ACICS in trouble again - Biden Education Department

Biden's Education Department looks to ditch accreditor of seemingly fake school

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/01/23/education-dept-suggests-termination-acics-reagan-national-university/6671390002/

 

In the thread about that for-profit colleges documentary elsewhere on DI, I noted that they exclusively focused on ACICS as a provider of non-transferable, expensive credits. Did not mention DEAC schools or the accreditor itself. I see the article similarly muddles things "Such a move would be in line with plans under President Joe Biden's administration to hold for-profit colleges — the type mostly commonly accredited by ACICS — under closer scrutiny."

ACICS mostly accredits for-profit colleges, but that doesn't mean most for-profit colleges are ACICS schools. Pretty amazing they let that school slide.

Another article discusses a spot visit by an ASICS investigator (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/10/28/college-accreditation-acics-department-education-betsy-devos-south-dakota/5978227002/) where they claim the entire university population got sick and the school was closed for 2 weeks to explain the absence of anyone: faculty, students, maintenance staff. That spot visit resulted from another USA Today investigation, not ACICS independent discovery.

 

Another interesting note: both the University of Northern New Jersey and University of Farmington were "accredited" by ACICS and both were fake universities set up by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify visa fraud. The ethics of that aside (and the sadness of students showing up with backpacks and finding out there were no classes on offer, before being arrested) - ACICS claims they participated in the fake accreditation to cooperate with the investigation, but I wonder if they really did?

Maybe DHS just filled out the paperwork and ACICS accredited them without realizing it was a scam because their standards are so weak.

 

Both were licensed by their respective states, yes.

From The Higher Ed Chronicle on Northern New Jersey (https://www.chronicle.com/article/inside-the-elaborate-web-presence-of-the-governments-fake-university/), "How was the costume so convincing? For one, the department had the State of New Jersey recognize the university, and had the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges accredit it."

Also from the Chronicle (https://www.chronicle.com/article/some-250-people-arrested-in-ices-u-of-farmington-sting-operation/), on Farmington: "By all appearances, the University of Farmington was legit. It was registered with the State of Michigan, accredited by a national company recognized by the Department of Education, and approved by ICE as a government program for foreign students"

It's very difficult to allege fraud or that the university was fake if you've literally received (or are listed as having received) all of the normal accreditation and licensing you would expect an authentic school to have.

It's like detecting a spy who enters your country with a real passport and real visa. There are behavioral clues perhaps, but all the normal safeguards will fail to detect someone who really is listed where they're supposed to be.