Diploma mill
Karen Pretorius
Bill Highsmith
mill." A degree mill is a school whereby the coursework required for the
degree is minimal compared to most schools...but there is some pretense that
the degree is earned. A diploma mill doesn't even make a pretense. The
diploma has a price, and if you pay the price, you'll get the diploma.
Karen Pretorius wrote in message <8t5p18$efj$1...@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net>...
Bill Huffman
news:8t5p18$efj$1...@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...
> Could somebody please explain what a diploma mill is?
Visit George Brown's web page titled "What is a Degree Mill?"
http://www.virtualuniversities.net/information/definition/definition.htm
Bill Dayson
> Could somebody please explain what a
> diploma mill is?
Well Karen, Bill Highsmith and Bill Huffman have already replied, LOL,
so here's still another Bill's opinion for you:
I don't think that there really is a precise technical definition.
Basically the phrase is used to refer to colleges and universities that
lack the sort of recognition that is expected. It also refers to
colleges and universities that do not require their graduates to perform
at the standard commonly required for a particular degree. Usually the
two kinds of criteria are related: they lack recognition *because* they
are substandard.
So you can probably see that grey areas exist. Conceivably a school may
be academically sound, but remain unrecognized for some reason. Or a
school may somehow acheive some sort of recognition but nevertheless be
academically unsound. Those grey areas are what generate many of the
arguments on this newsgroup.
There are all kinds of issues concerning whose recognition is really
important (Governments? Employers? Professional peers? Private
accrediting associations?) And there are obviously differences of
opinion on what academic quality means in particular cases.
But while the details in particular cases may sometimes be complex and
controversial, the general principle is simple:
A "mill" is a substandard school that lacks recognition.
And that implies that they should be avoided.
John Bear
> Could somebody please explain what a diploma mill is?
The only major book solely on the subject, "Diploma Mills: Degrees of
Fraud" by Spille and Stewart (then with the American Council on
Education," says this:
"Basically a diploma mill is a person or an organization selling degrees
or awarding degrees without an appropriate academic base, and without
requiring a sufficient degree of postsecondary-level academic
achievement... Diploma mills may operate either legally or illegally
under state and federal laws."
They then go on in some detail to define the various words and phrases.
I find this interesting on two accounts:
(1) Their definition is much closer to Steve Levicoff's than mine,
especially in that they acknowledge that a legally-licensed school can
still be a mill. I have been reluctant to call a school that operates
legally under state or federal law a diploma mill.
(2) However, despite the initial announcement of this book, which said
that it would 'name the names,' the lawyers got to it first, and in 253
pages, not a single currently-operating diploma mill is named. There is
a halfhearted apology in the preface: "We have endeavored to be as
specific...as possible in the present litigious era."
In other words, "we are not naming names, because we don't want to get
sued."
This is in direct contrast with "Teflon Steve" Levicoff, who *does* name
the names here all the time, and who has, he reports, been threatened
often but never sued. As for me . . . you'll just have to wait for my
posthumous edition, tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2034.
John Bear
www.degree.net
Randy Harris
news:39F723F1...@ursa.net...
> Karen Pretorius wrote:
>
[snip]
> posthumous edition, tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2034.
>
Optimist! ;-)
> John Bear
> www.degree.net
>