Accreditation Mill - Characteristics

Characteristics

CHEA has published a list of attributes of accreditation mills to help consumers identify them. According to CHEA, an accreditation operation might be a "mill" if it:

• Allows accreditation to be purchased
• Allows institutions to attain accredited status in a very short period of time
• Does not conduct site visits or interviews of key personnel as part of its accreditation process, instead reviewing institutions solely on the basis of submitted documents
• Grants “permanent” accreditation, with no requirement for later periodic review
• Claims recognition from an authority such as CHEA without appearing on lists of accreditors recognized by that authority
• Has a name that is very similar to the name of a recognized accrediting organization
• Publishes a list of institutions or programs that it has accredited without the knowledge of the listed institutions and programs
• Publishes few or no standards for quality
• Publishes claims for which there is no evidence.

Verifile's Accredibase notes that some accreditation mills do not reveal their locations, which makes it difficult to determine whether they are legitimate. Some other mills have been found to use the same addresses as the education providers that claim accreditation from them.