This college was accredited by a DeVos-sanctioned group, no evidence of students or faculty

[G_j]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/02/15/college-accreditation-department-education-betsy-devos-south-dakota-sioux-falls/4746906002/

This college was accredited by a DeVos-sanctioned group. We couldn’t find evidence of students or faculty.

At present, Reagan National University apparently has no students or faculty. Yet it was accredited -- by a group saved by the Education Department.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Reagan National University was supposed to be a place of higher learning in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. But it was unclear how it awarded degrees. By all appearances, at present it has no students, no faculty and no classrooms. 

An agency meant to serve as a gatekeeper for federal money gave the university approval to operate anyway.

That accrediting agency, financially troubled and losing members fast, exists mainly because it was saved by the Education Department in 2018.

Accreditation might be the driest part of higher education, but these independent groups have huge importance: If they approve a college, the government agrees to give federal grants and loans to the students there. 

..more..

[dalton99a]

1. It's a visa fraud scheme

Reagan National has connections to a different kind of troubled institution, via its ties to the University of Northern Virginia.

In 2011, federal immigration officials raided UNVA, threatening to suspend the college’s ability to accept foreign students. The suspicion: that Northern Virginia was a so-called “visa mill,” a college accused of peddling a chance to live in the U.S. rather than offering a meaningful education.

The Virginia government closed Northern Virginia in 2013 because it wasn’t accredited. It resurfaced the same year with a South Dakota address — the same one Reagan National used on business filings, plus the same agent, Xianhua Fan, spelled slightly differently from the name listed for Reagan National's president.

[rzemanfl]

2. Good post. Is there a link? n/t

[dalton99a]

3. It's in the OP

[rzemanfl]

4. Thank you. I have Sunday morning brain. Sorry. n/t

[dalton99a]

5. No need

No problemo

[underpants]

7. Good info

Thanks.

[Firestorm49]

10. I agree. Simply a way to launder money. But for whom???

[JHB]

6. struggle4progress did a deep dive in a thread on this yesterday

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212991357

Not his OP (that was by Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin), but turned up a bunch of related links and stories from the past couple of years.

[underpants]

8. Will read later

Thanks

[underpants]

9. You can get straight A's just answering "Well, there you go again"

on every test.

[JHB]

11. But these days, straight "F"s if you answer...

..."Tear down this wall."

[underpants]

13. It's a conundrum

[TeamPooka]

12. "I may have gotten the answer wrong, but in my heart I feel I was right."