The International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities (IAAOU) is a self-styled "accreditation" board based in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It has no status with the United States Department of Education

United States Department of Education

The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...

 (USDE) or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation

Council for Higher Education Accreditation

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation is a United States organization of degree-granting colleges and universities. It identifies its purpose as providing national advocacy for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation in order to certify the quality of higher education...

 (CHEA). Without USDE and CHEA recognition, its "accreditations" are essentially meaningless.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is an agency of the Texas state government that oversees all public post-secondary education in Texas. It is headquartered at 1200 East Anderson Lane in Austin....

 has indicated that Rochville University

Rochville University

Rochville University is an unaccredited online university offering a "Life Experience Degree, and Certificate Program". It has been accused of being a diploma mill...

 and Belford University

Belford University

Belford University is an organization offering online unaccredited degrees for "life experience". The organization maintains a post office box in Humble, Texas, but its certificates are mailed from the United Arab Emirates.-Accreditation status:...

, and the agencies from which they claim accreditation, "appear to be operated by the same people".

Schools claiming IAAOU accreditation

• Ashwood University
  Ashwood University
  Ashwood University is an institution which claims to award academic degrees based on "life experience". Ashwood University is not accredited by any recognised accreditation body. As such, its degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degree titles may be...
  
  
• Belford University
  Belford University
  Belford University is an organization offering online unaccredited degrees for "life experience". The organization maintains a post office box in Humble, Texas, but its certificates are mailed from the United Arab Emirates.-Accreditation status:...
  
   (not to be confused with the University of Bedford which is linked to University Degree Program
  University Degree Program
  University Degree Program is an unaccredited consortium of diploma mills run by Americans Jason and Caroline Abraham beginning in the 1990s...
  
  )
• Belford High School http://www.belfordhighschool.com/school/accredit.html

See also

• Accreditation mill
  Accreditation mill
  An accreditation mill is an organization that purports to award educational accreditation to higher education institutions without having government authority or recognition from mainstream academia to operate as an accreditor. Implicit in the terminology is the assumption that the "mill" has low...
  
  
• Diploma mill
  Diploma mill
  A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit...
  
  
• List of unaccredited institutions of higher learning
• List of unrecognized accreditation associations of higher learning

External links

• International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities Official
• Credential Watch Lists ACCTS as suspect agency.
• State of Michigan Cites ACCTS as unapproved.
• State of Oregon Cites ACCTS as unapproved.