Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation was a diploma mill
run in the 1990s and based in South Dakota
.
, author of Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning, in 1998 the Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation ran an advertisement in USA Today
for distance education
courses. Bear responded to the ad and the foundation sent a 20-page course catalog covering the following schools:
According to Bear, the catalog made no distinction among these schools other than listing their different names. The catalog offered degrees at all levels by "professional assessment of career achievements" and claimed accreditation from the "College for Professional Assessment", an agency Bear had yet to come across (see List of recognized accreditation associations of higher learning).
The Foundation gave the address of a Sioux Falls, South Dakota
law office as the location of its campus, something over which a lawyer at that office expressed "outrage". According to Bear, this lawyer had filed the incorporation documents for Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation, as well as for other schools later determined to be diploma mills, including Monticello University
(aka "Thomas Jefferson University"), a school begun by Les Snell. Monticello University was "an unauthorized foreign non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of South Dakota" that, along with several other of Snell's schools, was shut down by the government in 1999.
Diploma mill
A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit...
run in the 1990s and based in South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
.
Diploma mill
According to John BearJohn Bear
John Bjorn Bear is an American authority on distance education and a writer of creative reference works. Bear holds bachelor and master degrees from University of California, Berkeley and a doctorate from Michigan State University...
, author of Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning, in 1998 the Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation ran an advertisement in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
for distance education
Distance education
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...
courses. Bear responded to the ad and the foundation sent a 20-page course catalog covering the following schools:
- Thomas Jefferson University of Virginia
- University of Williamsburg
- Dartmoor University
- Presidential American University
- Cambridge University in America
According to Bear, the catalog made no distinction among these schools other than listing their different names. The catalog offered degrees at all levels by "professional assessment of career achievements" and claimed accreditation from the "College for Professional Assessment", an agency Bear had yet to come across (see List of recognized accreditation associations of higher learning).
The Foundation gave the address of a Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sioux Falls is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Sioux Falls is the county seat of Minnehaha County, and also extends into Lincoln County to the south...
law office as the location of its campus, something over which a lawyer at that office expressed "outrage". According to Bear, this lawyer had filed the incorporation documents for Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation, as well as for other schools later determined to be diploma mills, including Monticello University
Monticello University
Monticello University was an unaccredited diploma mill incorporated in Hawaii, but based Kansas, whose operator Leslie Edwin Snell was found guilty in 2000 of issuing invalid degrees, and which Kansas has accused of being fake...
(aka "Thomas Jefferson University"), a school begun by Les Snell. Monticello University was "an unauthorized foreign non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of South Dakota" that, along with several other of Snell's schools, was shut down by the government in 1999.