Diploma mills

Buyer Beware! Does Your Service Provider Have an Authentic Degree?

Existing safeguards to help in ensuring that your service provider has legitimate qualifications:

Since ACT has been managing the Qualified Service Provider List, now called the Registry of Autism Service Providers, we have developed a process to confirm the qualifications of new applicants for the list.  All new applicants are required to submit photocopies of their degrees as supporting documentation for their application.  Most of the service providers who were on the existing list when ACT assumed responsibility have also provided ACT with photocopies of their degrees as well. ACT’s process has, to the best of our knowledge, been efficient in ensuring that the qualifications claimed by those on the registry are legitimate. In the case of Behaviour Consultants, if there is no degree listed beside their name on the Registry of Autism Service Provider List, it means despite repeated requests they have not submitted copies of them.

An additional safeguard regarding those service providers such as Occupational Therapist, Speech Language Pathologist or Registered Psychologist who belong to a professional college or association is that they are required to present copies of their degree for review by their college or association.  Behaviour Consultants do not have a professional college so that extra safeguard does not apply
to them. 

In the near future ACT will be launching a new feature that accompanies the Registry of Autism Service Providers, the opportunity for Behaviour Consultants and eventually all service providers, to, on a voluntary basis, provide a full profile of their education, experience and specifics of their practice for parents to review. This will be available on ACT’s website. 
 
There is no registry of service providers who serve children with ASD over 6 and their families and therefore no one to review the stated qualifications they proclaim unless the service provider has a governing college. 

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Family Alert!

It has come to ACT’s attention that some behaviour consultants may not have legitimate qualifications from real universities. Disappointingly, a few service providers here in British Columbia have offered ACT photocopies of their ‘degrees or diplomas’ from universities and educational institutions that do not exist or that operate what is known as a diploma mill. 

What is a diploma mill? Any person with cash, and not a lot of cash, can purchase their ‘degree’ and, in some cases, can design the phony curriculum, write their own transcripts, select their own grades, and buy bogus letters of recommendations.  The university or college that offers this service is, in fact not a legitimate university or college.  It is a business in the business of providing false or fake documents to people who have chosen not to pursue an accredited education and to follow an approved course of studies from an accredited institution.    

ACT emphasizes again, it is important for parents who are seeking treatment for their children over 6 to be particularly vigilant. There are no minimum standards for behaviour consultants, no governing college for consultants, no list of consultants for children over 6 that has been vetted by a central agency and no-one but individual parents of children over 6 themselves to verify the qualifications of behaviour consultants.  The chances that your consultant will not have the education they claim to have are small but it is best to be sure before you consider employing them.

So What If The Service Provider Presents Bogus Degrees, Does It Really Matter?

There is reason for a parent to pause if and when this happens.

• Resorting to claiming a degree that is actually phony is a sign that your service provider may not be qualified to do effective and meaningful work that you are paying them to do or, at the very least, doing work that causes no harm to your child or family. Are they safe to work for your child or you?   
• If a service provider can’t be bothered to obtain the necessary legitimate education to do this important work and decides to ‘cut corners’ by buying their degree what other ‘corners will they cut’?  Will it be important component of treatment for your child?
•  If your service provider has been deceitful about their education what else have they lied about?  What else have they compromised in terms of their ethics and behaviour?  Can you trust them?

How Do I Find Out If a Service Provider’s University Degree is From a Diploma Mill?

Here are ways that parents can begin a process of determining whether their service provider is offering proof of a legitimate university degree from an accredited university at no cost if they can access the Internet. 

• The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has a website www.chea.org/search/default.asp where a data base is accessible to the public that lists accredited universities. It allows you to check to see if a particular university or non-degree granting institution is accredited.  The site is easy to navigate.  Once you have agreed to the terms of accessing the data base you type in the name and location of the educational institution.  You will quickly be advised if there is a record that the degree or non-degree granting organization is accredited.  If the institution is not accredited this is a warning sign that the degree may be illegitimate. 

Further information about degree mills is available on this site by clicking ‘degree mills’ at the top of the home page or by going to www.chea.org/degreemills/default.htm.  Another useful resource is The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization at www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.html .

• Go to a search engine like Google. Enter the name and location of the educational institution in the search window.  Many phony universities have had their internet sites disabled by the United States Federal Trade Commission but many have worked their way around this so don’t be fooled.  Universities like Wexford University in Zurich or Northfield University in London, for example, are not legitimate universities.  An interesting internet link provides a presentation that offers an outline of what to look for when checking out whether an institution is actually a diploma mill.  See www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/diploma_mills.pdf.  Newspaper articles that have been published about this issue can be found at www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2003-09-28-fakedegrees_x.htm and chronicle.com/free/v50/i42/42a01401.htm

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What should you do if you discover your service provider has claimed to have a degree that is actually phony?

• Discuss this with the service provider.  Let them know you know.  Don’t be bought off by excuses or accept them trying to dismiss the significance of this.  They may tell you they have a “life experience” degree, perhaps a “PhD. In Life” but there is no such thing granted by any legitimate university.  They may tell you they have a “distance education” degree.  There are legitimate institutions that provide these educational opportunities, although the quality of the education should be questioned especially for something that requires very practical and technical skills like being a service provider.  Any mention of “distance education” should be a cue to have a closer look.
• Consider carefully whether you can continue using this person’s services.  If your decision is no then…
• Discontinue your contract with the service provider.  Since you have discovered what can be construed as fraudulent behaviour you should not be required to give notice to terminate the contract.
• If the service provider belongs to a professional college report them to that college. (see the end of this article for contact information for related professional colleges)
• Contact any agency that represents this service provider or referred you to the service provider and advise them.  
• If you are using public funds, such as your autism funds, report the service provider to MCFD Autism Initiatives.  This would include situations where your service provider is directly contracted by a government agency such as Ministry of Children and Family Development or a crown corporation such as Community Living BC (CLBC)
• You many want to consider legal action if someone has misrepresented their qualifications to you and you and your child has been harmed as a result.  Even lost time and opportunity for effective treatment may be grounds for legal action.

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders live in a buyer beware world at the present time when dealing with unregulated professionals like behaviour consultants. Families are urged to exercise care and diligence when selecting any professional who will work with their vulnerable child.  This is an extremely important decision. Thankfully most service providers are honest and want to give your child the best treatment they can.

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