Accreditation mill

An accreditation mill is an organization that purports to award educational accreditation to higher education institutions without having government authority or recognition from mainstream academia to operate as an accreditor. Implicit in the terminology is the assumption that the "mill" has low standards (or no standards) for such accreditation. Accreditation mills are much like diploma mills, and in many cases are closely associated with diploma mills. The "accreditation" they supply has no legal or academic value, but is used in diploma mill marketing to help attract students.

Some institutions obtain accreditation from an independent group with low standards. In other cases, the institution sets up its own seemingly independent accreditation board and then accredits itself. This gives the appearance that an outside group has approved the education that is offered at the school.

In many countries, accreditation is a government function. In the United States, governments normally do not accredit academic institutions, but federal education authorities recognize about 18 private accrediting organizations for institutional accreditation of higher education institutions and more than 60 other private organizations for accreditation of specific educational programs. While standards vary from organization to organization, without recognition from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) (a non-governmental organization) or the United States Department of Education, the claims made by independent groups hold no value in the academic community.

CHEA has published a list of attributes of accreditation mills to help consumers identify them. According to CHEA, an accreditation operation might be a "mill" if it:

Verifile's Accredibase notes that some accreditation mills do not reveal their locations, which makes it difficult to determine whether they are legitimate. Some other mills have been found to use the same addresses as the education providers that claim accreditation from them.

To help consumers avoid diploma mills and accreditation mills, several national and international bodies publish lists of recognized accreditors and accredited educational institutions, as well as accreditors that are known to lack the necessary legal authority or recognition, and higher education providers known to lack accreditation. The United States organization CHEA maintains an international directory of education ministries and other recognized higher education quality assurance bodies worldwide. The 2007 version of that directory lists 467 recognized bodies in 175 countries.

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