The new diving coach at Indiana University (IU) who arrives with credentials that include six Atlantic Coast Conference titles at Duke University and four Olympic medals as coach of the 2012 U.S. team in London also has a bachelor’s degree in physical education from an alleged “diploma mill” that issues fake degrees in the mail for money, the Indianapolis Star reports. The article is available at http://indy.st/11VfYuj. (more…)

Questionable educational institutions known as “diploma mills” that are more interested in taking money from students for worthless degrees instead of providing them with quality academic educations have a long history in America and clear warning signs, according to an infographic released by Distancelearning.com available at http://www.distancelearning.com/resources/diploma-mills-infographic/. (more…)

A man who allegedly bought a doctorate degree from an “unaccredited diploma mill” and is accused of “abusive, fraudulent, and harmful” treatment at a clinic he runs that led a teenaged patient to attempt suicide has been sued in Federal Court by the now 18-year-old boy’s parents, the Courthouse News Service reports. The family is seeking punitive damages for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act violations, fraud, conspiracy, unauthorized practice of medicine, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, and consumer law violations. The full Courthouse News Service report on the case is available at: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/12/51226.htm. (more…)

A recently released audit report of Dickinson State University (DSU) in North Dakota describes the school as a “diploma mill” for foreign students that awarded hundreds of unearned degrees to students mostly from China who did not complete their course work while also enrolling students who did not have qualifying grades. The audit, which examined foreign students who have taken part in a special program since 2003 allowing them to earn degrees both from DSU and a university in their home country, is at: http://www.ndus.edu/uploads/reports/96/dsu-internal-review-ddj-final-draft1-020912.pdf. (more…)

Unaccredited schools are thriving in California with approximately 147 known “diploma mills,” more than any other U.S. state and a 10 percent increase from the past year, according to the Accredibase™ Report for 2011 from Verifile Limited. The report found the United States to be the most popular location for known diploma mills in the world with roughly 1,008 operating in the country, an increase of 20 percent over the past year. (more…)