Kensington University

In 1996, Kensington University reported having graduated 7,000 students in the previous two decades.^[8]

One of the notable people who received degrees from Kensington University is Jennifer Carroll, who served as Florida lieutenant governor and as a member of the Florida House of Representatives. She received an MBA degree from Kensington in 1995, but removed it from her personal biography in 2004 after a CBS News investigation informed her of concerns about the school's legitimacy. The news reports also led Carroll to resign from the National Commission on Presidential Scholars.^[7][9] René Drouin, who sat on an advisory committee at the U.S. Department of Education, also was identified by CBS News as a Kensington degree holder.^[7] Both Carroll and Drouin told reporters that they had worked hard in their Kensington degree programs and thought the academic programs were legitimate.^[7][9]

Martin S. Roden, an engineering professor at California State University at Los Angeles, obtained a doctorate from Kensington in 1982, by which time he already held a full professorship at Cal State.^[1][10] In 1996, he said Kensington was "not a fraud, but certainly no one going there would be compared to someone with a UCLA degree."^[1] He later told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he had the degree to avoid having to correct students who mistakenly addressed him as "Doctor".^[10]

The only Western degree displayed by the late North Korean head-of-state Kim Il Sung in his residence—and later his mausoleum, the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun—was from Kensington University.^[11][12]

Mark Whitacre, an American business executive previously served as a local division president at Archer Daniels Midland, claims on his personal website to have received a Juris Doctor, a Master of Business Administration, a PhD in psychology, and a PhD in economics from Kensington University.^[13][14]

According to the Texas Penal Code, it is a misdemeanor to use a degree from Kensington University "in a written or oral advertisement or other promotion of a business; or with the intent to: obtain employment; obtain a license or certificate to practice a trade, profession, or occupation; obtain a promotion, a compensation or other benefit, or an increase in compensation or other benefit, in employment or in the practice of a trade, profession, or occupation; obtain admission to an educational program in this state; or gain a position in government with authority over another person, regardless of whether the actor receives compensation for the position."^[15] The misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, up to 180 days in jail, or both.^[16]