A poster on another forum mentioned the interesting National Center for Education Statistics site. It contains a Digest of Education Statistics, full of interesting tables of all sorts. Stats concerning postsecondary degrees are here. See Table 256: "Degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by control of institution." This tabulates public and private school degree statistics. For 2000-2001: Public school: associates 456,487 bachelors 812,438 masters 246,054 non-MD doctoral 28,187 Private school: associates 122,378 bachelors 431,733 masters 222,422 non-MD doctoral 16,717 Approximate totals: associates 580,000 bachelors 1.2 million masters 470,000 non-MD doctoral 45,000 How do these figures compare with the number of diploma mill degrees bought by Americans? I have the impression that estimates for the University Degree Program run around 20,000 to 50,000 diplomas sold year. So perhaps the total number of diploma mill degrees sold to Americans is somewhere in the range 25,000 - 100,000 each year? Hunting around on the web for UDP degree holders last year I found somewhat over a hundred whose credentials were included in employer, or personal web sites. About half the degrees were master's, half doctoral. There were very few bachelor's degrees listed on the web, but it may be considerably less likely for a BA-only customer to have their "degree" listed on a web site. So let's make a rough guess of 5,000 fake PhD's and 5,000 fake masters degrees per year. (I bet this is low by a factor of three!) This puts the fraction of fake advanced degrees at 1% for masters, and 10% for doctoral degrees! Holy cow! (Are we still allowed to say this?) I'd be interested to hear better figures concerning the breakdown by "level" of the diploma mill figures if anyone knows them. G
Galanga said a naughty! I think that if we restrict our attention to distance learning doctorates, it's a lot worse than that. Most legitimate doctoral programs are B&M. There are relatively few accredited DL doctoral programs, and none at all in many major fields. But virtually all of the phony doctoral programs are DL. It's extremely rare (a contradiction in terms?) to find a degree mill with a physical program. So I suspect that a great majority of doctoral degrees awarded through distance learning are fake. And if we add up all the weird "universities" that consist of little more than a website, I'd guess that as many as 90% of the DL doctoral degree programs one encounters on the web are fake. The danger is that both the general public and professionals who don't follow DL very closely are gradually getting the impression that 'internet degree' is synonymous with 'fake degree'.
I see that the diploma mill across the Bay thrashed Stanford in the "Big Game." What's the world coming to?
So I suspect that a great majority of doctoral degrees awarded through distance learning are fake. it all depends on what DL is in a given case. For example, there are australian institutions allowing the pursuit of a Ph.D under the guidance of a local scholar of their liking etc. Hence while it is DL, one still has to relate to a local mentor. For example, Open (UK ) & Athabasca are entirely DL. HOWEVER i must either sit exams at a registered educational institution of their liking; or at their local examination centres. At this point one might argue it is a very very lenient on-site requirement; indeed there is one. Indeed PH.D-in-the-mail where the only on-site activity is typing your credit card number in a nonsecure form is pure fraud. Then you have mixed cases, where people with brick&mortar degrees also purchase milled degrees for a host of reasons.
