Adam Smith University

Adam Smith University is a private distance learning university founded in 1991 by Donald Grunewald, who is still its president.^[1] Grunewald was president of Mercy College between 1972 and 1984.

Adam Smith University

Type	Private, distance learning
Established	1991
President	Donald Grunewald
Location	Garapan, Saipan , CNMI (U.S. commonwealth) 15.2066°N 145.7206°E / 15.2066; 145.7206
Website	http://www.adamsmith.edu

History

Adam Smith's current American mailing address is a private mailbox in Garapan on Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth.^[1] Adam Smith University asserts the establishment of a French unit called École Supérieure Universitaire Adam Smith, which offers academic degrees for work experience.^[2]

Accreditation

Adam Smith University was accredited by the Liberian Ministry of Education since 1995, well before the most recent conflicts, and was accredited as a result of an act of the Liberian legislature.^[1][3] The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board identifies the institution as operating from Liberia and Saipan, but states that it has "no degree-granting authority from Liberia or Saipan."^[4][5]

Criticism

Steve Levicoff referred to Adam Smith University as a degree mill, and he noted that it operated in Louisiana due to the absence of laws regulating the granting of degrees.^[6] Adam Smith University and Columbia State University have the same address, which is "likely a mail forwarding address".^[7]

Other critics have described Adam Smith University as a "diploma mill". Alan Contreras from the Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization (ODA), an agency of that state's government, called Adam Smith "a diploma mill with a long and unattractive history" in an article^[8] written in a personal capacity.