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List of unaccredited institutions of higher education

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This article lists colleges and universities whose qualifications may possibly not be accepted by civil service or other employers. These institutions may have been listed on publicly available lists of unaccredited institutions, or are absent from the UNESCO list of world universities (see "external links" at the bottom of this article). Some are also suspected of being diploma mills, while others are no longer in existence. Several unaccredited universities have names chosen because they are similar to those of accredited institutions or falsely imply that it is a public university.

Legal issues and considerations

In the United States, it is possible that unaccredited degrees may not be acceptable for state or federal civil service or other employment; in certain cases and circumstances, criminal penalties may even apply should such a degree be presented in lieu of a degree from an accredited institution. However, such degrees are illegal only in Oregon, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota and Nevada, where they are considered as misdemeanors mostly punishable by relatively small fines .

In addition, it has been reported that some of these unaccredited schools have successfully objected against such laws, the most notable being Wyoming-based Kennedy-Western University, which sued Oregon to cease listing it as a diploma mill in 2004 , claiming that its degree-holders had a First Amendment right to say they were degree-holders. However, the case did not result in a trial as the University and the Oregon Department of Justice reached an out-of-court settlement (only affecting Kennedy-Western).

According to the settlement, Kennedy-Western degree-holders may now say that they have degrees when applying for jobs in the private sector in Oregon, but they must also reveal that Kennedy-Western is unaccredited in all job applications, resumes, business cards and advertising that mentions the degree. Public employment and licensed professions are excepted from the agreement.

Oregon now lists Kennedy-Western as "unaccredited", stating that its "degrees do not meet requirements for employment by State of Oregon or for work in any profession licensed by the State of Oregon for which a degree is required" .

It has also been reported that the University of Newlands, a school that was listed as a "wannabe" or "degree mill" by The Australian newspaper, was given permission by the New Zealand High Court to proceed to trial in its suit against the paper's publisher for defamation. However, the presiding judge did state that such degrees may be illegal and that purporting to offer such degrees could be deemed dishonest or unethical conduct. He also ruled that defamation occurs in the country where the material is downloaded from the Internet. As of August 2004, no court date had yet been set for the actual trial .

In the UK it is illegal to offer a qualification that is or might seem to be UK degree unless the body offering it is on a statutory list maintained by the DfES (a civil service department). Prosecutions under the Education Reform Act are rare, as many of the bodies on the internet are based outside UK jurisdiction.

Prosecutions under other legislation do occur. In 2004 Thames Valley College in London was prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act for offering degrees from the 'University of North America', a limited liability company set up by themselves in the US with no academic staff and no premises other than a mail forwarding service.

Therefore, taking the above-mentioned legal factors into account, a list such as the one contained in this article should not necessarily be viewed as complete or authoritative.

List

Also see

External links

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