List of unaccredited institutions of higher education
This is a list of colleges, seminaries, and universities that do not have educational accreditation. In many countries, accreditation is defined as a governmental designation. Degrees or other qualifications from unaccredited institutions may not be accepted by civil service or other employers. Some unaccredited institutions have formal legal authorization to enroll students or issue degrees, but in some jurisdictions (notably including the United States) legal authorization to operate is not the same as educational accreditation. Institutions that appear on this list are those that have granted post-secondary academic degrees or advertised the  granting of such degrees, but which are listed as unaccredited by a . An institution may not maintain accreditation for one of several reasons. A new institution may not yet have attained accreditation, while a long-established institution may have lost accreditation due to financial difficulties or other factors. Some unaccredited institutions are fraudulent diploma mills. Other institutions (for example, some Bible colleges and seminaries) choose not to participate in the accreditation process because they view it as an infringement of their religious, academic, or political freedom. Some government jurisdictions exempt religious institutions from accreditation or other forms of government oversight . Still other institutions are not required to have accreditation. Some of the institutions on this list are no longer in operation. Several unaccredited universities have names that are similar to those of accredited institutions, and thus some persons may be misled into thinking that an entity is an accredited university. Accreditation is date-related: In the United States, colleges and universities are typically not fully accredited until several years after they open. Also, in the United States, many colleges and universities existed prior to the development of the modern accreditation system. There are many organizations which give their own accreditation , not generally recognised as valid by governments and others, to educational institutions. Many of these are listed in the article List of unrecognized higher education accreditation organizations. Some of the educational institutions listed here claim accreditation from such organizations.