Degree mills, or diploma mills, "can be characterised as institutions which issue diplomas as a result of payment rather than the academic requirements usually associated with such a qualification." (The application of the Apostille Convention to diplomas including those issued by diploma mills [PDF], The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HccH), December 2008, p. 4)
Such institutions "are often associated with accreditation mills – which are bodies created to lend authority to diploma mills." (ibidem, p. 14)
Background References
- CAPSLE 2009 - Degree Mills and Detecting Fraudulent Credentials [PDF], Ontario College of Teachers (OCT), 2009
- Centre for Information on Diploma Mills (CIDM), the Netherlands
- Degree Mills: non-accredited and irregular higher education institutions, CIMEA, Italy [PDF]
- Diploma Mills: The $200 million a year competitor you didn't know you had, John Baird, in Degree.Net, USA
- Diploma Mills and Accreditation, U.S. Department of Education
- Important questions about accreditation, degree mills and accreditation mills, The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), USA
- The application of the Apostille Convention to diplomas, including those issued by diploma mills [PDF], The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HccH), December 2008
- Toward effective practice: discouraging degree mills in higher education [PDF], Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2009
- Warning - Fake Degrees, New South Wales Department of Education and Training, Australia
White Lists
Most countries maintain approved lists of legitimate institutions under their jurisdiction. Contact the appropriate government authorities or consult their web sites for information on specific institutions. Additionally, international resources developed in cooperation with national competent authorities will be of interest in that context.
Black Lists
Some government departments -- where their legislation makes it possible -- and a few organizations maintain lists of illegitimate institutions. However, it is impossible to publish and maintain a complete list of all the degree/diploma mills and other bogus institutions and organizations around the world. Therefore, such lists are to be considered unreliable; confirmation of the status of a particular institution (whether listed in such a black list or not) should always be obtained using other sources of information.