– Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Diploma mills and other online institutes that think they can get by with token offerings for a degree need to watch out for this legislation. “The Independent Study of Distant Education Act of 2007, H.R. 412,” introduced by Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Michigan, mandates the National Academy of Sciences to study the differences between distance education programs and similar on-campus offerings. The law hopes to weed out the meaningless degrees offered by some institutions. The Chronicle reports:

"As a scientist, I strive to base my policy decisions and voting on reliable studies and data," Representative Ehlers said in a written statement released on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, when it comes to the Higher Education Act and distance education, there is no scientifically correct, statistically valid study of the quality of online distance-education programs as compared to campus-based programs."