In April 2006, symmetry published an article by George Gollin, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about the problem of diploma mills: unaccredited organizations that sell fake university qualifications, usually for a few thousand dollars each.
A story in Sunday's New York Times discusses how the proprietors and six employees of one of the largest diploma mill cartels have plead guilty to charges of mail and wire fraud, and will be sentenced on Wednesday.
In 2006, Gollin wrote of receiving threats and attempts to convince him to travel to Liberia where he suspected an ambush was planned. He began to work with the US Secret Service on helping expose the those who were selling an estimated 200,000 fake degrees per year.
The Times reports that the diploma mills brought in over $7 million through a network of 121 fictitious universities and false diplomas from real universities.
In Gollin's piece for symmetry, he commented:
Some of the hazards posed by diploma mills are obvious: cars designed by untrained engineers, children treated by fake physicians, criminals with bogus immigration documents. But the damage is even larger. Liberia needs doctors and engineers and teachers, who can attend foreign graduate programs and return home to help their country. Instead, American diploma mill operators have so thoroughly corrupted the Liberian system of university accreditation that experts in foreign higher education now are sometimes unwilling to recognize a legitimate degree from any Liberian university, including the University of Liberia, which is fighting to rescue its reputation.
Meanwhile, officials from another African country now appear to be cooperating with another diploma mill consortium in the hijacking of their country's higher education system. The education system of an entire continent could be threatened. It is a problem that demands our attention.
It seems that his call has been heard, with a significant victory against the diploma mills now secured.
