Thread: California Leads Nation in Unaccredited Colleges

From this morning's Inside Higher Education. This will not be news for regulars at Degreeinfo.


California Leads Nation in Unaccredited Colleges

January 16, 2012 - 3:00am



California leads the nation in unaccredited colleges, The New York Times reported. Nearly 1,000 unaccredited or "questionably accredited" institutions operate in the state, frequently ignoring state regulations. "There are a lot of schools that beg the question 'What exactly is going on in California?' " Eyal Ben Cohen, managing director of Accredibase Limited, a company based in London that monitors diploma mills, told the Times. "California has very weak oversight procedures as far as allowing an institution to operate within its borders. An institution within California can obtain a license very easily."







Read more: California Leads Nation in Unaccredited Colleges | Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed

The question, "What exactly is going on in California?" would seem to be easily answered in one word: MONEY

Not only does the state not want to spend the money to monitor these entities, they certainly enjoy being able to collect the corporaate taxes that they generate. Money trumps ethics all over the world why should this be any different?

Once again, there's nothing wrong with an environment where people can set up schools as they see fit and prospective students can enroll or not as they see fit. As it stands now, too many people expect the state to do all their thinking for them when it comes to protecting them from poor choices.

I note the "crisis of increasing mills" is once again attributed to Eyal Ben Cohen of Accredibase. Here's a blast from the past, from Kizmet:

"My thanks to Rumpole and Johann for bothering to check this out. I asked Eyalbc to chat me up on this topic. We'll see what happens. But unless/until that happens (and to my satisfaction) we won't be hearing from him again.
Thanks again guys."

Well, it looks like Eyal Ben Cohen is still successfully creating "crises" to increase business for Accredibase - only he's not allowed to do it directly in the forum any more. (We have to quote him - see first post. :) ) I'd take anything he says about California or elsewhere with a pinch of salt. He's based in London, btw. Accredibase is basically a list-aggregator that serves resume-checking firms and the like.

My take - if licensing is as easy in Cal. as Mr. Ben Cohen says , then why, with its pretense of having filed, hasn't Breyer State U. got one? BSU says it applied in Aug 2010. Somebody else told me the BPPE had no record. I'll go with that. How long is a cease-and-desist for BSU gonna take?

Johann

Thanks for being such a good historian Johann. As to your last question, I wish I could help but I'm likely to be the last to know.

Originally Posted by Johann

My take - if licensing is as easy in Cal. as Mr. Ben Cohen says , then why, with its pretense of having filed, hasn't Breyer State U. got one? BSU says it applied in Aug 2010. Somebody else told me the BPPE had no record. I'll go with that. How long is a cease-and-desist for BSU gonna take?

Johann

IIRC, California gutted the budget of the BPPVE to the point they have no enforcement arm any longer.

Originally Posted by Bruce

IIRC, California gutted the budget of the BPPVE to the point they have no enforcement arm any longer.

Unfortunately, that's true. The new BPPE has no litigation arm of its own - they'd have to rely on the State Attorney General's office to handle any court action - and that office is busy enough with major stuff that they'd have to prioritize degree mill cases into the next century. Now that I think about it, if the BPPE sends out a cease-and-desist, the recipient could, in all probability, safely ignore it for some years.

Johann

Originally Posted by Johann

Now that I think about it, if the BPPE sends out a cease-and-desist, the recipient could, in all probability, safely ignore it for some years.

Like I said, money.

Originally Posted by Kizmet

Like I said, money.

And you're perfectly right, as I see it. There's money collected from licensing - and that might pay for some little bit of oversight - but there's no money for enforcement. I wish they could find someone with the capabilities of Mr. Jeffrey Brunton - the determined attorney who cleaned up Hawaii's unaccredited situation. His "purge" didn't mean that all remaining unaccred. schools were academically good - but it DID get rid of flagrant mills and absolute dishonesty. It made sure all schools played by certain rules, thereby establishing protection for the consumer.

Even though there doesn't yet appear to be any similar person(s) on the enforcement horizon for California's BPPE, I prefer their situation to "accredit-or-die" Wyoming, or other states where unaccred. operation is pretty well impossible. Under the rules of the former BPPVE, there were state-approved schools (quite a few now accredited - others still not) that did a pretty fair job. I'm hoping for a similar state of affairs under the new BPPE.

There's a spirit of ingenuity in this Cal. State-approved environment that has resulted in some very good things. Yes, there are also schools one could readily say are substandard -- one has to take the good with the bad. It's not simply, as Mr. Ben Cohen would have us believe, a matter of buying his list. Rather, it's one requiring thought, investigation and decision-making.

Yes there are many unaccredited schools in California. There are also more people than in any other state. But no - the sky is not falling. At least, not yet!

Johann

Originally Posted by Johann

Unfortunately, that's true. The new BPPE has no litigation arm of its own - they'd have to rely on the State Attorney General's office to handle any court action - and that office is busy enough with major stuff that they'd have to prioritize degree mill cases into the next century. Now that I think about it, if the BPPE sends out a cease-and-desist, the recipient could, in all probability, safely ignore it for some years.

Johann

This has been the major problem allowing diploma mills to thrive. They tend to be quite low on the priorities list for most Attorneys General (unless there is some high official or notable person with a bogus degree). This is especially true in a situation like California's, where a number of schools operate out of California but use mail forwarding services in other states. As long as the students are not coming from one's own state and are complaining, the AG will typically leave it alone.

Of course, not all unaccredited schools are mills.