diploma mill

noun

1. an organization claiming to be an institution of higher learning but existing for profit only and granting degrees without demanding proper qualifications of the recipients.
2. a college or university having such a large number of students that none receives individual attention from the teachers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of diploma mill¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Cuffari’s resume says he has a Ph.D. in management from California Coast University, a college that the government in 2004 flagged as a “diploma mill.”

From Washington Post

In a memoir, he recalled the character: “He was a plump, bald, ebullient southerner who had once served five years in a prison on a charge of exposing himself before a group of children and was now the head of a religious diploma mill in Florida and of a seedy flat-roofed stucco church called the Church of Holy Love, Incorporated. He wore a hat that looked too small for him. He had a trick eyelid that every once in awhile fluttered shut on him. His name was Leo Bebb.”

From New York Times

Even by those standards, John Brinkley — who was awarded his medical degree by a disreputable diploma mill — was one of a kind.

From Salon

Lawyers could draw from a dossier that Goldman had put together, presenting Mr. Leissner as a master con artist who had a doctorate from a mail-order diploma mill and had affairs with powerful women in Asia, including a client of the firm’s.

From New York Times

“If we don’t do anything about it, we will turn every accredited university into a diploma mill.”

From New York Times