Is it illegal for a company or organization to call themselves a University?
December 22nd, 2009 | 
Author: If in fact they are not a University and are not accredited?
I am researching a company that is the “Training Company” for a MLM corporation. This particular training company calls itself a university, but there is noaccreditationn for it, and it is not listed for the Council of Higher Education.
Can someone please tell me if this is illegal or not? They are operating in the State of Illinois, and some persons are listing this as their “education” on their resumes.
Thank you.
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Good dig, stay with this. It’s like the Mormons of the business world.
-later
No, it’s not illegal.
Now, if they say they have a degree from an accredited college, then that can be illegal. But there’s no restrictions on who can use the terms “college”, “university” or “academy.”
my daughters works in a daycare that is called inpro university. it’s for the workers of that company. so…
I am in Illinois and I know that ‘University’ be used unless they are in fact accredited. Yes it is illegal as far as I know and they cannot claim to be a university if they are not. You may want to report them to the FCC (I think that is the organization that regulates advertising) for false advertising or to see what is legal and what is not. There may be some exceptions though…..there, I believe, is ‘Microsoft University’ and other such titles that are used in large corporations for their training programs. They are not claiming to be a university but it is just their clever name.
it’s not illegal. in fact they’re not doing anything legally wrong whatsoever cos “university” is a generic word for an institution of further education. it’s like the equivalent of them saying “we provide a brilliant education for intelligent people”
however, if they actually claimed to be accredited by a certain institution (eg. the govt), then the institution could sue them.