Special care is needed, therefore, when these degrees are found, to be sure that they have been conferred by colleges and universities of recognized standing. Many spurious degrees, however, can be identified from their unusual designations—or at least such designations should cause them to be suspect. A complete list of the 155 degrees unique to degree mills, as far as determined in this study, will be found, with their frequencies, in alphabetical order in chapter IX, clearly identified by "spurious" (Spur.) in parentheses following the name of each degree. The spurious degrees are also shown by subject matter fields in chapter VIII. As indicated in chapter I, these degrees are printed in italics, like all noncurrent degrees. Unfortunately, some of them are still current, but not on the part of legitimate recognized higher institutions. A few samples may be given here: Bachelor of Dermatology Bachelor of Science in Dianetics Bachelor of Scientology Master of Character Analysis Master of Electro-Therapy Master of Science in Chromo-Electronic Science Doctor of Botanic Medicine Doctor of Divinity in Bio-Psycho-Dynamic Religions Doctor of Divinity in Metaphysics Doctor of Eclectic Doctor of Metaphysics Doctor of Naturatrics Doctor of Philosophy in Metaphysics Doctor of Psychology Doctor of Spiritual Divinity Diplomat of Masso-Therapy Diplomat of Psychology Fellow of Metaphysics Ortho-Geneticist Philosopher of Metaphysics Philosopher of Physio-Therapy Practitioner of Truth Registered Hypnotist Theomonistic Licensee Comment on these weird degrees is unnecessary. They speak for themselves as illegitimate members of the family of academic degrees. Almost half of the spurious degrees offered by degree mills only are in the field of the healing arts. A full list of these is given in the section on "Medical Sciences" in chapter VIII. It is evident that not only normal earned degrees can be secured from these degree mills, but any desired honorary degree, whether or not the recipient has done anything except pay his fee to warrant the honor. Here also may be mentioned another type of spurious degrees-the result of error, not of design. Thus one college in its catalog for 1959 lists its president as having the degree of Td. D. This is an error for the well-known Th. D., Doctor of Theology. Another example is a report of degrees of Doctor of "Cannon" Law and Licentiate in "Cannon" Law, evident misspellings for the far less militaristic sounding degrees of Doctor of Canon Law and Licentiate in Canon Law." Many institutions of the type considered in this chapter are very generous in their offerings of degrees. One notorious "university” in Washington, D.C., in 1923, but fortunately no longer in existence, offered 65 or more degrees. Another, a little later, obtained a charter also in the National Capital authorizing it to offer not only bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees in 13 fields of study, but also the degrees of philosopher, fellow, and diplomat in the same fields—a total of 78 degrees. Since no faculty or courses of study are necessary, there is no limit to the number of degrees that can be offered by some of these institutions-for a price. And what is the price? It differs widely, sometimes being skillfully adjusted in individual cases to all that the traffic will bear. Even as late as 1959, an institution in Missouri printed the following scale of prices or "fees" on its enrollment blank: Doctor of Psychology (Ps. D.). Doctor of Metaphysics (Ms. D.)‒‒‒‒‒‒ Doctor of Divinity (D.D.). Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.)--. $100 150 200 250 Such institutions often are careful to keep within the letter of the law. Others deliberately flout it. In one State, under a 1941 law, institutions of this type were forbidden any longer to confer degrees. But one of them wrote to an inquirer from Australia: "The president is willing to date back the diplomas to about 1935 or before" but cautioned, "Please do not give any publicity whatever to the matter *** as that would spoil the affair." • Personal letter from President S. C. Eastvold, Pacific Lutheran College, February 16, 1960. U.S. Office of Education, Biennial Survey, 1920–22, p. 315. There are, of course, many legitimate correspondence schools in the country which serve a useful purpose. They offer bona fide instruction but not such as to warrant academic degrees. But it may be safely stated that no recognized American college or university grants degrees solely by correspondence. A degree from any of the numerous present or defunct degree mills has no academic value, receives no credit in the education world, or by examining boards for the different professions. It is harmful to the recipient, tending to discredit the professional and intellectual integrity of the holder if he attempts to make any use of it. One of the most unfortunate aspects of the matter is that often the holder of such a degree is a native of a foreign country, ambitious for advancement, with a high opinion of American educational institutions, and ignorant of the fact that for his hardearned currency, he has secured only a counterfeit and not a bona fide degree. Every effort, for the good of American higher education, should be made to protect the integrity of American college degrees. I Chapter VII Abbreviations for Degrees F THE SITUATION is confused and somewhat chaotic with reference to academic degrees conferred by American institutions of higher education, as indicated in previous chapters, confusion becomes worse confounded and the chaotic borders on complete chaos when consideration is given to the multiplicity of abbreviations used for these degrees. For a single degree sometimes a dozen or more different abbreviations are used, for hundreds of them two or more abbreviations are reported. On the other hand, in hundreds of cases a single abbreviation stands for several different degrees. Multiple Degrees for One Abbreviation.-Although the registrars were asked to report for this study not only degrees but abbreviations currently used for them, many failed to do so, at least for some degrees. Thus, approximately 600 degrees are listed in chapter IX for which no abbreviations were reported. In addition, no abbreviations were found for some 200 of the noncurrent degrees secured from other sources. For the remaining approximately 1,600 degrees almost 2,600 abbreviations were reported. These are all listed, in alphabetical order, in chapter X, but such an abundance of abbreviations by no means implies one-to-one correspondence between abbreviation and degree. In this list, while in about 90 percent of the cases a single abbreviation stands for a single degree, in the remaining 227 cases, the meaning of an abbreviation is ambiguous, as shown by the following summary: The extreme case of one abbreviation representing seven different degrees refers to "M.E." which may stand for Master of Education, Master of Elements, Master of Engineering, Mechanical Engineer, Military Engineer, Mining Engineer, or Mistress of English. 550431-605 59 Multiple Abbreviations for One Degree. Of the total number of degrees listed in chapter VIII (not adjusted for duplicate entries) about 30 percent have no abbreviations indicated and about 40 percent have a single abbreviation for the degree with which it is shown. But for the remaining degrees, approximately a thousand in number, two or more abbreviations are given for each. In about 100 cases, 5 or more abbreviations are given for each degree. In 14 cases, 10 or more abbreviations are given for a single degree, in the extreme case 14 abbreviations for a single degree. For this degree, Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, the following abbreviations are found: B.S. Ch. E., B.S. (Ch. E.), B.S. Ch. Eng., B.S. Chem. E., B.S. in C.N., B.S. in Ch. E., B.S. in Ch. Eng., B.S. in Ch. Engin., B.S. in Chm. E., B.S. in Chem. E., B.S. in Chem. Eng., B.S. in Chem. Engi., B.S. in Chem. Engr., and B. Sc. in Chem. Engr. Such a multiplicity of variants in abbreviations is far in excess of all legitimate needs. The first one, B.S. Ch. E., or possibly B.S. Ch. Eng., would meet all needs and would promote simplicity and uniformity. A similar observation may be made with reference to most if not all of the other cases of multiple abbreviations for a single degree. Following are the 14 degrees for each of which 10 or more different abbreviations are reported in chapter VIII: Bachelor of Science in Agriculture___ Bachelor of Science in Chemistry-‒‒‒ Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering_-. Doctor of Engineering---. Doctor of Science---- Bachelor of Science in Education___. Bachelor of Science in Nursing-- Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy_ Master of Science in Education__. Doctor of Letters--- Bachelor of Science in Business Administration____ Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering-. 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 14 Order of Elements in Abbreviations.-Which is the preferred order of the elements of an abbreviation for a degree? For example A.B. or B.A.? At the baccalaureate level the practice is divided for this oldest and most frequently used degree, the Bachelor of Arts, the only one reported by more than a thousand institutions. For historical reasons, following the Latin for Artium Baccalaureus, and from the custom of many years, 419 institutions report the use of "A.B." while 521 institutions report the more recently adopted form "B.A." |