Pete the Dog’s Phony MBA Brings the Diploma Mill Back into Spotlight

The news last month that a BBC Newsnight reporter had managed to secure a fraudulent MBA certificate for a fictional manager inspired by ‘Pete the dog’ has reopened the debate over the diploma mill.

The reporter drew up an elaborate fake résumé for Pete the dog, taking care over details only in so far as to obfuscate his canine status, and then applied for the ‘MBA’ offered by the American University of London. Four days later, Pete the dog received his very first email saying that he would be awarded his ‘MBA’ within two weeks of a payment fee of £4,500 (c. US$7,200) being processed – without taking any courses or even submitting copies of Pete the dog’s previous qualifications as listed on his CV, which of course, never existed.

A case like this always attracts attention, bringing the subject of the diploma mill back into the public eye. Pete isn’t the first dog to become an MBA alumnus of sorts. That honor is believed to belong to Chester Ludlow, a pug who received an online MBA degree by post for just US$499 from Rochville University in 2009. Chester is the mascot for GetEducated.com, an online education consumer group in the US which has set itself up as a ‘diploma mill police’ to protect people from falling for phony degree scams. However, it still took three years before a lawsuit finally brought an end to Rochville University’s operations in 2012 as well as that of its umbrella organization, which was running multiple diploma mills under the name of Belford.   

American University of London exploits legal loophole

In this latest controversy, it seems the American University of London has been taking advantage of a legal loophole in the UK. The UK parliament has to recognize an institution for it to be able to award degrees. However, it is not illegal to give an impression that a university operates in the UK, when it is in fact based overseas; the American University of London bases its operations in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean.

Stricter measures would go a long way to fixing the threat posed by the diploma mill to the reputation of higher education in the UK, but this is sometimes easier said than done. Another suggestion is to implement penalties for anyone caught trying to gain benefits, such as securing a job, with a fraudulent qualification. This type of law exists in Texas in the US, for instance.

However, while mills such as the American University of London don’t require the submission of any work, some diploma mills do make students submit work. Therefore, would this type of law really be fair on those who are genuine victims of a diploma mill scam?    

Know your legitimate business school accreditation bodies

Those considering applying for an online MBA program need to be particularly alive to the diploma mill. You can read more about the common tricks employed by an online diploma mill here.

One key point to focus on is the importance of understanding the correct business school accreditation bodies and whether the school you are looking at is fully accredited by them. Diploma mills are known for simply making up legitimate-sounding business school accreditation agencies.

For instance, in the case of the American University of London, membership of an accrediting agency is listed, however, a quick look at the agency website provided points out that ‘membership’ does not mean ‘accredited’ at all. In addition, the agency itself features on Wikipedia’s list of unrecognized higher education accreditation organizations.

Confused? Well, there’s no need to be really. There are three principal business school accreditation bodies to which the vast majority of leading schools subscribe and they are the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) and the Association of MBAs (AMBA). There is an in-depth look at each of these three here.

Outside of these are institutions that tend to be particular to a specific country or region. For example, India has a Distance Education Council (DEC) by which online MBA programs in the country must be accredited. One reason for this is that accreditation governance differs from country to country. Despite this, leading institutions will hold business school accreditation from at least one of the three main bodies above regardless, if only as an internationally-recognized sign of quality standards being met.

It seems unlikely that Pete the Dog – ‘MBA’ alumnus of the American University of London – would be able to secure a position onto an online MBA program run by an accredited school, let alone the resultant degree. Even if his CV had not been fabricated and he was indeed a dog of very high working caliber and experience, he would still have to prove his mettle alongside his fellow applicants in what is an extremely competitive admissions process at leading business schools around the world.