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Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators
(www.spokesman.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Technology
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I dont know how I feel about this.
On one hand, degrees are somewhat good for education in lots of industries.
On the other hand, I would fire someone instantly if they had cheated their degree like this.
Degrees are also very expensive.
I guess if it was a useless degree then it wouldn't matter in the first place.
But all you're doing in that case is making them attend a community college with a bunch of wacky misfits for a few years.
Ideally, I wouldn't hire them. But if they were already on the payroll, I'm much more interested in their work output than their transcript.
This is just the industrialization of "Fake It Until You Make It".
I value honesty more than most people I'm realizing. If a hire is open about their credentials I would not care.
I've witnessed what happens when people are ok with liars. It's gross, and no one should normalize it.
Typically, any job that gets filled at my company has to have a competitive candidate to consider. I've seen them fudge this a few times (bringing in someone they know isn't qualified just to balance against), but it's a hiring standard that you have to consider at least two (preferably three or four) candidates for any position.
If you show up and you don't have the credentials for the position, you're simply not getting the job.
Sure. The Enron offices are spitting distance from where I work.
But I also see a lot of people fudging resumes to get feet in the door. And I don't see people who were honest, but got screened out by a filter. So I'm the victim of selection bias, in many regards.
Different life situations for everyone, I think.
I don't mean strictly professional honesty, but my experiences leak into how I view something like this. The biggest liar I know is still in jail for raping children, so I have a skewed view of honesty.
My industry and group are weird when it comes to credentials. We don't have a strict, you need this degree situation.
I will happily spot you "Don't hire child rapists" as a rule of thumb. I think "fudging your resume is a slippery slope to sexually assaulting a minor" is a stretch of logic.
I know employers who use "college degree" as a proxy for "capable of following instructions" and won't hire anyone without a bachelors.
I know employers who are much more fast and loose, bringing in anyone with "potential" as they broadly define it.
Idk exactly what the right answer is. But "powers through a MOOC in a few weeks to get a certificate that says I can competently execute a job" doesn't strike me as a moral failing.
Degrees are very expensive in the us* most European countries the cost is much less. I think liberation of the yoke in the us is liberating to be honest. I think going to higher education physically however is more than just doing the content, but also doing the soft stuff — learning how to communicate clearly with others. This is lacking this, and then you have AI ofc which makes it difficult regardless
why would you fire them for this? that seems absurd. I make pretty good money and I don't have a degree at all
Honesty is my problem with it. If they were open about it I wouldn't care. But if they hid it and were hired because of the degree I'd fire them almost regardless of their work.
It's something I value because dishonest people are usually quite horrible in my life experience.
My assumption is that they would tell you where it's from, because normally the school's name is attached to the degree, right? it wouldn't be their fault if you didn't catch it
We are all arguing different hypotheticals. My problem is my personal experiences.
One of them was a rapist. The other was a high level tech salesman child abuser. So I'm 2 for 2 and my opinions are skewed forever.
those things have nothing to do with college education
Thats because you have the sellable skills, which is the most important thing. Degree is helpful in some areas, essential in others and has no use everywhere else (outside of proving that a person is capable of learning and persevering).
Cheating is not a sellable skill, and a huge red flag.
Cheating is absolutely a sellable skill.
Ok, you got me there. Probably not though if you try to lie to your potential employer.
How is it cheating? Who is being cheated? Out of what?
Reading the article, it sounds like these students still need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the material.