Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

DIPLOMA MILLS | ACCREDITATION | UNACCREDITED COLLEGES | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Please read: Owing to budget limitations, ODA can no longer respond to many inquiries. We must charge a fee to answer some questions. The fee schedule is at the end of this section. We have therefore expanded our web site to include some basic information that may be helpful to people interested in degrees and academic programs.

Degree Use in Oregon

Aren’t all accreditors federally recognized?
No. Many are self-starter operations or fakes whose approval means nothing under Oregon law. See CHEA Fact Sheet No. 6 on fake accreditors for more information: www.chea.org/pdf/fact_sheet_6_diploma_mills.pdf

Is Oregon the only state that disallows use of most unaccredited degrees?
No. It is also illegal or restricted in North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas, Nevada, Washington, Virginia and Maine to use unaccredited degrees. It is illegal in Indiana to use an unaccredited doctorate and Michigan law limits the legal options of users. See those states’ laws http://www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.aspx for details. Many other states are considering similar laws in order to prevent fraud.

Can I use a degree from an unaccredited college as a credential in Oregon?
Such degrees are invalid for use for academic or professional purposes in public or licensed employment in Oregon unless the college has ODA approval. See ORS 348.609. A few have such approval. See the institution lists and the ODA Approved Non-Campus (External) Degree Programs. Contact ODA with questions or to request an evaluation. There are fees for inquiries and for evaluations.

May a degree issued by a state-approved but unaccredited school in another state be used in the private sector in Oregon?
Yes, provided that the user discloses on all resumes, letterhead, business cards or web sites that the degree is unaccredited and unapproved by ODA.

How can I find out how other states regulate degree use?
In most states, degree approval is handled by the state higher education board or by the private school licensing board. Contact those agencies for assistance. Owing to budget cuts, ODA can no longer provide specific information about other states.

Are all unaccredited colleges degree mills?
Not all unaccredited colleges are degree mills. Some unaccredited colleges provide legitimate academic work. However, while accredited schools undergo extensive review by an appropriate accrediting board, unaccredited schools are seldom reviewed by any outside entity.

Does an ".edu" address mean that a school is legitimate?
No. Some diploma mills and unaccredited schools have been able to obtain ".edu" extensions and EDUCAUSE has decided to take no action to make them cease using such extensions. An ".edu" extension therefore means nothing regarding a school's quality or legitimacy.

Acceptance of Foreign Degrees - OAR 583-050-0031(2)
A claimant of a non-U.S. degree issued by a degree supplier not accredited by a U.S. accreditor may submit to the Office information proving that the supplier issuing the degree has the following characteristics.
(a) The supplier is operating legally in its host country.
(b) The host country has a postsecondary approval system equivalent to U.S. accreditation.
(c) The supplier has been approved through the demonstrable application of appropriate standards by the host country’s accreditor equivalent.
(d) All degrees issued by the supplier are legally valid for use within the host country

Does Title IV approval for financial aid eligibility by the Foreign Schools Team at the U.S. Department of Education mean that a foreign school is academically sound?
No. The Department of Education’s foreign school evaluation process is focused on financial issues. Although the department states that approved foreign schools meet basic standards, in fact such evaluations should be considered unreliable and insufficient to demonstrate equivalence to an accredited U.S. college.

UNESCO publishes a list of colleges from all over the world. Is it reliable as an indicator of quality?
No. The UNESCO list of world colleges is not reliable as an indicator that a college is legitimate. UNESCO does no screening of what is on the list; it simply accepts whatever is submitted by government officials. In recent years some substandard entities have made it onto the list, so ODA and other evaluators consider the list unreliable.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issues a list of world medical programs. Does ODA consider it reliable as an indicator of quality?
No. It has the same problem as the UNESCO list. WHO expressly indicates that they do no screening. It is simply a list of what has been sent to WHO by national officials.

Is approval by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) sufficient to allow use of a foreign medical degree in Oregon?
ECFMG does not evaluate colleges; it is primarily a testing service. A good rule of thumb for foreign medical degrees: if a medical degree is not valid for the practice of medicine within the country where the school is located, it should not be valid for use in Oregon. Contact the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners at http://www.bme.state.or.us/ or (503) 229-5770 or (877) 254-6263 (toll-free in Oregon).

Is approval by Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinarian Graduates (ECFVG) sufficient to allow use of a foreign veterinary degree in Oregon?
Contact the Oregon Veterinary Medical Examining Board at 503-731-4051 or http://www.ovmeb.state.or.us/board.htm

Is there a single reliable reference that lists only legitimate foreign schools, screening out diploma mills?
Not to our knowledge. Foreign school evaluation is complex. The best single standard to use for bare-minimum screening is whether the schools’ degrees are fully usable as credentials for employment and acceptable at other colleges within the home country.

Does ODA use any external evaluators for foreign degrees?
We work most often with the international evaluation section at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). We have also worked with Josef Silny Associates of Florida and Educational Credential Evaluators of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There are other reputable providers of such services, but ODA does not maintain a list of them. In general, an evaluation by any NACES member is reliable; we recommend using at least two evaluators in each case.

The entity called ECE International, which claims to be based in Mumbai, India but also uses a Mississippi address and U.S. phone numbers, has no relationship to Education Credential Evaluators (ECE) of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin organization is a reputable and experienced evaluator upon which Oregon employers may rely. The entity claiming to be based in India and Mississippi should not be used by any Oregon employer owing to its association with a well-known Russian degree mill. Its evaluations should be considered meaningless by Oregon employers.

Does an "apostille" issued by a government body prove that a degree is genuine?
No. An apostille (sometimes called an "Apostille of the Hague") simply means that the document is a document of the sort it purports to be. No evaluation of what stands behind the document is made. An apostille affixed to a bogus degree does not make it a genuine degree.

Diploma Mills

Diploma mills (or degree mills) are substandard or fraudulent "colleges" that offer potential students degrees with little or no serious work. Some are simple frauds: a mailbox to which people send money in exchange for paper that purports to be a college degree. Others require some nominal work from the student but do not require the college-level course work that is normally required for a degree. See OAR 583-050 for more information about Oregon law on this subject. See also the recent U. S. Senate hearings.

Why are degree mills a problem?
"Mail drop" degree mills are simply fraud, a way for unscrupulous hucksters to make money while providing no service. More substantive degree mills devalue college degrees by making them available without college-level work. This makes all degrees suspect and confuses employers and professional licensing boards that need to know whether a person has an appropriate educational background.

How can I tell whether an institution is a degree mill?
There are certain characteristics that most diploma mills share. A good summary is available in CHEA Fact Sheet No. 6: www.chea.org/Research/index.cfm#CHEAfactsheets. For an excellent overview of how a well-known cluster of diploma mills operates, see: How Diploma Mills Operate

Are degree mills legal in Oregon?
No. Some states have lax standards that allow almost anyone to operate a "college," but Oregon has strong state laws that provide penalties for people operating degree mills. Nevertheless, some people try to start degree mills in Oregon. The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, a unit of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission, exists in part to find and stop such activities.

If I receive a solicitation from a college that might be a degree mill, what should I do?
Contact the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, which will investigate the situation and either stop the degree mill from operating or, if the institution is legitimate and has through oversight not gone through the state approval process, assist the institution to comply with Oregon law. Note: generic spam e-mails offering fast, easy degrees are based mostly outside the U.S. and are outside ODA’s capacity to regulate. They need not be reported.

Any institution offering a degree in Oregon (other than pure telecommunicated programs) but not listed here should be reported to ODA for investigation.

What is ODA and where did it come from?
The Office of Degree Authorization evaluates proposed new degree programs to be offered in Oregon by institutions that are not Oregon-based, regionally accredited colleges. ODA also enforces state laws regarding use of degrees and mediates certain disputes among institutions.

ODA existed historically as a set of functions within the Oregon Education Coordinating Council, which was reconfigured and renamed the Oregon Educational Coordinating Commission in 1975. That entity eventually morphed into the Office of Educational Policy and Planning in 1987. When that unit was disbanded in 1997 and some of its duties assigned to the governor’s workforce and education advisor, ODA was assigned in its present form to the Oregon Student Assistance Commission. The ODA statutes currently in use were established in 1997, with minor revision in 2001 and 2003.

The ODA administrator is a statutory position established in ORS 348.599. The administrator is appointed by the Student Assistance Commission and serves at the pleasure of the Commission.

Does ODA have to approve distance-education programs based elsewhere?

ODA does not need to approve accredited institutions that offer courses to Oregonians only by mail, modem or other telecommunications if that is the only contact between the institution and Oregon. However, because degrees from unaccredited schools are invalid for public or licensed employment in Oregon (unless the school goes through an evaluation), ODA considers any degree offers to Oregon residents from unaccredited schools to be potentially fraudulent.

Can any school call itself a “university”?
To be authorized to use the term "university," a school must offer bachelor's degrees together with graduate or first professional degrees or be part of an organization that constitutes a formal consortium of schools so authorized. No exceptions are allowed, including religious exemptions.

Does Oregon have an exemption for religious colleges?
Oregon has a slightly reduced review option for religious institutions offering exclusively religious degrees. It exempts only religious aspects of degree programs. Interested schools should contact ODA for details. Oregon law on this subject is changing and new applications will not be accepted until summer 2005.

Is an Oregon resident administrator required?
Most programs require an Oregon-based resident administrator. An exception is allowed if a non-Oregon school plans an unusually small or narrowly specialized operation within this state, provided that no degree will be offered from within Oregon to students who did not receive their residential instruction here.

How large does an applicant school have to be?
An applicant school must provide evidence that it can employ sufficient faculty to enable all students to begin work toward a degree at a rate equivalent to at least half-time study. Schools must have financial resources sufficient to provide tuition refunds to students in the event of school closure. There are no specific size requirements.

Can any school offer doctoral degrees?
To be eligible to offer the doctorate in or from Oregon, a school must have federally recognized accreditation or candidacy status. No exceptions are allowed.

What if a school only wants to offer part of a program in Oregon?
ODA uses a greatly reduced process to evaluate partial or limited-duration credit-granting activities in Oregon. If an applicant expects to offer less than a full degree program in the state, contact ODA for special instructions and reduced fees.

What is the application process?
Application for full degree programs and religious exemptions may be made only on forms provided by ODA. These forms are provided upon request but are not available from the ODA web site. Forms are usually provided in electronic form as a Word document, which makes filling them out relatively easy. Application for limited review of partial programs varies depending on the program. Contact ODA for information.

A school seeking initial degree authorization should allow three months to prepare its application and six additional months for review by ODA. Schools that follow all instructions and provide all required material have occasionally been approved in as little as six weeks, depending on staff workload. Schools that do not pay attention to the regulatory requirements or do not fill out the application correctly have taken as long as 12 months to be approved.

The average length of time from the date of submission to the date of approval during the 1999-2001 biennium was 4 months. In the 2001-03 biennium it was about 5 months. Pre-scheduling of applications is crucial, since staff time for reviews is scheduled well in advance. Abbreviated reviews for certain external or semi-residential degrees require much less time and are usually completed in a few weeks.

Application for authorization to offer an academic degree, or to provide services leading to a degree in whole or in part, must be accompanied by payment of the fee described in OAR 583-030-0046 or such reduced fee as is determined by ODA in special circumstances. ORS 348.606(3) prohibits fee refunds. The fee schedule appears at the end of this document.

What is the review procedure for applications?
Review of an application to offer instruction or related services leading to a degree or certificate includes evaluation of the school and its proposed programs in relation to each of the state academic standards set forth in OAR 583-030-0035, available on the ODA website or in paper form. These requirements may be modified under OAR 583-030-0036 for a non-Oregon school that will not offer significant resident instruction in Oregon.

In the course of evaluation, ODA may inspect the facilities and records of an applicant school and interview officials, employees, or students of the school as necessary to obtain sufficient information. ODA may interview employers of school graduates and representatives of organizations that appear closely related to the school.

Where competency in a particular academic discipline is essential to an evaluation, ODA may seek expert advice in that discipline. However, adequacy of instruction in a discipline will ordinarily be judged by faculty credentials in relation to the standards, by curricular content, by educational resources, and by student performance.

If we want to offer a BA and a BS, is that one application or two?
ODA often allows multiple degree titles at the same level (e.g. a BS in finance and a BA in economics) to be combined in a single review for a reduced or combined fee if the programs are similar. In general ODA will allow combined reviews if more than 50 percent of the credit hours are for identical curricula and more than 50 percent of those hours are taught by the same faculty. Please inquire about such combined reviews.

Do programs leading to licensure have special requirements?
Program leading to professional licensure use the same procedure as other programs. ODA normally conducts its review prior to any review required by a professional licensing board. Where competency in a particular occupation or profession is needed for an evaluation, ODA will seek expert advice from the corresponding state licensing board. ODA approval does not guarantee approval by the state licensing board.

Who issues the approval?
The ODA administrator issues approvals. No Commission action is required.

What are the renewal requirements?
The standard authorization period in Oregon is three years, except that new programs are always on a two-year cycle. In exceptional cases a 4-year approval is permitted. Renewals go through exactly the same process as initial applications, except that some fee discounts are allowed.

What are the appeal rights of schools refused approval to offer programs in Oregon?
The Commission has by rule decided not to serve as an appeals body for applicant denials. Refusal by the Administrator to authorize an applicant school to offer instruction or related services leading to a degree is subject to right of review as provided in ORS 348.615 by an action brought for trial without jury in the circuit court of the county in which the school is located. A school or putative school having no location in Oregon at which students are actually served must bring any such action in the circuit court of Marion County.

ODA Fee Schedule
   (as of July 1, 2007)

With the exception of minor field placements, all applications for Oregon degree approval require a fee. Checks must be payable to State of Oregon – ODA. Fees are authorized by statute and mandated by the Student Assistance Commission pursuant to the Commission’s legislatively approved budget.

External degrees in which only a small portion of the program is actually offered in Oregon carry a reduced fee of $510–$1,025, depending on complexity. The usual fee is $510. ODA charges a fee of $255 for very small activities such as nursing field placements in which the only activity occurring in Oregon is a supervised clinical experience.

Certain fee discounts up to 20 percent apply to very small and very stable programs. Inquire regarding current policy. Applications from schools requesting religious exemption are assessed the lower of the actual cost to ODA for the review or 50 percent of the cost of a bachelor’s degree review, whichever is lower. Fifty percent of the bachelor’s degree review is $2,125.

When ODA finds it necessary to pay an expert outside consultant for assistance in reviewing an application, or when it incurs other unusual expenses in the course of review, all costs thus incurred may be charged to the applicant school in addition to the basic fee.

Fees for Degree Validation Services

ODA charges a fee for some services. The fee schedule is as follows:

Agencies or organizations that have contracted for basic degree validation services with ODA do not pay a per-request fee. Contract rates are as follows:

Fees for all inquiries, including contracted rates, must be paid in advance by bank check, money order or interagency fund transfer to:

State of Oregon – ODA
Oregon Student Assistance Commission
1500 Valley River Dr. Suite 100
Eugene OR 97401

ODA may require reimbursement of costs for other requests at the discretion of the agency, depending on the nature of the request and available staff resources. Such fees may not exceed the actual cost to the agency to provide the service, based on staff rates and related costs.

ODA may waive validation and evaluation fees:

1. if the request for information is for purposes of criminal investigation or
2. if the consumer protection benefits of ODA action warrant a waiver, provided that sufficient staff time is available.

For information on how to obtain an “Apostille” for international validation of degrees issued in Oregon, click on the link below. It will take you to the Corporation Division of the Oregon Secretary of State website.

www.sos.state.or.us/corporation/notary/howtoauth.htm