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One aspect of fraud in higher education I seldom touch on is the credential fraud of graduate school. To clarify, to advance in a position, often a worker needs to have some sort of a graduate degree. Trouble is, if you have a job, you really don\u2019t have time to go to grad school\u2026but if you don\u2019t already have a job, the graduate degree isn\u2019t worth much.<\/p>\n
This has led to flood of graduate degree holders curious at why they don\u2019t have the high-paying jobs they were told their degrees would yield, but I want to talk a bit about the other group involved in this type of fraud: the job-holders who nevertheless get these degrees.<\/p>\n
As one can guess by the \u201ccatch-22\u201d situation of a degree being only useful if you\u2019re not in a position to get it, this usually involves government workers. The most egregious example of this is in higher ed, where administrative positions almost always have a \u201cPh.D.\u201d required restriction, but it applies to many other government jobs. In higher ed, this situation is resolved by the widespread granting of fake administrative degrees, as I\u2019ve examined in detail.<\/p>\n
Other government jobs likewise resolve this issue through academic fraud:<\/p>\n
For Years, UT-Dallas Instructors Told Officers To Skip Class\u2014And The Cops Still Got A\u2019s. How Did It Go On So Long?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Much to unpack in the title above, but I\u2019ll address the rhetorical question first. The reason why this, and many other, frauds go on so long is because higher education is regulated by accreditors, who to a large extent simply ask the schools to self-affirm their own legitimacy. So, when an accreditor somehow receives a report of fraud (and they make it very hard for such reports to get to them), the accreditor investigates. They do so by asking the school \u201cAre you committing fraud?\u201d<\/p>\n The school looks at how much money they make committing the fraud, gives some of it to the accreditor in the form of accreditation fees, and says \u201cNope.\u201d And then the accreditor closes their investigation of the fraud. I really wish this summary weren\u2019t so accurate, but my years of dealing with accreditors in higher education had me seeing such investigations with my own eyeballs.<\/p>\n The program which was allegedly fraudulent was basically a master\u2019s degree in criminal justice (\u201cJustice Administration and Leadership\u201d–there are many variants of such programs in many states, much as there are many variations of bogus \u201chigher education administrator\u201d graduate degrees). Police officers typically need a master\u2019s degree to get a promotion. So let\u2019s take a look at what was going on here:<\/p>\n A student told him he had permission to skip classes yet still get credit. Then, when the professor tried to verify the story with his bosses, they bristled.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou need to be careful what questions you ask,\u201d said one\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n The above story rings true, as the same thing happened when I started asking questions about what sure looked like fraud at a school. My bosses responded with anger, and I was discouraged from asking what struck me as obvious questions to ask.<\/p>\n Over the last eight years, a handful of faculty members in the university\u2019s criminology department awarded top grades to students in courses they never took\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Despite the huge proliferation of administrators on campus, they really don\u2019t have much to do with education. The only \u201cjob\u201d I\u2019ve observed them do is advocate for failing students to get their grades changed. Any faculty who wishes never to have anything to do with any administrator need only award all A\u2019s to all students at all times\u2026and yes, that would include students who never came to class (honest, I\u2019ve had such students complain about failing\u2026only showing up at the end of the semester to do so, of course).<\/p>\n So, again, this part of the story rings true. If only accreditors actually took a look at what\u2019s going on in the classroom\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cStudents were instructed to formally enroll in UT Dallas courses, with the proviso that they need not attend class or submit any material, but would be given the grade of \u2018A\u2019 in the class\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Before going further, I should point out that I think it\u2019s pretty stupid to require advanced degrees for job promotion, particularly degrees of little relevance to the job. But, this is how government operates, to a large extent.<\/p>\n The school is seeking to fire the faculty involved but\u2026I really think admin should take some responsibility for letting this fraud go on, particularly since it\u2019s fairly obvious they were supporting the fraud.<\/p>\n To their credit, UT Dallas is no longer accepting students for the program (though when I reviewed their site, it seems like they\u2019re starting it up again).<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026school leaders said the program\u2019s practices were well hidden from them\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Yeah, sure. And anyone who asked questions about what was going on was threatened to stop asking questions. It\u2019s a shame the only way to get to the truth here would be for admin to investigate themselves. I\u2019ve seen enough self-investigations to know how well that would turn out\u2014some faculty member sacrificed, perhaps, but that\u2019s as far as it goes.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026the university said it didn\u2019t know how many\u2026graduates received improper grades and credits because its records are incomplete\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Am I really the only one to be curious what all those administrators do on campus? They don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on in the classrooms, and they don\u2019t keep records, that\u2019s for sure. They also don\u2019t get fired for facilitating fraud, either.<\/p>\n The master\u2019s program was expected to make money. Unlike traditional master\u2019s programs, it would be funded solely by tuition, not state dollars. And working professionals represented a promising and untapped market of tuition payers that could generate \u201cunlimited economic potential,\u201d according to school documents.<\/em><\/p>\n Admin rake in huge amounts of money, bonuses for growing the school, and UT-Dallas is a fast-growing university. The dean overlooking this program when it was developed has moved on and up, a provost at another university\u2014as I\u2019ve said many times, the main job goal of an administrator is to sell out the school in any way possible in the name of growth, and then move on and up in the system.<\/p>\n The program brought in around $22,000 per student.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026the professor asked not to be named for fear of professional reprisals\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In case the gentle reader is wondering who the whistleblower was, I reckon the above is the best answer to be given. Now, admin assures that the school has cleaned up its act and everything is legitimate now.<\/p>\n I guess that\u2019s why the whistleblower is still not about to go public with his name. Seeing as the university has decided to drop its charges against the \u201crogue faculty\u201d whosupposedly was solely responsible for what happened here<\/a>\u2026I think the whistleblower is quite justified in being concerned for his well-being. I could only find a few articles on this story, even though (because?) it involves people now very high in law enforcement.<\/p>\n I really want to point out that these types of programs go on in every state, and it is idiocy to believe this type of fraud is (\u201cwas\u201d) restricted simply to UT-Dallas.<\/p>\n Seeing as taxpayer money goes to our government employees to pay tuition at our taxpayer funded schools, perhaps it\u2019s not so great a fraud as others going on in higher ed\u2026but it\u2019s fraud all the same, with the above only notable because it\u2019s so rare for these types of stories to see even a little of the light of day.<\/p>\n www.professorconfess.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"