Diploma mills in Switzerland

I am writing this as a warning so people can react in time or warn others of these type of situations.

So what exactly are we talking about here? il use the Enic-Naric referral to best describe it.

Unrecognised higher education institutions are generally those that operate without a formal accreditation/authorisation/recognition status given by an official authority of a certain country. (in this case **AAQ**)

Degrees or other qualifications from unaccredited institutions may not be accepted for access to further study or for employment purposes in the public or private sector. Some unaccredited institutions may be permitted to operate in the education market of a specific country – delivering programmes, enrolling students granting qualifications, but the qualifications do not form part of the recognised education system. And by Swiss law you are not allowed to list unaccreditated degrees in your cv/resume under education. (this rule is universal everywhere)

There is a distinct group of organisations, that operate as **Diploma Mills**. Such organisations that claim fraudulently to be recognised awarding bodies, offer short duration programmes leading to qualifications without examination or assessment, and charge considerable sums of money for access and/or issuing the award. And they have shifted there focus on Switzerland in the past years.

The range of organisations working in this area is wide and varied; some organisations operate as functioning institutions granting qualifications that are not recognised nationally or internationally.

The majority of non-recognised institutions on the market define themselves as belonging to those national systems where the legal value of the qualification is absent or where there are systems of accreditation of the institutions joined to recognised private agencies at a governmental level and not through an award resulting from a legislative measure in the strict sense.

**1.**

When it comes to accreditation agencies the schools are using clever wording accreditation and membership mixing these two but it is not the same thing being a member and be rewarded accreditation, pay close attention to this and check with the agencies if their claims are true.

[https://www.aacsb.edu/accredited](https://www.aacsb.edu/accredited)

[https://acbsp.org/page/membership\_list](https://acbsp.org/page/membership_list)

[https://iacbe.org/accreditation/member-status-information/](https://iacbe.org/accreditation/member-status-information/)

[https://alice.ch/en/services/eduqua/certified-institutions/](https://alice.ch/en/services/eduqua/certified-institutions/)

A lot of times the school have in their promotional material from degree promotions but they where not awarded any accreditation at the time of promotions, it can take up to years to get accreditation, but the schools start with lectures.

It should be noted that eduqua which a good part of schools on this list have, is only worth if you plan to use it in Switzerland. They are not world wide present they are private swiss agency recognised only in Switzerland.

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The ones I will cover here are specifically oriented towards offering Business degrees from Switzerland. These companies are well set up in Switzerland and most of them focus there advertising on Linkedin offering quick degrees with promise of a better job employment.

**2.**

I deem schools on this list in two categories low grade and high grade diploma mills. Specifically how much capital are they willing to invest for making the appearance as a legit entity:

Basel School of Business

Academy of Business Management – The Open University of Switzerland

Albert Schweitzer International University

César Ritz Colleges Schwitzerland

EU Business School

Geneva Business School

Geneva School of Diplomacy

Monarch Business School Switzerland University for Graduate Studies in Management

Swiss School of Business and Management (SSBM)

Geneva School of Business and Economics

GSBA Zurich

Swiss School of Business Research (SSBR)

Swiss Management Center

Swiss School of Management

Swiss School of Higher Education (SSHE)

Swiss Hotel Management School

School of Hotel Managment

Sustainability Management School

The Canton notice in Geneva regarding recognition for these schools has been changed since 21 December 2021, for which even the Canton no longer recognizes these schools as legit bodies.[https://www.ge.ch/en/authorizations-open-and-operate-private-schools](https://www.ge.ch/en/authorizations-open-and-operate-private-schools)

**3.** You cant find these “schools” on any official state site as recommendation. For reference I used these sites;

[https://studyprogrammes.ch/en](https://studyprogrammes.ch/en)

[https://akkreditierungsrat.ch/akkreditierungsentscheide/institutionelle-akkreditierung/](https://akkreditierungsrat.ch/akkreditierungsentscheide/institutionelle-akkreditierung/)

[https://www.swissuniversities.ch/themen/studium/anerkannte-oder-akkreditierte-schweizer-hochschulen](https://www.swissuniversities.ch/themen/studium/anerkannte-oder-akkreditierte-schweizer-hochschulen) (add this one as recommendation from a redditor)

The foreign countries I’ve checked the German,UK and Swedish agencies like ministry, labor market sites. Verifications for these schools failed on any of those sites.

[https://anabin.kmk.org/no\_cache/filter/institutionen.html](https://anabin.kmk.org/no_cache/filter/institutionen.html)

[https://www.gov.uk/check-university-award-degree](https://www.gov.uk/check-university-award-degree)

I was in contact with some of the people in the ministry,academy and public universities exchanging mails to confirm what I was writing here, they all referred me to the respected state sites in question, and said the rules that stand there are the law.(state/official site)

**4.** When called out these companies will say they offer Swiss quality education. They will claim how they are well worth the money you pay, cause you will be associated with people that they are well known and influential (I often time wonder if the people in question even know the real deal behind these companies) and to increase your networking. For the sum of money they charge this experience I think everyone can agree you can get that cheaper elsewhere, or at least a legit one from any of the great public schools.

**5.** The official social media sites are filled with fake/paid reviews, bots and the ones giving low scores or warning are being removed or shadow banned. (facebook, linkedin, google)

Pay close attention to this, and it is one of the biggest red flags.

Often time you will find on some sites like glassdoor suspicious accounts with wierd names and timing giving positive reviews for these schools.

**6.** Their webpage when it comes to accreditation/membership are not updated and fall through the cracks by not being inspected. They stop paying membership once they are accredited and you can check their listings on the accreditation agency membership pages.

**7.** Always check with official channels if you want to study/learn online in a foreign country. The people in the ministry, academy, university where nothing but fast and forthcoming with my questions and i want to thank them. Ask questions on social sites for advice, this is the best tool to combat these threats. The least you can do is spend some time so you dont waste your time,money and maybe a fine for unaccredited degree.

**8.** It is in my own opinion that these people abuse the national brand of a country like Switzerland that carries and is well known world wide, just so they can fill their pockets. The employees and how there fees are worked out is also shady and how they are bypassing regulations in those regards. They are paid the bar minimum as sub contractors in broad case scenario, on when they have to do a job for the institution they are paid by the amount of work and a receipt is approved. So if the people are underpaid what kind of work ethics and level of education can you expect from these schools.

**9.** this whole industry actively makes life worse for aside maybe the 2-3 people on top who are cashing in on all of it, so what are the points for worse?;

a) People who enroll in these institutions waste their time,money plus the degrees that you cant list in your CV/Resume under education cause it is not accredited. After that experience these people are left traumatized if they come to the shocking realization that they wasted all of that. Those who decided to continue on until they get caught i cant even begin to think how it can be stressful always to worry if someone will eventually find out and call them out. This was a blow back when one of the big diploma mills was uncovered ; people who work/ed for a lot of these diploma mills blackmail post graduates to report them to their employer if they do not pay them summ of money.[https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/16/thousands-people-caught-buying-fake-degrees-online-7232483/](https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/16/thousands-people-caught-buying-fake-degrees-online-7232483/)

\-the article (there are a lot more just google “diploma mill blackmails”) in question regarding blackmails.Which ties in to my second point..

b) People who work there in most case scenarios are underpaid and the owners prey on recruiting foreigners who are inexperienced with the laws in the country they will teach. Or to do the research on what their employer is actually up to. So this becomes a problem if you have people with the intention to educate others are underpaid, end up with hectic work schedules, which lead to burnout. Especially if we are talking in this case about Switzerland (yes Switzerland is expensive we are all aware of it) so how can you expect those people to give the best possible “Swiss education”?

c) Given with the influx of degrees on the market from uHEI and diploma mills you end up with people who are not properly educated and prepared for the task ahead. Effectively making the field lose in it’s value. We forget about all of those people who did the legit way of studying and grinding when it comes to education (it builds character). Making this whole thing undervaluing all of those people accomplishments.

Feel free to correct me if I made wrong conclusions and I will edit my post. Also please add any feedback if there are some companies that I missed out in my post, also feel free to add any experiences you had with these schools. **I would also urge people to give warning to anyone if you know on this list attending these schools and spread the word.** Translate the post c/p, share it on any social medium you wish for, so it gets a wider range and helps someone out.

Thank you for reading.