Why so many non-accredited institutions?

I would like to know why there are so many non-accredited colleges and universities operating in the US and abroad? Isn't illegal for them to be in business? If so, why isn't the government shutting them down?

 

Non-accredited school doesn't mean Diploma mill. Most of the Non-Accredited schools have state commerce approvel (consummer). All Diploma mill schools likes Belford University, Rochville University, and etc are either non-business license or operates in different country...don't think have license neither. Usually, school starts with non-accredited for a period of time, and can't get accreditation will be shutting down.

So, if a person wants to earn his or her degree; and he or she doesn't know if the school is legit. Then that person shouldn't go to school anyway. 'Cause the first thing you need to do is research about the school you want to attend. I am sure, everybody learns this in high school through Career Center. Unless the person plan to get a diploma mill. Just keep in mind that there is no such as thing that work experiences can transfer into a college degree. Yes, there are work experienes transfer into colleg credits such as Prior Learning Assessment (TESC), CLEP, DANTES, FEMA courses, and etc. So, one thinks that can purchase a Doctoral degree for $500.000 through one of the bogus institutes with no studies; then that person know he or she is wrong.

 

No, not necessarily. It is perfectly legal in some states (e.g. California or Hawaii) to operate a school without recognized accreditation, as long as state standards are met. Of course, there is no guarantee that a degree from such a school will be recognized in other states with different standards. Same goes for other countries.

1. In some cases, unaccredited colleges operate legally in their jurisdictions, as per the point above.

2. In other cases, unaccredited colleges don't reveal where they are located. Questionable schools that advertise online routinely hide their real addresses and any real names; they can only be contacted via anonymous email. It's hard to shut down an operation that you can't find. In fact, it may be difficult to determine which state or national government even has jurisdiction.

3. In general, taking action against unaccredited schools is not a top law enforcement priority for governments. Some unaccredited schools operate in less-developed countries, where law enforcement is haphazard or can be bought off.

 

Another huge problem is schools who claim to be located one place, while actually being located in another. Lots of frauds do this, and it works because the state where the mailbox "location" of the school is advertised says it's not their problem, because the crooks are physically located in a different state, while the state where the crooks are actually located argues that *they* aren't responsible, because all the advertising is pointing to an address in a different state.

And then you have the frauds that move from state to state to state as the laws change... which is easy, because they aren't located in any of those states at all in the first place.

Add to it a patchwork of laws and exemptions and regulations, and tight budgets... and it's something that's pretty low on the priority list as far as enforcement resources.

 

I'm attending a fully accredited Christian Graduate School. It has been in existence as a non-accredited educational school for almost 30 years. It's market was not to prepare folks for jobs in business or government or other educational institutions, so the accreditation was not a focus for them.

It was only within the last decade that new officers and new board of directors wanted to become accredited. So, they started the process and became accredited in the last year or so.

Accreditation is not a legal issue. Accreditation comes from accreditation boards which are (in a sense) partnerships of schools which verify that those in the partnership have minimum standards of certain facilities and educational processes.

Schools can be licensed by states to operate the business of education (this is the legal issue) with or without accreditation.