Dive Brief:
- The 30-student, unaccredited George Wythe University has made a name for itself with its conservative curriculum and powerful political allies, but the school ran into legal trouble by granting “life experience” credit to its small pool of grads while also faltering financially.
- In 23 years, the school awarded 286 degrees — 90 of which have been found to be fraudulent — and university leaders are working to revoke them so the remaining George Wythe degrees maintain a level of integrity.
- The Utah Division of Consumer Protection, which regulates unaccredited schools, is giving the school until August to close, and in the meantime, university administrators are proposing to make the granting of fraudulent degrees a felony and asking state legislators to require unaccredited schools to have at least three institutions that agree to accept transfer credits.
Dive Insight:
The current leaders of George Wythe University have agreed the school should close for years. They started shrinking enrollment in 2011 but continued to enroll new students as late as 2013, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The school’s founders, who were involved from 1992 until 2009, oversaw much of the questionable financial and legal activity, and were replaced by a president who suggested shuttering the institution amid scrutiny by the Consumer Protection division.
The U.S. Department of Education is planning to release a number of proposals reforming accreditation in the coming weeks. While there are startling stories of schools that have operated without such approval, the stories of what accredited institutions have been able to get away with, using federal dollars, has lawmakers even more riled up.