Diploma mills make a big deal of the ornate nature of the certificates they sell. So when I recently received my diploma from U. of Leicester, I saw a real difference between it and my diploma from Union. In short, the diploma from Union is what you'd expect. The one from Leicester is not. First, size. The Union diploma is 11"x17" in landscape. The Leceister diploma is 8x11, portrait. Text: Union is written in a flourishing script style like you always see. Leicester is what looks like Times New Roman. Verbiage: Union's says: "Under the authority vested in them, the Trustees and Officers on the recommendation of the Faculty and in recognition of the satisfactory completion o fthe required course of study have conferred upon (me) the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto. In witness thereof, they have caused this diploma to be issued over the signatures of the President and the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and affixed thereto the University seal in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, (date)." Signatures and titles follow. Leicester's says: "It is hereby certified that (name) was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences on the (date)." Signatures and titles of the Chancellor, President, and Registrar follow. The Union diploma has the university seal imprinted. The Leicester diploma has the university crest imprinted and in the watermark. Both are printed on card stock. Does it matter? I guess not. I had to dig my Union diploma out of the closet to do this comparison, so I never look at it. The Leicester diploma seems so small and stark in comparison. But the degree--and the research that went into it--is not. Funny how the diploma from an American school looks so medieval, while the diploma from the British school looks and reads simply and very modern. On another note, when I graduated from National with my MBA back in the day, they took great pride in being a modern university. The diploma they issued was in portrait format, had modern fonts, and looked like a certificate from an executive training program. During one of my moves, I'd thought I'd lost it, so I asked the school to re-issue the diploma. This was in 1999. By then, they'd switched to a traditional, landscape orientation with lots of old-style script. Go figure.
