A provocative history of for-profit colleges and universities. Honorable Mention, PROSE Education Practice Award by the American Association of Publishers, FY17 The most significant shift in higher education over the past two decades has been the emergence of for-profit colleges and universities. These online and storefront institutions lure students with promises of fast degrees and “guaranteed” job placement, but what they deliver is often something quite different. In this provocative history of for-profit higher education, historian and educational researcher A. J. Angulo tells the remarkable and often sordid story of these “diploma mills,” which target low-income and nontraditional students while scooping up a disproportionate amount of federal student aid. Tapping into a little-known history with big implications, Angulo takes readers on a lively journey that begins with the apprenticeship system of colonial America and ends with today’s politically savvy $35 billion multinational for-profit industry. He traces the transformation of nineteenth-century reading and writing schools into “commercial” and “business” colleges, explores the early twentieth century’s move toward professionalization and progressivism, and explains why the GI Bill prompted a surge of new for-profit institutions. He also shows how well-founded concerns about profit-seeking in higher education have evolved over the centuries and argues that financial gaming and maneuvering by these institutions threatens to destabilize the entire federal student aid program. This is the first sweeping narrative history to explain why for-profits have mattered to students, taxpayers, lawmakers, and the many others who have viewed higher education as part of the American dream. Diploma Mills speaks to today’s concerns by shedding light on unmistakable conflicts of interest long associated with this scandal-plagued class of colleges and universities.

Stewart and Spille probe the underworld of American higher education--diploma mills that grant fradulent or academically deficient degrees and credentials. They show why these operations are booming, what techniques they use to lure prospective students, and how many of these businesses operate legally, under lax state requirements. With real-world examples, the authors describe the relationship of diploma mills to fraudulent occupational licensure, identify states in which the activity is rampant, and explore foreign diploma mills in America and American diploma mills operating overseas. They describe the trade in fraudulent transcripts, letters of reference, educational counselling, honorary doctorates, term papers and dissertations, and misleading directories; explain how to distinguish legitimate from fraudulent degree-granting institutions; and conclude with recommendations for reversing the diploma mill boom. ISBN 0-02-930410-5: $19.95.

When the first edition of Degree Mills was published, fake universities and counterfeit degrees were already a significant problem. Fueled by the Internet, this scam continues to grow—now more than half of all people claiming a new PhD in fact have a fake degree. In this updated edition, experts Allen Ezell and John Bear go beyond exposing these fraudulent practices to provide detailed recommendations—for government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals—on what can be done to rid us of them. This eye-opening and definitive guide shows how degree mills operate and how to check the validity of anyone’s degree—an indispensable reference book.

For-profit schools -- also known as proprietary schools -- received over $16 billion in federal loans, grants, and campus-based aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act in 2007/08. This report determined: (1) how the student loan default profile of proprietary schools compares with that of other types of schools; and (2) the extent to which the U.S. Dept. of Education's policies and procedures for monitoring student eligibility requirements for federal aid at proprietary schools protect students and the investment of Title IV funds. To address these objectives, the author conducted site visits and undercover investigations at proprietary schools, and interviewed officials from Education, higher education assoc., and state oversight agencies. Illus.