'Compliance Mills' a Growing Threat to Serious Learning

For years, the education sector has been frustrated over 'diploma mills' slipping through the cracks and eroding the credibility of quality education providers. But now an emerging and disappointing trend is again on the rise, warns John Mason, principal of ACS Distance Education, which has been operating for 31 years, educating students from close to 200 countries with its 400-plus courses.

“We've all heard about diploma mills and their propensity to generate income and anyone with an ounce of integrity understands that paying money for a qualification without doing much work is unethical, and contributes nothing to learning or career outcomes,” says Mr Mason, based in the ACS Distance Education head office on the Gold Coast.
“But over recent years there has been a growing trend for once-credible learning institutions to move towards becoming 'compliance mills',” explains Mr Mason.
“Like a diploma mill, a 'compliance mill' is an institution that awards qualifications for something that all too often has little to do with the actual learning experience for students.”

Mr Mason says one of the high priorities of a compliance mill, is to comply with regulations and ensure bureaucratic requirements are met by students.
“Essentially, if the boxes can be shown to be ticked and the paperwork is in order, the qualification is awarded.,” he says.
“So much effort is being put into compliance, that often, attention to providing an effective learning experience is minimal.”

With his three decades of experience in the education sector, Mr Mason has observed that sometimes it can be difficult to easily distinguish whether an institution is genuinely focussed on learning, or more interested in profit and compliance.Students need to look carefully because many genuine and better institutions, actually work outside government accreditation systems – however, so do most diploma mills.

“This can create confusion for anyone trying to decide where to study.”
He suggests this situation could also be complicated by compliance mills sometimes seen to be supported by government bureaucracies. There are some websites that support what could be perceived to be compliance mills and falsely classify anything that is not government recognised, as a diploma mill.“Sadly, good colleges can be labelled as diploma mills, while compliance mills can be on the good list.If it sounds confusing, it is!”
It raises the question, proposes Mr Mason, over whether there is a solution for the future of education in Australia, to stay credible and have students' best interests at heart?

There is only one way of knowing if a course is provided by a diploma mill or compliance mill - students must look closely at how long the course is, what the qualifications of teaching staff are, what the course content is, and whether the course focuses more on learning rather than assessment.

John Mason

([email protected]).

 

The fact remains that even those accredited schools that do as little as necessary to meet accreditation requirements still have to meet those requirements. Some low-end examples don't accomplish much more than that, but it's still vastly superior to operating from overseas mail drops and not attempting to satisfy any standards at all.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/college-charges-836418000-fees-for-useless-degrees-1290087.html

http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/chequered-history-of-controversial-college-1290114.html

 

Quite enjoyed the comment made about compliance mills which clouds any bona fide student willing to study and not migrate which most compliance mills think they are doing. It is sad that it takes mass media to report such incidents for the public to sit up and notice what these accredited compliance mills are doing and is no better than the problems facing the financial world. Infact it can be said that they are rather similar passing of a bad thing as a good one or giving a triple A rating for a debt that is faulty. Why becos the rating agency or accreditation agency follows a rather bureaucratical method of assessment and evaluating these institutions.

 

Mr Mason says one of the high priorities of a compliance mill, is to comply with regulations and ensure bureaucratic requirements are met by students.
“Essentially, if the boxes can be shown to be ticked and the paperwork is in order, the qualification is awarded.,” he says.
“So much effort is being put into compliance, that often, attention to providing an effective learning experience is minimal.”
>>

(emphasis mine)

My assumption and remarks are directed only toward regionally accredited colleges like the big 3. I'm certainly not pro-degree mills, or even unaccredited degrees in general.

So, regarding the above passage- I would ask, so what? If the requirements are met, they are met. An effective learning experience, as far as I know, has not yet been defined by the bureaucrats...so how exactly is it enforceable? Also, requirements absolutely do tick a box. I can't see any logical argument in which reducing the consistency is a good thing. "Billy, I know you met the requirements of your degree, but I don't really FEEL like you had a quality experience, I'd like to keep you here another year until you experience meaning. On the other hand, Jimmy really had a meaningful experience last year, so he can finish early." I hope the absurdity proves my point.

The author is suggesting we micromanage accredited colleges...but for the purpose of what? Is learning experience actually more important to monitor than the requirement of a degree?

 

>>

Re-reading what he wrote, still leaves me thinking he is lumping accredited colleges into this mix- but articles like this only lead to more confusion. Now, I know this is directed at Australia, so maybe it has nothing to do with schools like the big 3- I really don't know. I also don't know anything about the Australian accreditation system. In the USA, accreditation isn't confusing. Once you know what you are looking for, it's black and white- one has it or doesn't. Things in red make me think that this includes schools like the big 3, but things in blue cloud the issue.

"For years, the education sector has been frustrated over 'diploma mills' slipping through the cracks and eroding the credibility of quality education providers. But now an emerging and disappointing trend is again on the rise, warns John Mason, principal of ACS Distance Education, which has been operating for 31 years, educating students from close to 200 countries with its 400-plus courses.

“We've all heard about diploma mills and their propensity to generate income and anyone with an ounce of integrity understands that paying money for a qualification without doing much work is unethical, and contributes nothing to learning or career outcomes,” says Mr Mason, based in the ACS Distance Education head office on the Gold Coast.
“But over recent years there has been a growing trend for once-credible learning institutions to move towards becoming 'compliance mills',” explains Mr Mason.
“Like a diploma mill, a 'compliance mill' is an institution that awards qualifications for something that all too often has little to do with the actual learning experience for students.”

Mr Mason says one of the high priorities of a compliance mill, is to comply with regulations and ensure bureaucratic requirements are met by students.
“Essentially, if the boxes can be shown to be ticked and the paperwork is in order, the qualification is awarded.,” he says.“So much effort is being put into compliance, that often, attention to providing an effective learning experience is minimal.”

With his three decades of experience in the education sector, Mr Mason has observed that sometimes it can be difficult to easily distinguish whether an institution is genuinely focussed on learning, or more interested in profit and compliance.Students need to look carefully because many genuine and better institutions, actually work outside government accreditation systems – however, so do most diploma mills.

“This can create confusion for anyone trying to decide where to study.”
He suggests this situation could also be complicated by compliance mills sometimes seen to be supported by government bureaucracies. There are some websites that support what could be perceived to be compliance mills and falsely classify anything that is not government recognized, as a diploma mill.“Sadly, good colleges can be labelled as diploma mills, while compliance mills can be on the good list.If it sounds confusing, it is!”
It raises the question, proposes Mr Mason, over whether there is a solution for the future of education in Australia, to stay credible and have students' best interests at heart?

There is only one way of knowing if a course is provided by a diploma mill or compliance mill - students must look closely at how long the course is, what the qualifications of teaching staff are, what the course content is, and whether the course focuses more on learning rather than assessment.
John Mason"

 

Anyway, by denying it doesn't exist adds food for thought in its existence.

 

Yawn. Not sure the "article" means anything at all. How could one measure the compliance construct as ill-defined as it has been proposed by Mason? You are going to measure that all professors in the institution are doing only the "minimum"? Getting a group of professors to do even one thing the same way seems a bit of struggle. How could an academic dean get all his / her professors to do just the "minimum" to comply?

 

Great new word, MC: hubajubasuzamatonic. I love it!