Accreditation mills

Accreditation mills are dubious providers of accreditation and quality assurance that may offer a certification of quality of institutions without a proper basis.

Most of these organizations are a creation of dubious colleges offering degree mills. It is a way of self accreditation to cheat prospective students that the colleges are accredited.

Students may believe that these are properly accredited institutions not knowing that the agencies purporting to accredit these institutions are themselves a creation of these dubious colleges or the colleges purchased the accreditation status from these bogus accreditation agencies without any evaluation.

The following signs may indicate that an agency is a fake institution.

• The agency allows the purchase of accredited status.
• The agency publishes lists of institutions or programs they claim to have accredited without those institutions and programs knowing that they are listed or have been accredited. These dubious institutions will publish names of well known colleges to hoodwink the public that the well known colleges are accredited by these institutions. This is done to cheat that since these fake agencies accreditate the well known colleges, then these fake institutions are legitimate agencies.
• These agencies may also claim to be recognized US Department of Education or Commission of Higher education when they are not.
• Very few or no standards for quality are published by the institutions.
• Very short time is required of institutions or programs to achieve accredited status.
• Routine periodic accreditation reviews should include site visits and interviews of key personnel by the accrediting agency or by an external body which should be the basis of continued accreditation status. No reviews at all or reviews limited to submission of documents by the institutions and a permanent accreditation status without requirement of periodic reviews may indicate a possible dubious institution.
• These institutions use names that are near similar or similar to names of recognized accreditation agencies.
• Accreditation mills may also make claims in their publications that are not verifiable.

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