Educational accreditation

Accreditation is the process by which a school, college, or university becomes certified as an official educational institution. Institutions can be accredited as a particular type of school (for example, the American Bar Association provides accreditation for law schools) or as an educational institution in general.

School accredition is the major way of identifying diploma mills, unaccredited schools that grant degrees to people, with little work involved in getting one. Someone pays money, does a trivial amount of work (if any) to be awarded the degree. Essentially, this lets people purchase fradulent academic credentials. Degrees offered by a degree mill can be contrasted with honorary degrees.