Translation is a diploma factory. Diploma mill, also known as "academic factory" and "fake university", usually uses a name that is easily confused with well-known universities, enrolls students in a confusing way, and exploits the loopholes of relevant national laws by various means to issue diplomas indiscriminately. The deception of diploma mill involves both fake schools and fake academic qualifications.

This kind of college is also called "diploma workshop", which mainly refers to schools that are legal institutions (some schools don't even exist) but are not recognized by the society and employers in the host country. The main indicator is to spend money to buy a diploma, and the diploma bought is not recognized by the employer. Diploma workshops have become a chronic disease in China's study abroad market. On the one hand, it has caused great waste of manpower, material resources and time for international students in China, on the other hand, it has brought great trauma to the credibility of the whole society, especially the diplomas of some government and university personnel appear in the media from time to time, which has had a very bad impact on the credibility of the government, universities and enterprises.

The origin of the title "diploma workshop" is difficult to verify. Some netizens on the Internet claimed that their fable "Diploma Mill" published in 2005 was the origin. The more credible source is the book Shanghai Scales and Claws written by Yu, a writer of the Republic of China, in which there is an article called Diploma Workshop.

The diploma mill with scales in Shanghai wrote: "On the surface, there are many universities, which shows that China's education is developed and there are many people pursuing higher education, but it is not that simple in its bones, because people have added the word" pheasant "to this rotten university and turned it into a diploma mill.