and then release the ALT key.

 

ñote that when 0241 is typed in you may have to use the keypad keys rather than the keys marked )@$!.

 

Dr. Piña:
"P.S.: To do the "n" with tilde: Hold down the ALT key and type 0241 and then release the ALT key."
------------------

How wonderfully intuitive. I should have guessed that.

Of course on my amusing little Mac toy, one just types alt-n and gets ñ.

 

I guess that would have made it 167 things....

 

I have programmed my Microsoft Word to do that (and the other foreign characters that I use when I write in Spanish). Macs have always been friendlier and more full-featured desktop publishing machines (in Yoda's words: "Invented for that, they were).

Tony