colton / valley university do they exist?

I have a job applicant from a lady who claims to have completed her degree at valley university in 1995. I have a copy of the certificate but cannot get hold of the university to verify that she did indeed study there. The website still exists, http://www.valleyuniversity.org/index.htm but the telephone number listed is a publishing company. I have sent numerous emails to the registrar, to no avail. Interestingly the website has a link to Colton university and there are other postings about this site / university. Can anyone tell me whether this university (Valley) ever existed. The degree certificate gives address as 202 East Rialto AV, San Bernardino CA, 92313. Also, is there nowhere in the USA where such degrees are registered for the sake of record keeping and in the event that one loses the original?

 

It appears to exist only on the Internet; no physical address is listed anywhere on the site. Their "accreditor" appears to be something they made up for the purposes of self-accreditation and obviously named to cause confusion with the real regional associations.

If I were you, I'd put that application right through the shredder.

 

still want an answer to the question of recording of degrees

Thanks for the reply I am aware of the website's lack of info. Hence my question about a records office in the USA that records all qualifications as there is in my country, South Africa

 

There's no central repository for school records in the United States; if a school closes then they either turn their records over to the state department of education or make another school the caretaker of their records.

Valley University appears to be "operating" so the fact you can't contact anyone there should be all you need to know in regards to their legitimacy.

 

Were they ever legit?

WOW!!! Excuse my ignorance. Does this mean they were never legit? Could they have been legit at some stage (1995) and then been taken over by somebody else? I am trying very hard to give the person the benefit of the doubt. Strikes me that in 1995 the technology wasn't available to do online degrees or did they just issue the degree on payment of fees. What fascinates me is that the US government does not put a stop to it. Surely they can see the harm it is doing to your country's reputation.

 

Anything is possible, but considering I've been involved in DL for well over 10 years and have never heard of them, I would have to say my opinion is no, they were never legitimate, at least as I consider legitimate. The Bears' Guide I happen to have near my computer lists only two schools with "Valley" in the name;

Valley Christian University - Listed as Fresno, then Clovis CA but letters neither answered or returned. No listed telephone.

Valley City State University - An accredited state school in North Dakota; http://www.vcsu.edu/

If you want to leave no room for doubt, check with the regional accrediting association for California (Western Association) as well as the DETC and ACICS to make sure they were never accredited or a candidate for accreditation.

Also check with the California BPPVE to see if they were ever state approved or state authorized (which isn't accredited);

WASC - http://www.wascweb.org/

DETC - http://www.detc.org

ACICS - http://www.acics.org

BPPVE - http://www.bppve.ca.gov/

 

If you are asking whether this/these are/were credible California higher education institutions, then the short answer is almost certainly 'no'.

It's unlikely.

Valley University boasts that they have 218,000 graduates. That's a huge number, suggesting that this is a major higher education institution. The fact that they apparently award doctorates only underlines that. But if Valley University is such a big deal, then wouldn't you expect Californians to have heard of it? I live here and I never have, and I try to follow California higher education pretty closely.

http://www.valleyuniversity.org/index.htm

Their "accreditor" doesn't help matters.

http://www.thlc.org/

This "The Higher Learning Commission" is obviously hoping to be confused with the North Central Association's Higher Learning Commission. The real NCA/HLC is one of the six regional accreditors here in the United States. Each one is responsible for quality-assurance oversight in a particular region of the country. Here in California, the regional accreditor responsible for local schools would be the Western Association of Schoools and Colleges (WASC). This thing is most assuredly not accredited by WASC.

Here's the list of the schools that "THLC" claims to accredit. It looks like somebody just downloaded a list of mostly American Universities. There are likely a few fake ones mixed in, probably run by the perpetrator. Interestingly, I didn't see Valley University on the list.

http://www.thlc.org/dir.asp

The whole thing is kind of crafty. On Valley's link to this, it's called "The Higher Learning Commission". But on the THLC pages themselves, that name never seems to be spelled out, only the initials are used. Presumably the perpetrator is trying to insulate himself from the wrath of the real NCA/HLC's lawyers.

And it only gets worse. Valley's 'programs' page tells us that Valley U. are "Fully recognized members of: ASCAOR American Society of Collegiate Admissions Officers & Registrars".

http://www.valleyuniversity.org/pages/most%20popular%20programs.htm

This one is ripping off a legitimate professional organization called AACRAO, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, which ironically is very active in the fight aginst degree-mills. I notice that the link to the phony ASCAOR on Valley's page doesn't work.

Valley's 'contact us' page doesn't include any physical address. Has anyone ever encountered a legitimate university that doesn't reveal where it's physically located?

But there is something interesting on the 'contact' page, an obscure link way down at the bottom to a legal disclaimers page.

http://www.valleyuniversity.org/pages/legal.htm

That's where we can read this:

Accreditation Disclaimer

Valley State*University is not accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education. Students who wish to transfer credits to an accredited institution or seek a position that requires an accredited degree should be aware that in most cases our degree will not be accepted. This fact should be considered when deciding on our educational programs.

Interesting that it's become 'Valley State University' now. This most assuredly isn't a California state university, not even close. But there is a CSU campus, California State University Northridge, that used to be named 'San Fernando Valley State University' and it's still occasionally referred to as 'Valley State' by its old grads.

Be careful. Don't let your good nature turn you into a con-man's victim.

Degree mills often back-date the diplomas that they sell. They will print any date on them that customers request.

In the United States, education is the responsibility of the individual states. In California, the legislation that previously regulated private postsecondary education expired about a year ago. State legislators are locked in a dispute over what should replace it and have been unable to pass new legislation. So the state of California is currently in a regulatory interregnum and many degree-mills and fake internet "universities" have suddenly started boasting California mailing addresses. (Typically these are mailbox rental stores that forward correspondence to perpetrators located elsewhere.) Some of these phony "universities" are falsely and brazenly boasting that they have picturesque campuses and that they've been located in California for years.

 

Valley University

Here's what their own website states:

Valley State University is not accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education. Students who wish to transfer credits to an accredited institution or seek a position that requires an accredited degree should be aware that in most cases our degree will not be accepted. This fact should be considered when deciding on our educational programs.

http://www.valleyuniversity.org/pages/legal.htm

As a general rule, an unaccredited institution of higher education is a fraudulent institution. Somewhere there may be a legitimate institution that is not accredited for some reason. I've never heard of one.

Often holders of these fake degrees claim that they though it was all legitimate. They are lying.

If someone presented a diploma from "Valley University" to me as an potential employer, I wouldn't hire her regardless of any other qualifications because if she lies about this, she'll be dishonest in other ways.

 

According to the reliable www.betterwhois.com, the Valley State University website was created in January 2008 by Louise Brown, who provided the address as "Chicago, Colorado." The timing suggests it is brand new, and the "address" suggests an intent of deception.

--John Bear
Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning