If you’re considering pursuing a degree online, be sure to do your homework. You pay a lot of money on your education so make sure it counts. Research the worth and validity of the online degree, before you sign up.

Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry said “degrees in celebrity journalism, drama combined with waste management, and international football business management – all of which exist – should be “kicked into touch”.

He said: “We need a population with an enduring set of skills, such as an understanding of the physical world around us, literacy and communication, numeracy, and how to function and continue to learn in a complex society.”

According to Dr. Pike founds for the top four degrees listed should be channeled into science degrees and research. Dr. Pike also attacked the government for giving funds to students for doing – as he called them “Mickey Mouse degrees”.

Below are the 5 online degrees to say ‘No’ to.

1. Celebrity Journalism

2. Drama

3. Waste Management

4. International Football Business Management
And

5. Diploma Mills Degrees – With so many online degrees available today, “Diploma Mills” combined with the internet makes bogus degrees easier to get than ever before. But be aware, these are bogus universities that confer degrees for little or no study and is worth no more than the paper the degree is printed on. Just say ‘No’ to degrees from diploma mills.

“Funding must be channeled into science courses and research, not degrees in ‘celebrity journalism’, said Dr. Pike. He said, the degree courses should reflect the challenges the country will face in the future instead of an ephemeral demand that in 10 years time will be viewed as a curiosity”.

I have to agree with Dr. Pike, because with the rising cost for everything and increase tuition fees, why waste money and time on a degree that will serve no benefit to the nation at large and may not be in demand 10 years from now. That said, there are however a high level of employment in the top four degrees listed above. This should indicate that these online degrees are preparing students for the labor market, so what do we say to that?

Online Educational medium is up for all wrong reasons these days. Students and professionals are duped by illegitimate diploma mills and phony degree programs that they are hardly in a position to differentiate between what is legitimate and what is not.

Diploma Mills Warning Signs

Friends! Considering the troubles faced by fellow students and aspiring professionals, who are often being cheated by these diploma mills and phony degree programs, here are a list of points to be kept in mind before proceeding to choose the course and university of your choice.

• The Department of Education releases a list of accredited universities and educational institutions both at the regional and national level. Ensure the institutions in your list find a place in it.
• Those institutions which are not recognized by the Department of Education will not be considered by the US Higher Education.
• Kindly set aside those universities and institutions whose claims are not reasonable. We know that an Associate degree program will take a minimum of 2 years to complete and Bachelors degree program a duration of not less than 3 years. While Masters Degree Program can be complete within a time frame of 3 years, a Doctorate program will take around 2 to 3 years. Those claims which promise to offer a degree for a period much less than these are fake degree courses or the so called Diploma mills.
• Advertisements offering you “Life Experience Degrees”, “Guaranteed Degree Certificates”, “Accredited Degree Courses”, “No GPA Scores Required”, “and Real Degree Programs” are only indicators of suspicion and not promise. Your duty is to check for the claims and ensure you have spotted the right degree program.

Learn to Spot a Phony Degree

• Phony degree programs are often so pleasing and assuring that you will hardly have a reason to doubt their legitimacy.
• The names used by these false degree programs resemble more of highly reputed institutions and more often than normal students get carried away by their names.
• Where an university or online educational institution offer degrees for a price, with no experience or even a minimum hours of study, be sure they are diploma mills and such phony degree though might be easier to procure will only result in wasting your time and money.
• If you think employers and universities will not be able to identify, whether the degree acquired by you is legitimate or not then you are entirely wrong. They can easily cross check the details furnished by you with the accredited list published by the US Department of Education.

Inspite of repeated warnings more and more diploma mills and phony degree programs continue coming up. Hence it is upto you students, to stay awake and ensure you do no fall prey to such dubious online institutions.

Diploma mills are making its presence felt for such a long time, offering spurious degrees to unethical students. In this day and age, however, they have become much more complex and spotting them is not that easy. By taking admission at legitimate online degree program, you are going to gain skills that will help you in your career. A fake online degree program is a sheer waste of time and money, not only ruining your career prospects but also creating legal issues.

Learn the Requirements of a Real Degree Program

To get a better idea of fake online degrees, it is quite important that you learn the requirements of a real degree program. To earn legitimate online degree, you need to finish two to four years of coursework. When attending online classes, you need to submit assignments on time and appear in examination. A degree program where you are not required to do such things is commonly known as fake online degree program. Stay away from online universities that are promising you to give degree after three or four months of classes.

Detailed Online Descriptions

Before taking admission in any online degree program, it is always better to take into consideration detailed online descriptions. Majority of accredited degree programs will offer you a course catalog containing details such as syllabus, tuition fee and class schedule. You will not find all these things in a fake online degree program.

Accreditation

Fake online degree programs are normally not accredited by the US Department of Education. Stay away from such programs because employers these days only give preference to those individuals that have earned online degree from an accredited university. With non-accredited online degree, you are also going to face problem in getting an admission into higher education level.

Mailing Address

Before taking admission in any online college or university, it is your responsibility to check their mailing address. Majority of diploma mills do not give their actual mailing address and instead give the address of a third party. There are few diploma mills that change their address on a regular basis so that students do not get to know about their real identity. An accredited online college will not hide anything from you especially important details such as mailing address and phone number.

Prospectus

Before enrolling yourself in any online degree program, make sure that you study the prospectus of a university carefully. By doing this, you will get to know about all the important details with regard to online college you are interested in taking admission.