When A Doctorate Is Just A Credit Card Away

Online universities have become an important part of the academic landscape, expanding educational opportunities for nontraditional students around the globe. But the Internet revolution has also provided a boost to so-called diploma mills — unaccredited or loosely accredited virtual schools that award high school and college degrees based on “life experience” or less.

Sometimes, a suspect academic credential backfires, as it did for Terrence P. Carter, a former candidate for the superintendent of schools job in New London, who had called himself “Dr.” for years on the basis of a Ph.D. from the unaccredited “Lexington University.” Lexington sold mail-order degrees until it shut down around 2004, although Carter has said he earned his doctorate from a different school that later became Lexington University. The New London school board had announced Carter as its choice to run the school system — then reversed course after news reports exposed the nature of his Ph.D.