Wyoming New Haven For Online Diploma Mills

Wyoming New Haven For Online Diploma Mills, David Root, AACRAO Transcript, February 16, 2005.

Wyoming is currently home to eleven online universities, none of which are accredited by any recognized authority. This high concentration of so-called diploma mills is due to the state's loose requirements for who can operate as a center of higher education and grant degrees. Many of these schools offer advanced degrees with little actual academic work. In one case, a government investigator was forty percent of the way to a master's degree in sixteen hours. In another, a student could get credit for a course in hazardous waste management by passing a 100 question, open-book, multiple choice exam...
Legislation designed to impose stricter guidelines was shelved in December, after two of the state's senators returned from an all expenses paid trip to Dubai and Pakistan, where they were guests on campuses of Preston University, a distance learning school based in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

 

Old news, but new venue.

Boy, Wyoming licensing sure looks good!

 

Perhaps the senators saw signs of academic rigor at the Dubai and Pakistani campuses............

 

yep

Fluid dynamics and wave mechanics in Dubai, no doubt.

 

quote

IN SIXTEEN HOURS!

Wow! What a solid indicator of high-quality academic rigor and fortitude (or is it rigor mortis?)!

Which is it .......

Could it .....?
Could it be ......?
Could it possibly be .......?
Could it possibly, maybe, perchance, just perhaps, be the entity known as Kennedy-Western Enterprises?

All together now, in one refrain - piano forte, Moderato cum Maestoso - soprano, alto, tenor, bass! Go ......

KW"E"
KW"E"
KW"E"
KW"E"
KW"E"

LOL.

Thanks.

Kennedy-western

 

i'm confused.

why would these schools pick wyoming over any other state?

 

There's no worthwhile regulation there. A business license can be purchased for a business calling itself a "university." You can do the same thing in Turks and Caicos and Cayman Islands. A business license does not equal accreditation or any kind of academic approval process. Some have tried to contend that this is an authority to award degrees. Not really. It's an authority to run a business and sell a product. And the state doesn't care if it's five-cent cigars or five-course "degrees".

 

Well, Rich, there is no Douglas College anywhere in the U.S. except for an obscure beauty school in Pennsylvania called Douglas Institute or the like, so maybe you should get a Wyoming license while they are still available !

Note that Preston visited Pakistan, where its campus has apparently been told to leave. Rather odd.

 

You know, if you think about it, Wyoming would be a just about perfect place to start a completely legitimate college or university that fully intends, as soon as it's been in business long enough, to become accredited by an agency approved by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and/or its Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). It's hard to argue with the beauty of the place... or at least most of it, anyway; and I suspect that land on which to build can be had for a heck of a lot less than many U.S. states... especially coastal states like Oregon or California; and I suspect that permits and other requirements to build are probably cheaper and easier to get there than in many other states... especially coastal states like Oregon and California; and I suspect that labor costs comparatively less there than in many other states... especially coastal states like Oregon and California; and, lastly, one would have almost nothing to worry about with regard to satisfying state requirements.

So, one could start a college/university there -- including buying and building upon land -- for not-insignificantly less than many other places; and it would be beautiful; and you'd pretty much only have to worry yourself about meeting a regional or national accreditors' standards within two or three years, and would have almost nothing to worry about from the state!

It's pretty hard to beat that, I would think.

So what if you'd be in the company of a bunch of diploma mills. It's not like Wyoming has no legitimate schools. Yours would simply be one of them... and could join-in against them along with people like the guy quoted in the thread-starting post. Or you could have students toilet paper their trees or something. You know.

 

overhead

In your business model, don't forget to include the cost of flying elected officials to Dubai.

 

Re: overhead

At least there'd be enough room for our own air strip.

 

The laws introduced by the State are now much tougher. Moreover no one can register the name of a university without prior approval from the Wyoming Department of Education. Given the time the schools would do better if they comply with all laws and seek accreditation.
One thing which is amazing in this discussion is people are crazy to bad mouth new schools. Why dont we give them time and see what they do. Lies do disappear and truth do prevail

 

I do not agree.

The law was changed so that Duck-Like Objects like Hamilton (that had claimed religious exemptions) can only issue degrees in religion-related subjects. That's not much of a change. Witness the sloppy enforcement, too, as indicated by news stories linked to other threads.

 

You may be right but the ultimate quality should come from the schools rather the regulators

 

Of course. That's a given. But it's only because of the regulators that some of them even bother. Never forget that.

 

REGULATORS MUST also do their bit.