Commission for Continuous Learning UK (CCL)

Commission for Continuous Learning UK is an Independent Accrediting Educational Institution registered in Great Britain.


http://www.ccledu.ac/

Are they for real?

.ac domain is reserved for approved UK insitutions

 

Ascension domain ".ac"

The domain ending ".ac" is for Ascension Island. It is sometimes used by diploma mills to fool visitors to their sites into thinking that the mill's domain holds a legitimate academic institution's web site.

 

The two-letter country-specific (or "country colded") top level domains are called a "ccTLD" in the web biz. The top level domains ".com" and ".org" and ".net" and ".edu" (and others) are what are called "generic" top level domains or a "gTLD".

Many countries limit the use of their ccTLD to stuff within their countries, and said use is regulated by that country's government. Other countries recognize the marketability of their particular ccTLD (for example, Italy's ".it" ccTLD for IT industry-related web sites, etc.) and so they license the use of their ccTLD out to a for-profit agent who then becomes the root administrator of said ccTLD on behalf of said government.

The Ascension Islands' .ac ccTLD has nothing to do with either the UK, or, specifically, educational sites there... as galanga correctly points out. Anyone can get a .ac ccTLD for their web site.

What most countries that offer the use of their ccTLD out to anyone who wants it will usually not do, however, is allow the ".edu.xx" version of their ccTLD to be used by just anyone. Similar to the rule that Educause, in the U.S., has for who may now use the .edu gTLD, most countries have reserved the ".edu.xx" version of their ccTLD for bona fide educational institutions only.

So, while the use of a mere .ac ccTLD means nothing as far as whether its user, if a college/university, is legit, the use of the .edu.ac ccTLD actually might. In the case of the .ac ccTLD I haven't gone and looked it up, so I don't know for sure... nor am I going to take the time to. It's easy enough to do if anyone wants to. My only point is that any ccTLD with .edu in front of it may, depending on the country and how well it regulates the use of its ccTLD, actually mean it's legit. But just the ccTLD -- including just .ac -- alone, no.

 

This is renamed Cristomas, the owner of IIU.

Learner

 

Re: Ascension domain ".ac"

Thanks for info. I got confused with .ac domain and .ac.uk domain.

correct domain seems to be .ac.uk for accredited institutions in UK.