Phony university
Yesterday, I received and email where the sender wrote: “I am a Information Technology student attending an online university. I am worry about what you wrote in your blog about “Phony university”. How do I know that my school is legitimate or not? My parents pay a lot of money for my education. Please advise."
Answer: I have written about “Phony” universities in previous blogs. Basically there are many phony universities that awards degrees without the recognition by educational accrediting offices. Students pay money for a degree with substandard academic study and worthless in the job market. Many companies consider it “Cheating” if you apply for jobs with that degree. Even after hiring you, when they find out, you will be fired and your record may have the clause: “Fire due to cheating” It will be very difficult later to find jobs with a record like that.
Why do students go to “Phony university”? Either students do not know (They are cheated) or they know but want to cheat somebody by claiming that they have an academic degree. Regardless of the situation, the phony university is making money, a lot of money.
Today with the internet, there are thousand “phony universities” in the United States with websites advertise all kinds of training including transcripts in order to seem legitimate. Their degrees are often awarded based on some trainings, either on-line or classroom but their trainings are so easy that every students can pass whether they study or not. Their programs are NOT recognized by the any legitimated educational accreditation authority. Some online universities claim that they are accredited but often by “unknown accrediting organizations” set up by themselves for the purposes of providing a fake authenticity. Since you are studying Information technology in the U.S. Your on-line school should be accredited by the organization called ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), if it is not then you may not enroll in an official recognized school.
How to recognize a “phony university”:
A phony university frequently named to sound similar to those of prestigious universities. For example: New Mexico Institute of Technology (N-MIT) is very similar to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Harvard University in the Caribbean is very similar to Harvard University in Boston. Many also use the state name to look similar to state schools for example: University of Northern Washington is very similar to University of Washington. North America University is similar to American University; University of North California State look like a counter to the University of Southern California. These schools continue to use various methods and change their names often to avoid legal recourse.
Compared to legitimate universities, “Phony universities” tend to have drastically lowered requirements for admission. They often accept any students with or without qualifications as long as they pay money upfront. Students are encouraged to "enroll now" before tuition fees are increased, or they qualify for a "fellowship", "scholarship" or "grant of 50% of tuition fees" or they are offered to enroll for multiple degrees at the same time. (You can earn both a Computer Science and a MBA for the same price). The school maybe in the United States but the main office is situated in another country. The classrooms maybe in the U.S. but the business paper is filed at different countries. Splitting the business and class offering across multiple countries is a way to avoid government legal jurisdiction.
Some phony universities provide admission papers so foreign students could come to study in their countries. There is often no campus but only a rented building with few classrooms. There are no library, auditorium, staff or research laboratory. There is little or no interaction between students and professors. (Many professors are not qualified or even with fake degrees). If students did not do well in class, it does not affect them from getting the degree. In this kind of school, their programs are easy but their degrees are worthless.
Some “Phony universities” claim accreditation by a “Accreditation organization” and advertized themselves as being "fully accredited". Some claim of affiliation with organizations such as the United Nations (The UN has nothing to do with school accreditation). Their promotional materials use words such as "Fully licensed", "United States authorized", or "State-approved" to suggest something legitimate. For example, the University of Northern Washington advertises that its degrees are "attested and sealed for authenticity by U.S government appointed notary" although there is no such thing. LaSalle University claim to be "accredited" by "Accreditation organization board” set up by a private company affiliated with the owner of the school.
Today more than ever, “Phony” universities are flourishing all over the world. In the past year alone, over one hundred phony schools were shut down by the FBI when number of foreign students arrived in the U.S. to study but found out that their schools were indeed an empty buildings or with phony addresses. Accordingly, these phony schools focus mostly on foreign students because they can avoid problem with local authority. A phony university operates in the U.S. but sell phony degrees to people in Asia, Europe or Africa may escape government notice. The police do not care as long as the victims are foreigners, not their own people.
Few years ago, the FBI arrested the owner of CaliforniaPacificaUniversity on degree fraud, and he went to prison. After newspapers printed the story, hundred people with degrees from that school were fired by their companies on “Cheating”. Since it take several years to catch up with phony university operators, many of them are still operating in the virtual world as on-line schools because it is easy to switch websites before getting caught. As long as students pay money, they continue to enroll them. Since the school is on-line, students never set foot on school so they have no idea whether the school is legitimate or not. For example when Texas police shutdown Dallas State College, the owner immediately opened JacksonStateUniversity in California. When California Police shutdown their website there, they moved to Oregon and open JohnQuincyAdamsUniversity. It took 12 years and a major effort by the FBI to arrested these people. They found over $10 million in cash at home of one of the owners and found out that they have enrolled over hundred thousand students from all over the word.
Unfortunately, even today many newspapers and websites continue to permit phony university to advertise. I still see many phony schools advertise in newspapers and magazines such as The Economist, Forbes, Time and Newsweek etc. So my advice: students should beware about these kind of phony trainings and check out any university that you want to enroll. It is your money, your degree and your future.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
