Yorker International University


The Yorker International University is a for-profit unaccredited institution, which claims to have a "head office" in Rapid City, South Dakota and a "world wide representative office" in New York City. The school has published a list of other branches, namely Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Henderson, Nevada, Miami, Florida, Ajman, UAE, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Accra, Ghana, Shanghai, China, Milan, Italy, Perignano di Casciana Terme Lari, Italy, Florence, Italy, Bologna, Italy. According to Italian authorities, it is unclear if all of these addresses are real.
On the basis of life experiences, the institution issues Master's degrees and PhDs in several fields.
Being on the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization's list of "unauthorized schools and invalid degrees", Italian authorities stated that the school was not recognized or accredited as an affiliation of a foreign institution, thus considering the qualifications awarded as not eligible for recognition in Italy where the school claims to have four branches.
The school says its accreditation has been issued by the "Government Accreditation Association of Delaware". The Delaware Department of Education denied that this organization had ever received authorization to operate on its territory. The address of the "Government Accreditation Association of Delaware" was later moved to Washington, DC, despite keeping the name "Delaware".
The Yorker International University is also a member of the "International University Accrediting Association", an accreditation mill based in California and included in the list of non-recognized accreditation agencies of Michigan.
One of the school's addresses in South Dakota was also used by "Albert University", allegedly headquartered in Delaware and unaccredited according to the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization.
The director is Marco Grappeggia, who founded other unaccredited universities such as the Università Popolare di Milano.
The Yorker International University also used to issue degrees in Italy through Paulo Freire University, a private university located in Nicaragua that was going to be accredited in 2002. Since the Nicaraguan university had no authorization to issue degrees in Italy, those degrees are not valid.