Post by Kämpfer on Mar 26, 2008 5:40:45 GMT -5
By Christina Couch
After several years of service, former deputy U.S. marshal David Floyd Brodhagen decided it was time to advance his career. At the end of 2007, Brodhagen submitted an application for a higher position, which included a $16,000 raise. The marshal's CV included a degree from St. Regis University.
It wasn't until a full review of Brodhagen's transcript that investigators realized just how thorough his coursework actually was. Included among typical criminal procedure courses was a class in self-defense -- for women.
St. Regis University is the name of a former diploma mill ring based in Spokane, Wash. And Brodhagen is one of an estimated 300 federal employees, including military personnel, who purchased their degrees from a known diploma mill.
Throw a few hundred dollars to the right P.O. Box and you too could have a medical license, engineering degree or credential of choice all without cracking a single book. And many unscrupulous students do.
"[The diploma mill industry] is so large that it's hard to believe the numbers," comments Dr. George Gollin, a physics professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose independent research on fake degrees helped shut down St. Regis. "We think that U.S.-based diploma mills are selling as many as 200,000 [phony] degrees per year."
What's even more alarming than the size of the industry -- estimated at more than $1 billion per year -- is who's funding it. Anecdotal data gathered from now-defunct institutions suggests that up to 5 percent of all diploma mill buyers are federal employees, 1 percent are purported medical doctors, and a frightening number are parading as Ph.D.s.
"The number of fake doctorates sold each year is in the range of 50,000 to 60,000,"states John Bear, author of "Bear's Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning." "The number of real Ph.D.s is around 40,000. In America right now, more than half of all the Ph.D.s are fake."
The problem of false credentials poses a much larger threat than shifty promotions or even medical malpractice suits. As one of the requirements to obtain an H-1B visa -- the documentation that allows foreign workers with specialized skills the legal freedom to work in the U.S. -- academic credentials can mean the difference between who gets in and who stays out of American borders.
Anyone with a credit card can obtain whatever bogus credential they desire. In 2005, CNN reporters purchased a master's degree in chemistry from Rochville University under the name Abu Salsabil Hassan Omar, a known al-Qaida explosives expert with a $5 million bounty on his head. Critics argue that the federal government may not be doing enough to verify credentials for new U.S. arrivals.
"We've seen no concerted effort by any government investigative agency on degree mills since 9/11," states Allen Ezell, the former head of the now-defunct FBI diploma mill-busting task force, DIPSCAM, and co-author of "Degree Mills: The Billion-Dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas." "I can only assume that the government has taken their own steps."
Jill Nystrom, a consular officer with the U.S. State Department, says that while an H-1B's application package is verified by three separate offices -- the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and local consular office in the applicant's home country -- the federal government has become more aware of the catastrophic potential of diploma mills.
"It's something that's definitely on our radar," Nystrom admits. "We're trying to keep an eye on it specifically so that it doesn't become a big problem."
One of the major obstacles in the fight against the fake degree is simply semantic. Currently there is no federal definition for "diploma mill," leaving it up to individual states to regulate what institutions can exist within their borders.
While some states such as Oregon have infrastructures in place to validate their higher education organizations and the degrees they issue, almost half do not, providing fertile ground for diploma mills to spring up.
The College Affordability and Opportunity Act (H.R. 4137), passed by Congress in February 2008, could be one major way the government will combat diploma mills.
Among other provisions, the legislation will force the Department of Education to create a list of accredited institutions and valid accreditation associations for immigration and federal hiring purposes; form a joint task force of higher ed and law enforcement experts to develop a "diploma integrity protection plan"; and grant the Federal Trade Commission greater authority to crack down on diploma mill perpetrators.
While the act passed with a resounding 354-58 vote in the House, a similar Senate companion bill that passed in '07 did not contain diploma mill provisions. Within the next few months, a conference committee will reconcile both versions of the bill; however, there is no guarantee that diploma mill mandates will become law.
Even with a concrete definition, clear-cut legal ramifications, and elevated awareness on the state and federal levels, Bear says that completely eradicating diploma mills will be impossible.
"It's a major breakthrough that Congress has gotten sufficiently alarmed and made a stand-alone bill, but it remains to be seen if it can be enforced," he notes. "It's like the war on drugs. We'll never get rid of [diploma mills], but we could certainly cut way back."
After several years of service, former deputy U.S. marshal David Floyd Brodhagen decided it was time to advance his career. At the end of 2007, Brodhagen submitted an application for a higher position, which included a $16,000 raise. The marshal's CV included a degree from St. Regis University.
It wasn't until a full review of Brodhagen's transcript that investigators realized just how thorough his coursework actually was. Included among typical criminal procedure courses was a class in self-defense -- for women.
St. Regis University is the name of a former diploma mill ring based in Spokane, Wash. And Brodhagen is one of an estimated 300 federal employees, including military personnel, who purchased their degrees from a known diploma mill.
Throw a few hundred dollars to the right P.O. Box and you too could have a medical license, engineering degree or credential of choice all without cracking a single book. And many unscrupulous students do.
"[The diploma mill industry] is so large that it's hard to believe the numbers," comments Dr. George Gollin, a physics professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose independent research on fake degrees helped shut down St. Regis. "We think that U.S.-based diploma mills are selling as many as 200,000 [phony] degrees per year."
What's even more alarming than the size of the industry -- estimated at more than $1 billion per year -- is who's funding it. Anecdotal data gathered from now-defunct institutions suggests that up to 5 percent of all diploma mill buyers are federal employees, 1 percent are purported medical doctors, and a frightening number are parading as Ph.D.s.
"The number of fake doctorates sold each year is in the range of 50,000 to 60,000,"states John Bear, author of "Bear's Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning." "The number of real Ph.D.s is around 40,000. In America right now, more than half of all the Ph.D.s are fake."
The problem of false credentials poses a much larger threat than shifty promotions or even medical malpractice suits. As one of the requirements to obtain an H-1B visa -- the documentation that allows foreign workers with specialized skills the legal freedom to work in the U.S. -- academic credentials can mean the difference between who gets in and who stays out of American borders.
Anyone with a credit card can obtain whatever bogus credential they desire. In 2005, CNN reporters purchased a master's degree in chemistry from Rochville University under the name Abu Salsabil Hassan Omar, a known al-Qaida explosives expert with a $5 million bounty on his head. Critics argue that the federal government may not be doing enough to verify credentials for new U.S. arrivals.
"We've seen no concerted effort by any government investigative agency on degree mills since 9/11," states Allen Ezell, the former head of the now-defunct FBI diploma mill-busting task force, DIPSCAM, and co-author of "Degree Mills: The Billion-Dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas." "I can only assume that the government has taken their own steps."
Jill Nystrom, a consular officer with the U.S. State Department, says that while an H-1B's application package is verified by three separate offices -- the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and local consular office in the applicant's home country -- the federal government has become more aware of the catastrophic potential of diploma mills.
"It's something that's definitely on our radar," Nystrom admits. "We're trying to keep an eye on it specifically so that it doesn't become a big problem."
One of the major obstacles in the fight against the fake degree is simply semantic. Currently there is no federal definition for "diploma mill," leaving it up to individual states to regulate what institutions can exist within their borders.
While some states such as Oregon have infrastructures in place to validate their higher education organizations and the degrees they issue, almost half do not, providing fertile ground for diploma mills to spring up.
The College Affordability and Opportunity Act (H.R. 4137), passed by Congress in February 2008, could be one major way the government will combat diploma mills.
Among other provisions, the legislation will force the Department of Education to create a list of accredited institutions and valid accreditation associations for immigration and federal hiring purposes; form a joint task force of higher ed and law enforcement experts to develop a "diploma integrity protection plan"; and grant the Federal Trade Commission greater authority to crack down on diploma mill perpetrators.
While the act passed with a resounding 354-58 vote in the House, a similar Senate companion bill that passed in '07 did not contain diploma mill provisions. Within the next few months, a conference committee will reconcile both versions of the bill; however, there is no guarantee that diploma mill mandates will become law.
Even with a concrete definition, clear-cut legal ramifications, and elevated awareness on the state and federal levels, Bear says that completely eradicating diploma mills will be impossible.
"It's a major breakthrough that Congress has gotten sufficiently alarmed and made a stand-alone bill, but it remains to be seen if it can be enforced," he notes. "It's like the war on drugs. We'll never get rid of [diploma mills], but we could certainly cut way back."
