As the number one power in the world, the United States has many world-class institutions of higher learning and academic institutions. Many people take it for granted that as long as the word “America” is endorsed, everything is fine. Some people with “smart minds” took advantage of the aura of the United States to cater to some people’s desire for diplomas and certificates. The degree fraud cases exposed by the media are also “eye-opening”.
The “pheasant universities” that are blooming everywhere in the
country may mostly come from Qian Zhongshu’s novel “Fortress Besieged” for their initial understanding of the phenomenon of fake diplomas in the United States. The book’s main character, Fang Hung-chien, received a Ph.D. from the fictional “Clayton Law and Business School Correspondence Department” of an Irishman living in New York at a cost of $40. Coincidentally, in the book, Han Xueyu, the head of the History Department of Sanlu University, also holds a diploma from “Clayton University”. Influenced by the book “Fortress Besieged”, Clayton University became synonymous with “Pheasant University” in the Chinese world for a while.
”Pheasant University” has a slightly more elegant name in the United States, called “Diploma Mill”. Compared with the Chinese names, one emphasizes poor teaching, and the other emphasizes sloppy certification, which complement each other. The Higher Education Act of 1965 in the United States requires the Department of Education to regularly publish a list of educational institutions recognized by the Department of Education. For “diploma mills” that are not on the list, US law does not explicitly prohibit their existence, and the US Department of Education has no mandatory force to regulate school qualifications. In other words, if you enroll in any university, there is no law in the United States that can arrest you. There are also some people who use religion as a protective umbrella to set up a lot of “diploma mills” such as “Bible study institutions of higher learning” to avoid legal supervision and sanctions.
From 1980 to 1991, the FBI launched Operation Anti-Diploma Fraud. During this period, the federal government closed a total of 39 educational institutions with questionable qualifications. U.S. law enforcement agencies have not taken sustained action since then, coupled with the rise of the Internet and inconsistent laws and regulations in various states, the “diploma mill” quickly revived.
How many “diploma mills” there are in the United States today, no institution has given an exact figure. According to a 2010 report, there are at least 800 “diploma mills” in the United States, accounting for about a quarter of the “pheasant universities” in the world. Driven by the huge “market demand” in recent years, this number may have to rise. Although many websites keep updating the list of “diploma mills”, they still can’t keep up with the opening speed of “mills”. Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Education website now has a list of accredited educational institutions that can be checked, and schools that are not on this list generally have some problems.
Even the White House has been
recruited In the past ten years, among the “high-achieving students” who graduated from various “diploma mills” in the United States, the most famous one is a black cat named Nolan.
Black Cat Nolan graduated from Trinity Southern University in Dallas, Texas, a well-known American “diploma mill” in 2004, and obtained an “Executive MBA” degree. Nolan was 6 years old that year, and he usually slept and ate. Nolan’s master is a deputy prosecutor who investigates fake diploma cases. The deputy prosecutor paid a $300 fee to apply for his cat’s “Bachelor of Business Administration” diploma from Trinity Southern University.
In view of Nolan the Black Cat’s resume, which included the experience of “working in a fast food restaurant” and “being a newsboy”, Trinity Southern University suggested that Nolan could directly apply for the “Executive MBA” degree, as long as he paid an extra $100. In the end, Nolan received his master’s degree with an “excellent grade” of “3.5 points in each subject”.
Because of this incident, the Pennsylvania Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Trinity Southern University, and the school’s operators were fined $100,000.
The fraud case of Callahan, who once held computer management-related work in many important positions such as the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, also caused quite a stir in the United States. Callahan served as the senior director of information technology in the White House during the Clinton era, and later served as the deputy chief information officer of the US Department of Labor and the deputy chief information officer of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2003, it was discovered that Callahan’s bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees were all issued by the well-known “diploma mill” Hamilton University.
Callahan was “suspended without pay” that year, and she herself resigned voluntarily in 2004. But she has never been subject to any criminal investigation for possessing fake diplomas. Some documents released afterwards and interviews with Callahan’s former colleagues in the media showed that Callahan lacked professional knowledge, poor handling ability, and arrogant. It is strange that she still got promoted several times.
Affected by the Callahan case, in May 2004, the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing to investigate whether there were graduates of the “diploma mill” among federal government employees.
As a result, a total of 463 federal employees were caught, and the Department of Defense had the most fake diplomas with 257 people, 28 of whom were senior managers.
The 4 big tricks of “pheasant” universities
Every year after the college entrance examination, studying abroad will be extremely “hot”, and some “pheasant universities” in the United States have also begun to move around, show their talents, and constantly receive consultations from students and parents, but because students If you and your parents have inaccurate and untimely information about studying abroad, you may enter a foreign school that is not recognized by the Ministry of Education of China, or even a training school, which is what we often call “pheasant university”. Therefore, students and parents must keep their eyes open and beware of traps when choosing to study abroad. The investigation found that there are four main methods of deception used by the “Pheasant University”:
one is to choose a famous name and get the reputation of a prestigious school. “Pheasant University” took great pains in choosing the name. The “pheasant universities” that recruit students in China are called universities regardless of their size, and they often have a strong background, such as “American Century University”, “American National University”, and “Stanford International University”. If you are too familiar with the situation, when you see “national” and “central” or words related to famous schools, you will have the mentality that these schools are not bad.
The second is to use international certification as a golden signboard. “The degrees we issue are internationally recognized.” This is the favorite saying of “Pheasant University”, and he vows that the academic diplomas are internationally recognized, recognized by more than 200 countries, and are applicable wherever they are obtained. And many “pheasant universities” will put diplomas and certification documents in a prominent position to prove that they have obtained the so-called “international certification”. It is reported that since some countries are free to open universities, of course they can also set up their own accreditation agencies. Some universities have also established accreditation agencies at the same time as their establishment, with scary names, such as the “International Association of Colleges and Universities”, which recognize themselves.
The third is the network blindfold method. The clues of “Pheasant University” can also be seen through the website. Most of these school URLs end with “.com” or “.org” instead of “.edu (a domain name dedicated to educational institutions)”, and the e-mail addresses used by school staff usually do not end with “.edu”, but Use a free email address. But don’t just judge whether the website is edu to judge the university’s qualifications, or you should refer to the list of countries studying abroad published by the Chinese Ministry of Education’s foreign-related regulatory information website.
The fourth is to declare that they can get a green card directly after graduation. The promotional materials of “Pheasant University” often show the words of directly getting a green card. This kind of propaganda is the most dangerous. Some students originally study abroad to get a green card. Some countries will list some specific majors as shortage majors, and some schools will It will advertise that it specializes in shortage of majors, and it will directly get a green card after completion. Who wouldn’t be tempted to save money and time? Prospective international students should keep their eyes open, communicate more with experts in the study abroad industry, or participate in some education exhibitions, and communicate directly with regular universities and prestigious universities at close range.
In addition, the American “Pheasant University” has another obvious feature – low tuition fees.
The tuition fees of formal universities are relatively expensive, because they have considerable-scale school buildings, complete teaching facilities, libraries, teaching buildings, staff offices, etc. In addition, formal universities have huge faculty, research teams and professional academic strength. Therefore, from the perspective of expenditure, regular universities are expensive, and tuition fees are therefore more expensive.
On the contrary, the low-cost “pheasant university” often only leases a few floors of an office building, and transforms the office into a classroom for teaching. Most of the teachers are part-time, or even guest stars hired from other schools. are lower. Therefore, “Pheasant University” often attracts students with the advantage of low prices.
Another obvious feature of “Pheasant University” is its poor management level. It does not have strict requirements on foreign students’ learning ability and attendance rate.
