diploma mill

noun

: a usually unregulated institution of higher education granting degrees with few or no academic requirements

Examples of diploma mill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For example, Eaton notes, creating a definitive blacklist of fake schools or diploma mills would be impossible, because the fraudsters can easily change their names, internet domains and other information to keep themselves off such lists. —Emma Whitford, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2023

Mota’s doctorate comes from a diploma mill that provides honorary degrees for a price, the Globe’s research found. —Amanda Milkovits, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Mar. 2023

Even though the Chronicle is the journalistic equivalent of a diploma mill, the story was picked up by the Conservative Party and all its downstream social media partners. —BostonGlobe.com, 26 Oct. 2019

In the last decade much has been written about diploma mills: schools that teach nothing, yet graduate their students, many of whom just happen to be elite athletes. —Pete Thamel, SI.com, 22 June 2016

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined above