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Education scams: What's the solution?

Zelenius

Muse
Zelenius
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
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908
Education scams are a growing problem in the U.S. Everywhere you look, there's a new "university", or "institute" sprouting up and offering worthless, unaccredited degrees for a huge price.

The most infamous of these right now is "Trump University", which is finally getting sued by the state of NY for false claims and illegal business practices. Some suckers students paid as much as $35,000 to attend seminars and were made to believe they were going to meet Trump himself. As everyone knows, being with Trump for 5 minutes is guaranteed to make you wealthy like him :D

This "Trump University" is emblematic of a much bigger problem. Besides these phony business "schools", there's a growing number of "alternative" health, and "holistic" nutrition schools that hand out unaccredited degrees just for attending a few seminars or taking online tests. For a hefty price of course, and they have no educational requirements for admittance. It seems most people who call themselves "health coaches" these days have these phony degrees. Many of these people have little to no real education or real training in health, nutrition, or physiology(strangely, and sadly, I know some people who managed to get advanced degrees in biology or pharmacy who still thought it was a great idea to get "holistic" degree to become a "health coach").

These degrees are unaccredited and essentially worthless if they should want to get a real education or get a real job in health-care. These places are essentially no different from diploma mills; they use seminars and online tests or online classes to attempt to disguise the fact that they are diploma mills(this reminds me of successful pyramid schemes that use various underhanded tactics to hide the fact that they are pyramid schemes so they can legally operate).

So what can be done about this problem? Should the federal government prevent the use of the words "university", "institute" or "school" to only those institutions that adhere to some very strict criteria, the way it is in Germany?

According to Wikipedia:
In Germany, it is a criminal offense to call an institution a Universität (university) or Fachhochschule, or to issue academic degrees, without authorization through an act of the respective state's Ministry of Education. It is also a criminal offense to falsely claim a degree in Germany if it is not accredited.
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Diploma Mills

Although this problem isn't unique to the U.S, since I am American I am most familiar with how education scams operate in my country. Any ideas or suggestions from around the world are welcome.
 
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Isn't this what accrediting agencies are for?
At the end of the day, my solution is to emphasize teaching critical thinking skills in public schools. This way, those who are confronted with the decision to attend/not attend (any) school, they can research the institution and make an informed decision.

The same principle applies to employers that are judging the credentials of potential employees. Ultimately, you can't legislate against bad info; otherwise, religion would be extinct.
 
So the answer to the question “Education scams: What's the solution?” is just, well, education?

Though the latter leaning more to self-education about such scams and the ‘institution/school’ one is inquiring about. Rather than some course of study prescribed (if any) by said ‘institution/school’ (or if one is just seeking an education on how to scam people with education).

During my college years one of our instructors (mechanical design) got his “PHD” from one of the degree mills mentioned above (for “work experience”). While he certainly knew his stuff and as far as expanding the field goes, educating gaggles of students over all those decades got’a count for something. Still, (because of the source) none of us could bring ourselves to call him “Dr.” even if we did actually think he deserved it.
 
Mr. Purple said:
Isn't this what accrediting agencies are for?
At the end of the day, my solution is to emphasize teaching critical thinking skills in public schools. This way, those who are confronted with the decision to attend/not attend (any) school, they can research the institution and make an informed decision.

The same principle applies to employers that are judging the credentials of potential employees. Ultimately, you can't legislate against bad info; otherwise, religion would be extinct.
Click to expand...

These phony universities exist outside of the accreditation system. Few if any scam colleges seek accreditation, except from maybe some phony accrediting bodies(like some "alternative" health schools). So accrediting agencies can't really do anything about the various Trump University clones out there; they can't punish them. All they can really do it tell people which schools are legit, but unfortunately too many people don't care about or understand the process of accreditation.

I agree with you that better education and teaching critical thinking can help. However, I believe the government should be part of the solution. Instead of dealing with it piecemeal, like with suing Trump University, we should follow Germany's example and not allow the use of the term "university" or "college" or to give degrees without authorization. The Department of Education should oversee this in conjunction with accrediting boards.

It's not a perfect solution, but I see it as roughly analogous to the penalties for practicing medicine without a license. We don't allow anyone to call themselves a "medical doctor" without the proper schooling and licensing, so why not try the same with any degree granting educational institution?
 
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We already restrict terms the use of terms like "Bank"; I don't see any reason why we shouldn't do the same for "University" and "Institute".
 
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