Didn't see it mentioned here, so I thought I would do so. From June 29, 2008: Diploma Mill Concerns Extend Beyond Fraud Discusses the Randocks in Washington among other issues. Quotes our own George Gollin. Tom Nixon
The article says: "in 2006, Congress eliminated a requirement that online colleges and universities provide at least half their courses in actual classrooms, making it more difficult to detect bogus operations" Is this a factual statement?
Absolutely not. The change referred to is online schools which do not offer half their courses in classrooms became eligible to participate in federal financial aid. What a major and misleading ommision of fact. What a sad state of affairs it is when I can only think of one news media publication in which I have not found a major, factual error which could have been corrected with basic, responsible reporting. Obviously the NY Times is not that publication.
"It is difficult to pin down how many diploma mills exist, or how many bogus degrees are bought each year, said George Gollin, a board member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the federal government’s recognized authority on accrediting agencies." Since when is CHEA the government's recognized authority on accrediting agencies? Last time I looked CHEA wasn't even recognized by the goverment.
It doesn't even make sense. How could ONLINE colleges and universities provide at least half their courses (or even ONE course) in actual classrooms, when they're called "online" precisely because they're ONLINE?