a

GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Testimony

Before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. 

Senate

For Release on Delivery

Expected at 10:00a.m. EDT

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

DIPLOMA MILLS

Federal Employees Have 

Obtained Degrees from 

Diploma Mills and Other 

Unaccredited Schools, 

Some at Government 

Expense

Statement of Robert J. Cramer,

Managing Director Office of Special Investigations

GAO-04-771T
Page 1 GAO-04-771T 

Madam Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I am pleased to be here today to discuss issues related to degrees from 

“diploma mills” and other unaccredited postsecondary schools. As you 

requested, we conducted an investigation to determine whether the federal 

government has paid for degrees from diploma mills and other 

unaccredited postsecondary schools. Section 4107 of title 5, U. S. Code, 

only permits the federal government to pay for the cost of academic degree 

training provided by a college or university that is accredited by a 

nationally recognized accrediting body. You also asked us to determine 

whether federal employees who hold senior-level positions have degrees 

from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools. My testimony today 

summarizes our investigative findings. 

We conducted our investigation from July 2003 through February 2004, in 

accordance with quality standards for investigations as set forth by the 

President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency. We searched the Internet 

for nontraditional, unaccredited, postsecondary schools that offer degrees 

for a relatively low flat fee, promote the award of academic credits based 

on life experience, and do not require any classroom instruction. We 

requested that four such schools provide information on the number of 

current and former students identified in their records as federal 

employees and payment of fees for such federal employees by the federal 

government. In addition, posing as a prospective student who is employed 

by a federal agency, our investigator contacted three unaccredited schools 

to obtain information on how he might have a federal agency pay for a 

degree. 

Additionally, we requested that eight federal agencies—the Departments of 

Education (ED), Energy (DOE), Health and Human Services (HHS), 

Homeland Security (DHS), Transportation (DOT), and Veterans Affairs 

(VA); the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Office of Personnel 

Management (OPM)—provide us with a list of senior employees, level GS15 (or equivalent) or higher, and the names of any postsecondary 

institutions from which such employees had reported receiving degrees. 

We compared the names of the schools on the lists provided by these 

agencies with those that are accredited by accrediting bodies recognized by 

the Department of Education. We also requested that the agencies examine 

their financial records to determine if they had paid for degrees from 

unaccredited schools, and we interviewed six federal employees who have 

obtained degrees from unaccredited schools. 
Page 2 GAO-04-771T 

Summary In summary, 3 of the 4 unaccredited schools responded to our requests for 

information and provided records that identified 463 students employed by 

the federal government. Two of the four schools provided records that 

federal agencies paid them $150,387.80 for the fees of federal employee 

students. In addition, DOE and DOT advised us of separate payments 

totaling $19,082.94 for expenses associated with degrees from these two 

schools, for total federal payments of $169,470.74 to them. However, for 

the reasons explained below, the records provided by the schools and 

agencies likely understate the extent of federal payments for degrees at 

diploma mills and other unaccredited schools. 

Data provided by 8 agencies indicated that 28 senior-level employees have 

degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools. In our followup interviews with six of these employees and their managers, we were 

told that experience, rather than educational credentials, was considered in 

hiring and promotion decisions concerning these employees. Again, 

however, for reasons set forth below, this number is believed to be an 

understatement of the actual number of employees at these 8 agencies who 

have degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools. 

Background The Homeland Security Act amended section 4107 of title 5, U. S. Code, by 

allowing federal reimbursement for degrees only from accredited 

institutions. Specifically, section 4107 states that an agency may “pay or 

reimburse the costs of academic degree training ... if such training ... is 

accredited and is provided by a college or university that is accredited by a 

nationally recognized body.” (Emphasis supplied). For purposes of this 

provision, a “nationally recognized body” is a regional, national, or 

international accrediting organization recognized by the Department of 

Education.1

 Because the law governs only academic degree training, it 

does not preclude an agency from paying for the costs of individual training 

courses offered by unaccredited institutions. Prior to the enactment of the 

Homeland Security Act, federal agencies were not authorized to pay for 

employee academic degree training unless the head of the agency 

determined that it was necessary to assist in recruitment or retention of

1

5 C.F.R. § 410.308(b).
Page 3 GAO-04-771T 

employees in occupations in which the government had a shortage of 

qualified personnel.2

Accreditation of degree-granting institutions in the United States is a 

voluntary process. Unaccredited schools, and the quality of education they 

offer, vary significantly. At one end of the spectrum are schools that offer 

standard curricula traditionally found at accredited universities. Other 

schools, commonly referred to as diploma mills, sell academic degrees 

based upon life experience or substandard or negligible academic work. 

Some diploma mills require no academic work at all and merely sell 

degrees for a fee, such as those we discussed in our November 2002 

report.3

 

Records Produced by 

Agencies and Schools 

Understate Federal 

Payments for Degrees 

from Unaccredited 

Schools

Several factors make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine 

the extent of unauthorized federal payments for degrees issued by 

unaccredited schools. First, the data we received from both schools and 

federal agencies understate the extent to which the federal government has 

made such payments. Additionally, the way in which some agencies 

maintain records of payments for employee education makes such 

information inaccessible. For example, HHS responded to our request for 

records of employee education payments by informing us that it could not 

produce them because it maintains a large volume of such records in five 

different accounting systems, has no way to differentiate academic degree 

training from other training, and does not know whether payments for 

training made through credit cards are captured in its training payment 

records. 

Moreover, diploma mills and other unaccredited schools modify their 

billing practices so students can obtain payments for degrees by the federal 

government. Purporting to be a prospective student, our investigator 

placed telephone calls to three schools that award academic credits based 

on life experience and require no classroom instruction: Barrington 

University (Mobile, Alabama); Lacrosse University (Bay St. Louis, 

Mississippi); and Pacific Western University (Los Angeles, California). 

These schools each charge a flat fee for a degree. For example, fees for 

2

5 U.S.C. 4107(a) and (b).

3

U.S. General Accounting Office, Purchases of Degrees from Diploma Mills, GAO-03-269R

(Washington, D.C.: Nov. 21, 2002).
Page 4 GAO-04-771T 

degrees for domestic students at Pacific Western University are as follows: 

Bachelor of Science ($2,295); Master’s Degree in Business Administration 

($2,395); and PhD ($2,595). School representatives emphasized to our 

undercover investigator that they are not in the business of providing, and 

do not permit students to enroll for, individual courses or training. Instead, 

the schools market and require payment for degrees on a flat-fee basis.

However, representatives of each school told our undercover investigator 

that they would structure their charges in order to facilitate payment by the 

federal government. Each agreed to divide the degree fee by the number of 

courses a student was required to take, thereby creating a series of 

payments as if a per course fee were charged. All of the school 

representatives stated that students at their respective schools had secured 

payment for their degrees by the federal government.

Information we obtained from two unaccredited schools confirms that the 

federal government has paid for degrees at those schools. We asked four 

such schools that charge a flat fee for degrees to provide records of federal 

payments for student fees: California Coast University (Santa Ana, 

California); Hamilton University (Evanston, Wyoming); Pacific Western 

University (Los Angeles, California); and Kennedy-Western University 

(Thousand Oaks, California). Hamilton University failed to respond to our 

request. Pacific Western University reported that it could not locate any 

records indicating that federal payments were made, although this claim 

directly contradicts representations made to our undercover investigator 

by a school representative that federal agencies had paid for degrees 

obtained by Pacific Western University students.

Pacific Western University, California Coast University, and KennedyWestern University provided data indicating that 463 of their students were 

federal employees. California Coast University and Kennedy-Western 

University provided records indicating that they had received $150,387.80 

from federal agencies for 14 California Coast University students and 50 

Kennedy-Western University students. The information is summarized in 

table 1.
Page 5 GAO-04-771T 

Table 1: Federal Employees and Payments Associated with Unaccredited Schools

Source: GAO analysis of data received from Kennedy-Western University, California Coast University, and Pacific Western University.

a

These numbers represent information provided by three schools—Kennedy-Western University, 

California Coast University, and Pacific Western University.

Department or agency

Number of students identified 

as federal employeesa

Number of federal employees 

for whom tuition payments 

were madeb

Total tuition payments made 

by federal agenciesb

Energy 35 3 $13,505.00

Transportation 17

Homeland Security 12

Health and Human Services 11 4 $8,175.00

Veterans Affairs 13 5 $12,535.00

Office of Personnel 

Management

1

Education 2

Defense 257 28 $68,248.05

US Postal Service 29 8 $24,970.00

Agriculture 5 1 $1,500.00

US Courts 2

US Agency for Int’l. 

Development

1

Treasury 8 1 $2,050.00

State 3

Peace Corps 1

National Aeronautics & Space 

Admin. 

9 2 $2,131.25

General Services Admin. 3 1 $600.00

Federal Reserve Bank 1

Federal Deposit Insurance 

Corp.

2

Federal Communications 

Commission

1

Environmental Protection 

Agency

9 2 $5,538.00

Labor 1 1 $2,437.50

Justice 13 5 $5,458.00

Interior 6

Commerce 4

Unspecified 17 3 $3,240.00

Total 463 64 $150,387.80
Page 6 GAO-04-771T 

b

These payments represent limited information provided from two schools—Kennedy-Western 

University and California Coast University.

After identifying federal agencies that made payments to Kennedy-Western 

and California Coast, we requested that DOE, HHS, and DOT provide 

records of their education-related payments to schools for employees 

during the last 5 years. As previously discussed, HHS advised us that it 

could not provide the data. DOE and DOT provided data that identified 

payments of $19,082.94, which were in addition to those reflected in table 1, 

for expenses associated with Kennedy-Western. Thus, we found a total of 

$169,470.74 in federal payments to these two unaccredited schools. 

However, a comparison of the data received from the schools with the 

information provided by DOE and DOT shows that the schools and the 

agencies have likely understated federal payments. For example, KennedyWestern reported total payments of $13,505 from DOE for three students, 

while DOE reported total payments of $14,532 to Kennedy-Western for 

three different students. Thus, DOE made payments of at least $28,037 to 

Kennedy-Western. Additionally, DOT reported payments of $4,550 to 

Kennedy-Western for one student, but Kennedy-Western did not report 

receiving any money from DOT for that student.4

 

Senior-Level Federal 

Employees Have 

Degrees from 

Unaccredited Schools

On the basis of the information we obtained from eight agencies, we 

determined that some senior-level employees obtained degrees from 

diploma mills and other unaccredited schools. Specifically, we requested 

that eight agencies review the personnel folders of GS-15 (or equivalent) 

and above employees and provide us with the names of the postsecondary 

institutions from which such employees reported receiving academic 

degrees. The eight agencies were: ED, DOE, HHS, DHS, DOT, VA, SBA, and 

OPM. The agencies informed us that their examination of personnel 

records revealed that 28 employees listed degrees from unaccredited 

schools; and 1 employee received tuition reimbursement of $1,787.44 in 

connection with a degree from such a school. 

However, we believe that this number understates the number of federal 

employees at these agencies who have such degrees. The agencies’ ability 

to identify degrees from unaccredited schools is limited by a number of 

4

Our investigation was limited to direct federal payments to schools and did not include 

federal reimbursements of school fees to employees.
Page 7 GAO-04-771T 

factors. First, diploma mills frequently use names similar to those used by 

accredited schools, which often allows the diploma mills to be mistaken for 

accredited schools. For example, Hamilton University of Evanston, 

Wyoming, which is not accredited by an accrediting body recognized by 

ED, has a name similar to Hamilton College, a fully accredited school in 

Clinton, New York. Moreover, federal agencies told us that employee 

records may contain incomplete or misspelled school names without 

addresses. Thus, an employee’s records may reflect a bachelor’s degree 

from Hamilton, but the records do not indicate whether the degree is from 

Hamilton University, the unaccredited school, or Hamilton College, the 

accredited institution. Further, we learned that there are no uniform 

verification practices throughout the government whereby agencies can 

obtain information and conduct effective queries on schools and their 

accreditation status. Additionally, some agencies provided information 

about only the most recent degrees that employees reported receiving. 

We interviewed several federal employees who had reported receiving 

degrees from unaccredited schools. These employees included three 

management-level DOE employees who have emergency operations 

responsibilities at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) 

and security clearances. We also found one employee in the Senior 

Executive Service at DOT and another at DHS who received degrees from 

unaccredited schools for negligible work. Additional details of their 

interviews are provided below. 

Employees #1, #2, and #3 are managers in the Office of Emergency 

Operations at NNSA and have “Q” level security clearances. Employee #1, 

who was hired at NNSA in 2002, paid $5,000 for a masters degree in 1996 

from LaSalle University, an unaccredited school that has been found to 

have made false claims of accreditation.5

 This individual obtained the 

degree in 1996 while in the Air Force in order to advance his career. He 

informed us that while serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, he 

was told that he would need a master’s degree in order to be considered for 

promotion to colonel. He contacted LaSalle University and obtained a 

degree based on life experience, courses he had taken previously in the 

military, and courses for which he read books and wrote papers. Employee 

#1 told us that he did not attend classes or take any tests, his master’s 

5

Four individuals were convicted in the Eastern District of Louisiana for mail fraud, wire 

fraud, and money laundering in connection with their operation of LaSalle University.
Page 8 GAO-04-771T 

degree from LaSalle was a “joke,” and he received it after paying 

approximately $5,000. 

Employee #2, hired at NNSA in 2000, received a bachelor’s degree in 1992 

from Chadwick University, an unaccredited school. Employee #2 never 

attended classes but obtained the degree based on 30 credits for life 

experience, several college level examination program tests, and nine 

correspondence courses. The employee reported reading a book, writing a 

paper, and taking a final exam for each of the nine courses. This is the only 

postsecondary education this employee has obtained. Although agency 

personnel records indicate that this individual is a candidate for a master’s 

degree program at an unaccredited foreign school, Employee #2 has never 

completed any courses for such a degree.

Employee #3, hired at NNSA in 2000, received a PhD in engineering 

administration in 1985 from Columbia Pacific University, an unaccredited 

school. He performed course work required for a PhD at George 

Washington University, a fully accredited school, but did not complete a 

dissertation. Employee #3 claims to have completed a dissertation for 

Columbia Pacific but did not attend classes or complete any coursework at 

that school. In December 1999, the Marin County Superior Court ordered 

Columbia Pacific University to cease operations within California. The 

court determined that Columbia Pacific failed to meet various 

requirements for issuing PhD degrees, awarded excessive credit based on 

life experience, and failed to employ duly qualified staff. 

Employee #4 is a Senior Executive Service official at DOT. Employee #4 

received a Bachelor of Science degree within 6 to 8 months from Kent 

College, an unaccredited school. Kent waived some credits while 

Employee #4 completed three research papers and paid $3,500 for the 

degree. In 1992, Employee #4 listed the degree from Kent College on his 

application for a master’s degree program at an accredited school. Officials 

at the school to which he applied did not identify Kent as an unaccredited 

school with a history of awarding degrees based on negligible work. The 

accredited school accepted Employee #4 into its master’s program, and he 

completed it. 

Employee #5 was an employee in the Senior Executive Service at DHS at 

the time of our interview but has since resigned. This employee received a 

series of degrees based on negligible work from unaccredited Hamilton 

University while working at the Department of Labor (DOL) in various 

senior capacities. Between March and June 2000, this individual received a 
Page 9 GAO-04-771T 

bachelor’s and a master’s degree based on prior training and other life and 

work experience. Subsequently, in March 2001, Employee #5 received a 

PhD in computer information systems from Hamilton. This individual left 

DOL and began working at DHS in a Senior Executive Service position in 

April 2003. A security clearance update, initiated while the employee was 

still at DOL but completed after the employee joined DHS, led to the 

discovery of the degrees from Hamilton. 

Concluding Remarks In conclusion, the records that we obtained from schools and agencies 

likely understate the extent to which the federal government has paid for 

degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools. Many 

agencies have difficulty in providing reliable data because they do not have 

systems in place to properly verify academic degrees or to detect fees for 

degrees that are masked as fees for training courses. Additionally, the 

agency data we obtained likely do not reflect the true extent to which 

senior-level federal employees have diploma mill degrees. This is because 

the agencies do not sufficiently verify the degrees that employees claim to 

have or the schools that issued the degrees, which is necessary to avoid 

confusion caused by the similarity between the names of accredited 

schools and the names assumed by diploma mills. Finally, we found that 

there are no uniform verification practices throughout the government 

whereby agencies can obtain information and conduct effective queries on 

schools and their accreditation status.

Madam Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I would be happy 

to respond to any questions that you or Members of the Committee may 

have.

Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments

For further information about this testimony, please contact Robert J. 

Cramer at (202) 512-7227; Andrew O’Connell at (202) 512-7449; or Paul 

Desaulniers at (202) 512-7435.

(601139)
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