Accreditation Mills (review)

Accreditation Mills is a study of what happens when accreditation, meaning the external quality review of higher education, is deliberately taken off course and steered in a direction that harms both students and society. The result is the phenomenon of "accreditation mills"—the bogus or questionable providers of quality review. Such mills are to be contrasted with reliable providers of accreditation of colleges, universities, and programs that have been in place in the United States for more than 100 years.

To pursue his study, author Allen Ezell focuses not only on accreditation mills, but also on "degree mills"—questionable or bogus higher education institutions that offer questionable or bogus credentials—in his treatment of the subject. Much in the book is based on his personal experience in fighting both providers while serving with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, especially during 1980–1991 (Dipscam). His text also includes listings of providers that he considers to be either degree mills or accreditation mills plus information on recent investigations of mills and other efforts by government and the press to expose these operations.

Ezell points out that there is no standard definition for "accreditation mills." He offers four tests that providers must pass if they are to avoid this undesirable label. These are: (a) evidence of external validation of their operation, (b) use of standards that are "generally accepted" to achieve accredited status, (c) some focus on quality of instruction and on quality improvement in the course of a review, and (d) refusal to accept fees on the basis of "fraudulent misrepresentations" that can result in perpetrating a fraud on the public.

Ezell compares accreditation mills to what he calls "legitimate" accreditation. He examines what he terms the "watchdogs" of accreditation, among them the two key bodies that review accreditors through a process called "recognition," either by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) or a private body, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Eighty-one U.S. institutional and programmatic accreditors are currently recognized by CHEA or USDE or both.

Ezell then turns to degree mills, arguing that these problematic providers are a necessary precondition for the existence of accreditation mills. He briefly traces the presence of degree mills in the United States from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The demand for degree mills has expanded significantly and, with the advent of the Internet, now commands a worldwide market. In the absence of a legal or formal definition, he reminds the reader of the definition of "degree mill" used at an earlier time by the FBI and the USDE. "Degree mills" award degrees without "requiring . . . students to meet education standards," receive fees based on "fraudulent misrepresentation" or "make it possible for the recipients of . . . degrees to perpetuate a fraud on the public" (p. 3).

As accreditation mills and degrees mills emerged as a national problem, they have, from time to time, triggered congressional hearings. Ezell discusses the hearings held in 1924, 1984, and twice in 2004, either by the House of Representatives or the Senate. The 2004 hearings were followed by two key government actions in 2005. First, the Office of Personnel Management now mandates that higher education degrees used to satisfy educational requirements for federal government positions for initial employment or promotion be earned at regionally accredited institutions. Second, USDE created and published a positive list of institutions and programs accredited by federally recognized accrediting organizations. This measure was followed in 2006 with the introduction of legislation that, if enacted, would provide, for the first time, a standard definition of degree mills. The legislation also would establish a national task force to provide recommendations to address the range of issues and concerns raised by these mills.

Ezell moves on to examine how various states address mills, pointing out that, at present, no state has legislation that focuses on accreditation mills. However, a number of states do have legislation addressing fraudulent degrees and degree mills. He describes a number of these statutes but also cautions that, even with the...