Story Archive

Who Could Have Possibly Known?!

Erwin Sniedzins, 72, of Toronto, Ont., Canada, the CEO of Mount Knowledge, an educational software company, is shocked (shocked!) that his master’s degree in Education from Kings Lake University is fake. He says he found the institution online, “communicated with someone” on the phone, paid a C$8,100 (US$6,500) fee, and then got his diploma in the mail. “In reality, Kings Lake University is little more than a website,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported, one of at least 100 such sites “run by the Pakistan-based fake degree mill Axact.” Sniedzins wanted the degree to “validate” his “professional and life experience,” and “repeatedly” told CBC he “never suspected” a degree based on life experience but required no class work, studying, or exams could be fake. Now that he knows, Sniedzins says “I really feel stupid,” and is angry to realize his diploma is “like counterfeit money.” (RC/CBC) ...So now he’s starting to get the hang of the educational value of “life experience.”