Scam schools

When colleges defraud students, should the government go after school executives

The sources for the list below include the Oregon Office of Degree Accreditation (ODA) list to help identify those degree suppliers that do not meet the requirements of Oregon’s standards (ORS 348.609(1)) which are considered to be one of the few comprehensive lists of carefully screened schools and Wikipedia’s list. The Oregon standard defines accreditation to include only those accreditors recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Most public employment, professional licensure, teaching, admission into a graduate school and degree use in other areas requires a degree from an accredited school. Any employer may impose such a requirement on job applicants or employees if a degree is required for employment. The State of Oregon requires accredited degrees for state employment. A list of accredited schools is maintained by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

List of Scam Schools – Beware the Scams

The following list of scam diploma mills should help you quickly identify schools that you either definitely do not want to deal with, or often could find a fully accredited alternative.

This list is derived from several sources, to provide one comprehensive list.

You may want to see our overview page and our tips on recognizing scam schools, first.

The sources for the list below include the Oregon Office of Degree Accreditation (ODA) list to help identify those degree suppliers that do not meet the requirements of Oregon’s standards (ORS 348.609(1)) which are considered to be one of the few comprehensive lists of carefully screened schools and Wikipedia’s list. The Oregon standard defines accreditation to include only those accreditors recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Most public employment, professional licensure, teaching, admission into a graduate school and degree use in other areas requires a degree from an accredited school. Any employer may impose such a requirement on job applicants or employees if a degree is required for employment. The State of Oregon requires accredited degrees for state employment. A list of accredited schools is maintained by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Keep in mind that no list can be all-inclusive and new schools (and scams) appear every day, and many schools correct problems that get them on a list. The list contains degree suppliers that may not now exist, may never have existed, exist only as unregulated businesses, operate under exemptions in state laws or operate with state approval outside Oregon. And some schools clean up their acts and become legitimate!

For general information about the operations of unaccredited schools investigated by the U.S. Senate and other entities, see the following links:

• Senate Hearings
• CBS News
• the Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press, 2006).

Unaccredited schools

All schools below are considered by the state of Oregon’s and other U.S. and international standards to be UNACCREDITED. Many are scams, a few may be decent schools, but ALL are without accreditation, something most sensible people would say is a starting point to obtain a quality education and a degree that will be broadly accepted and respected. See this page for a list unaccredited schools.

Blatant Scams

Entries are those, which in addition to being unaccredited are also found to be:

1. scams by a court of law or
2. do not have the proper authorization to offer degrees where they are based

If you believe a school is identified as a unaccredited or as a scam in error, or you believe a school should be added to this list, please contact us, with your reasons why.

Name, Location(s), Remarks, Wikipedia footnotes, Type

• Ambai University , Massachusetts, Has no degree-granting authority in Massachusetts.
• American International University of Management and Technology , Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• American University of Asturias , Spain, Closed by Spanish government., F
• Auberdeen University , Idaho, Has no authority to issue degrees.
• Brighton University , Missouri, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Cambridge International University , Cape Town, South Africa, Does not have appropriate authorization from South Africa., F
• Cambridge State University (in Jackson, Mississippi) (“district officials discovered the school has an extensive criminal history and is nothing more than a diploma mill.”) [36] , Hawaii, Mississippi, Not a state school. For State of Mississippi information: http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/Academic_Affairs1/MCCANonApprovedEntitiesList2005.pdf
• Canterbury University, UK, Not associated with the legitimate New Zealand University of Canterbury nor the UK Canterbury Christ Church University or University of Kent at Canterbury., F
• Canyon College[5][40] , Idaho, Has no authority to issue degrees under Idaho law. Use of a Canyon College degree in Oregon is illegal.
• Chelsea University , United Kingdom, Lacks authority to issue degrees in UK., F
• Columbia Pacific University[1][4] ., California, Closed by court order.
• Columbia State University[1][4] , Louisiana, Closed by court order. See also: Senate Hearing Day 1 ; Senate Hearing Day 2
• Columbus University (Picayune, Mississippi) [27] (Closed by state action in Louisiana [6] ). For State of Mississippi information: http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/Academic_Affairs1/MCCANonApprovedEntitiesList2005.pdf
• Communion of Saints Seminary, Oregon [1][6] , Operating illegally in Oregon, degrees invalid.
• Concordia College and University[5][46] , Virgin Islands, Spain, Dominica, Liberia, Indonesia, This name is in common use around the world. Some schools are accredited, some are unaccredited but operating legally and some do not really exist. Concordia College and University of Liberia does not meet Oregon standards for degree use, contrary to statements made in its promotional materials. It should be viewed as a degree mill., F
• Crown College (Tacoma, Washington) (lost accreditation in 2007) [49]
• Dublin Metropolitan University[1][4] , Ireland, Does not have authority to issue Irish degrees., F
• Earthnet Institute , Hawaii, Closed in Hawaii in 2005 by court order.
• cole suprieure Robert de Sorbon (purportedly in France, but linked to diploma mills in Sarasota, Florida) (aka American Universities Admission Program) [52][1]
• European University of Ireland, Ireland, Does not have authority to issue Irish degrees., F
• Firelake University, Finland, Not a Finnish college. Lacks authority to issue degrees.
• Foundation University, The Netherlands, Does not have valid approval from the Govt of The Netherlands to issue degrees., F
• Frederick Taylor International University, Hawaii, California, Closed by court order.
• Glencullen University (“A phony ‘Irish university’ is marketing degrees internationally via the Internet. An EL reporter in the US, posing as a prospective student, has been offered an English literature degree from ‘Glencullen University’, without any study, for $960.”) [57]
• Glenford University, Louisiana, Closed by state action.
• Greenwich University[60] (Operated on Norfolk Island from 1998 to 2002. Not to be confused with University of Greenwich, London, England), Formerly Hawaii, Norfolk Island, California., Closed by Australian govt.. See also
  www.dest.gov.au/highered/alert/
  Information on Legality of Australian Colleges
• Hawaii American University, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Heed University, Wisconsin, Florida, Caribbean
• Institute of Global Education, Oregon, Has no legal authority to issue degrees or academic credit.
• International University, Vienna, Austria, “Not recognized as a university in Austria” – Bundesministerium fur Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur [Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture], 7 March 2006., F
• IOND University (Hawaii, Japan) [70][71][1][6][4] , Hawaii, Japan, Philippines, Unaccredited. No evidence of legal authority to issue degrees valid in Japan. Considered a diploma mill by Japanese experts. No evidence of legal authority to issue degrees valid in Philippines. Claim of affiliation with University of Lodz in Poland is denied by U. of Lodz.
• Irish International University[72][4][73] , Malaysia, Switzerland, The Irish government has requested that Malaysia close this entity on grounds that it is neither Irish nor a university. It has obtained a business license in a Swiss canton, but is not a Swiss university., F
• Ivory Carlson University, Minnesota, Degree mill operating without approval in Minnesota, apparently based in India.
• Kensington University[75][76] , Hawaii, California, Closed by court order.
• Kingston College (British Columbia) (illegal operation closed down October 4, 2006) [56] ; not to be confused with Kingston College (England) in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England
• Knightsbridge University[1] , Denmark, Does not have appropriate legal authority to issue degrees in Denmark., F
• Lacrosse University[5][27][77][4][8] , Mississippi, Closed by state action in Louisiana, relocated to Mississippi. For State of Mississippi information: http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/Academic_Affairs1/MCCANonApprovedEntitiesList2005.pdf
• Landegg International University, Switzerland, Lacks appropriate authority to issue degrees.
• Lansbridge University – BC[56] , British Columbia, Closed by court order.
• LaSalle University, Louisiana, Closed by court action. No connection to legitimate LaSalle of Pennsylvania.
• Lincoln International University, Inc., Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Monterrey Institute for Graduate Studies, Texas, This entity claimed to be a branch of a Mexican institution with authority to operate in the U.S., but in fact did not have that authority and had no free-standing degree authority from Mexico. Appears to be closed.
• Monticello University[85][86] /Thomas Jefferson University, Kansas, Hawaii, Closed by court order. See also furtherinformation.html
• Nation University, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Newton University, Vancouver BC, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Northwestern International University, Ltd., Cyprus/Denmark, Has no recognized degree authority from Cyprus or Denmark., F
• Oxford International University, Great Britain, No connection to legitimate Oxford University in Great Britain., F
• Pacific Southern University[92] , Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Pickering University, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Prescott College of Business and Leadership Studies, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Rutherford University ((previously known as Senior University and Stratford International University) [56], Wyoming, British Columbia, Swaziland, Never had authority to issue valid degrees in British Columbia. May be relocating to Alabama. Formerly labeled Stratford International University.
• San Francisco International University, California, Has no legal authority to issue degrees in California.
• Scarsdale University, California, UK, Does not have authority to issue degrees in California or the UK.
• Solsbury University, Ontario, Canada, According to the Ontario government, “Solsbury University does not have the authority to offer degrees, programs leading to a degree or to call itself a university in Ontario.”, F
• Southern Pacific University, Malaysia, Hawaii, Closed by court order in Hawaii. Apparently now operating in Malaysia., F
• St. Clements University[5][4] (Called a “degree mill” by the State of Maine [100] , but removed from list after a formal action taken by St. Clements University. [6] ), Great Britain, Niue, Turks and Caicos Islands, various African sites, New Zealand government treats Niue operation as substandard and asks that its degrees not be included in international listings., F
• St. John’s University School of Medicine[1] (Montserrat), Closed by court order., F
• St. Luke School of Medicine, California, Ghana, Liberia, Disowned by Liberian government in 2005. Great Britain banned use of its degrees, March, 2006.
• St. Mary’s College of Medicine, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• St. Regis University (Dominica; Liberia; Washington D.C.; and U.S. state of Washington; closed by court order in June 2005) [6][5][47][4][101][8] , Closed by court order, June 2005. Falsely asserted Liberian government approval. Falsely asserted Indian government approval. Note: not the same as Regis of Massachusetts or Colorado.
• Stanton University, Hawaii, Closed by court order.
• Success Seminary , Oregon [1] , Operating illegally in Oregon, degrees invalid
• Suffield University ; operating illegally in Connecticut [4]
• Summerset University (“Appears to be a new version of the ” University Degree Program ” cluster supposedly closed by UK and US action. It has no legal authority to issue degrees.”) [1][4], It has no legal authority to issue degrees., F
• Swiss European University, Switzerland, Not recognized by Swiss government.
• Trident University of Technology, Singapore, Denied approval by Wisconsin. Was never legal in New Jersey as claimed., F
• University Degree Program (formerly operated at least 28 different diploma mills in at least five countries) [110]
• University of Honolulu, Hawaii, Closed by court order. , Utah, Thailand and Pakistan, Notes: Office in Utah. No link to Hawaii.
• University of Metaphysical Studies , New Mexico [1] , New Mexico, Operating illegally and unlicensed in New Mexico. – New Mexico Department of Higher Education.
• University of Palmers Green, UK, Closed by the British government., F
• University of Advanced Research, California, Also operated in Hawaii, where its local operation has been closed by court order, see: http://www.state.hi.us/dcca/ocp/case_info.html
• University of the Holy Land, Israel, may be operated from State of Oregon, Not recognized as a university by Israeli higher education office. Not an Oregon degree-granter.
• University of Wexford, Great Britain, Closed by the British government., F
• Vancouver University Worldwide[56] , British Columbia, Closed by court order. Never was authorized to issue degrees by appropriate BC authority., F
• Washington International University, Pennsylvania, Brit. Virgin Isl., Operating illegally in Pennsylvania according to PA Department of Education. WIU is forbidden to advertise or offer its programs in Australia.
• Washington School of Theology , Oregon [1][6] , Operating illegally in Oregon, degrees invalid.
• Westbrook University, New Mexico, New York, California, No longer licensed to issue degrees by New Mexico. Not known to be licensed in any state.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of institutions whose degrees cannot be used in Oregon or elsewhere – or must be used with restrictions. It is a list of those most recently reported.

Links to Wikipedia pages links include of colleges, seminaries, and universities lacking educational accreditation.

Degrees or other qualifications from unaccredited institutions may not be accepted by civil service or other employers. See Unaccredited institutions of higher learning for discussion of the various reasons why institutions may operate without accreditation.

Institutions that appear on this list are those that grant post-secondary degrees but are listed as unaccredited by a reliable source. Some of these institutions are no longer in operation. Several unaccredited universities have names that are similar to those of accredited institutions or that falsely imply that it is a public university.

And please let us know about any suspicious calls or emails you receive. We look for patterns so that we can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!

All images and text © Copyright Benivia, LLC 2006-2023 Disclaimer and Privacy Policy

Names used by scammers in the examples on this page and others often belong to real people and businesses who often have no knowledge of nor connection to the scammer’s use of their name and information. Sample scam emails and other documents presented on this website are real copies of the scam to help potential victims recognize and avoid it. You should presume that any names used and presented here in a scam are either fictitious or used without their legitimate owner’s permission and have no relationship to any person or business that also shares that name, address, phone number or other identifying information.

When colleges defraud students, should the government go after school executives?

In a shocking investigation, the U.S. Senate declared the federal student loan program “plagued by fraud and abuse.” Its report heaped scorn on for-profit trade schools for serving 22% of federal student loan borrowers but accounting for 44% of defaults.

“The school keeps the student aid money . and the student is left holding the bag with a poor credit rating, no job and no income to repay the student loan,” U.S. Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J., declaimed in her crusade against for-profit “bad apples.”

This clamor for accountability erupted back in 1991, more than two decades before the epic collapses of Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute cost students and taxpayers millions of dollars in wasted loans and worthless degrees. More recently, in February, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would erase more than $70 million in student loans for former DeVry University students who had been misled by the school’s false advertising.

Education

DeVry University misled students. Now, the federal government is erasing their debt

Believe it or not, back in 1992, in response to all this hand-wringing about for-profit colleges, Congress gave the education secretary a nuclear option: the power to hold leaders of fraudulent colleges — including executives and investors — personally liable for their wreckage. The problem is that 30 years later, the department has yet to use that power.

Now, some lawmakers, higher education experts and department officials argue: It’s time.

Advocates say the Education Department has an obligation to hold school leaders liable

The point of holding the owners of fraudulent schools personally liable for student and taxpayer losses is twofold: to give the government another way of recouping those losses and, just as important, to discourage the future sale of education snake oil by shaming the sellers.

If ever the department could have — and arguably should have — used this power, student loan experts tell NPR, it was after the historic collapses of Corinthian and then ITT Tech.

That’s when department attorneys concluded that both schools had enticed students with false and misleading claims and had committed “pervasive” misconduct and that, as a result, “the value of an ITT education — like Corinthian — is likely either negligible or non-existent.”

Education

Betsy DeVos Overruled Education Dept. Findings On Defrauded Student Borrowers

Eileen Connor directs the Project on Predatory Student Lending, which recently published an exhaustive deep dive into ITT Tech’s fraudulent practices. In a news release about that report, Connor said, “The loans were the object, not education or career training. It is genuinely shocking that this ‘school’ was able to fool regulators and accreditors for so long.”

After the collapse of ITT Tech and Corinthian, advocates pushed the Department of Education to give eligible borrowers relief from their federal loans, which, along with other losses related to the collapses, cost the U.S. government roughly $1 billion.

Why didn’t the department use the nuclear authority that Congress gave it in 1992 to hold the schools’ leaders liable for some of those losses? It’s complicated.

First, there’s the human explanation. When the department helped arrange the sale of Corinthian to a debt collector, Connor says, department officials interacted with its CEO multiple times. “It’s harder to slap a fine on someone you’ve just had lunch with.”

Education

Betsy DeVos And The High-Stakes Standoff Over Student Loan Forgiveness

Then there’s the resources explanation: that the department can do only so much at one time.

Instead of focusing on holding the perpetrators of the fraud accountable, it focused on providing debt relief to their victims, trying to “ensure that borrowers were being helped on the back end,” says Dan Zibel, who worked in the department’s Office of the General Counsel from 2014 through 2017. Zibel says the department’s rush to use an old legal provision, known as borrower defense, to erase student loans took considerable time and energy.

Likewise, any attempt to claw back money from individuals would have taken enormous department resources — with no guarantee of success. Even an effort that recoups millions of dollars from an executive has to be viewed in the broader context of the government’s losses.

“For a school that created, I don’t know, $7 billion in debt over a decade, that’s just a drop in the bucket,” says Connor. But she argues that holding executives liable isn’t just about recouping losses; it’s about creating a powerful, symbolic deterrent for future would-be fraudsters.

The system should not be that owners get to walk away with the profits and the taxpayers are left holding the liability.

Dan Zibel, Student Defense

“I wouldn’t just say that they have the authority” to go after school executives, says Connor. “I’d say they have the obligation to do it.”

Now out of the Education Department, Zibel agrees.

“The system should not be that owners get to walk away with the profits and the taxpayers are left holding the liability,” says Zibel, who is now chief counsel at Student Defense, a nonprofit advocacy group, and a vocal proponent of the department finally using its liability authority.

There is precedent for government action. Sort of.

The Education Department may have resisted pursuing individual claims against the leaders of Corinthian and ITT Tech, but other government agencies did act.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint, alleging that Corinthian’s then-CEO, Jack Massimino, and Robert Owen, its then-chief financial officer, failed to disclose the company’s financial weaknesses before its collapse.

The complaint, though, was not about harm done to students, but to shareholders.

Education

Nearly 180,000 Students Won’t Have To Repay Loans From For-Profit Higher Ed Company

The pair settled with the SEC, which fined Massimino $80,000 and Owen $20,000. That’s a small fraction of what each earned from 2010 to 2012 — about $9.5 million for Massimino and roughly $2.5 million for Owen, according to documents filed with the SEC.

In a scalding letter to the SEC chairman, a handful of Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, called the settlement “an insult to the victims of Corinthian’s fraud.”

There have also been efforts at the state level to go after for-profit college executives.

A for-profit school advocate supports the department using this power in limited circumstances

Even the head of Career Education Colleges and Universities, a national association representing many for-profit trade schools, supports the department taking a harder line on what, more than 30 years ago, Roukema called “bad apples.”

“Absolutely,” says Jason Altmire. “In any case that involves substantial fraud or the owner withdrawing capital before a closure, done specifically to avoid liability for the business, they absolutely should be subject to this. That is the reason that authority exists.”

Altmire cautions, however, “If you’re going to apply accountability standards, just apply them to all schools in all sectors.” Translation: Make sure for-profit trade schools aren’t the only kinds of colleges held under the microscope.

The Coronavirus Crisis

Students Call College That Got Millions In Coronavirus Relief ‘A Sham’

Perhaps the most notable voice that has called for the department to use this authority is Ben Miller, formerly of the left-leaning Center for American Progress — because he is now a top adviser inside the Department of Education.

“This must change,” Miller wrote in 2019. “Any executive from a college that closes precipitously should be financially liable for damage done to students and taxpayers. The U.S. Department of Education should take back money paid to school executives in salary or bonuses and instead use it to cover the cost of loan forgiveness and refund tuition paid by students.”

Does that mean the Biden administration might be willing to do what previous administrations have not?

A top student loan official hints at a new attitude toward failed for-profit colleges

As was the case back in 1991, when Roukema, a Republican, inveighed against fraudulent colleges, so too are a handful of lawmakers again pushing for stepped-up accountability.

“This abdication of the Department’s duties has not only cost taxpayers, but has also encouraged future lawbreaking by executives who feel confident they can enrich themselves at the expense of students and taxpayers,” half a dozen Democratic U.S. senators, including Warren, wrote to then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in October 2020.

Then came the Biden administration and a little-noticed hearing in October 2021 during which Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., questioned Richard Cordray, head of the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office.

Scott reminded Cordray that the department has the power “to seek recovery of financial losses against owners and executives” of fraudulent college programs. Not all executives should be held liable, Scott argued, just the worst: those who profit from defrauding borrowers. Is the department finally willing to go after them?

Scott had already sent a letter to Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, asking the same. He even offered a laundry list of schools that could fit the bill.

“We see eye to eye on this,” Cordray responded to Scott. “I thought [your letter] was a good bit of a kick in the behind for us to make sure we’re moving down the road on this.”

We do intend to try to hold leaders of schools that fail students responsible in every case we can.

Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid office

Cordray suggested the same recently, when the department announced it would provide loan relief to defrauded borrowers while the school that misled them, DeVry, remains open.

“We do intend to try to hold leaders of schools that fail students responsible in every case we can,” Cordray told reporters on the day of the DeVry announcement.

On the same call with reporters, Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal was even more forceful: “There will be liabilities for the current owners of these schools to deter wrongdoing not just at DeVry, but everywhere that it might otherwise occur.”

In its announcement about DeVry, the department noticeably called out two executives who presided over the company when it misled students about their job prospects after graduation: “Senior leaders at DeVry during this time included Daniel Hamburger, who served as President and CEO from 2002 through 2016 and David Pauldine, who served as the executive vice president and/or president of DeVry University from 2005 through 2014.”

Beyond that press release, though, the Biden administration has done no more than previous administrations to hold college leaders and owners personally liable for ripping off students and taxpayers. Which is to say, it’s done nothing at all.

NPR intern Mansee Khurana contributed to this report.

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