Frederick Taylor University's Cheap M.B.A."s on the Internet May Not Be Such a Bargain Dibyendu Malakar needed a graduate business degree to advance his career, but he was working full time and could not afford $100,000 or more for a two-year M.B.A. program at Berkeley, Stanford or another accredited business school. So Mr. Malakar enrolled at Frederick Taylor University, an unaccredited school in Moraga. Because Frederick Taylor is listed in California as a state-approved school, he said, "I thought, "It can't be completely bogus." " In fact, he got his M.B.A. via the Internet in just a year, for less than $5,000. That may not have been quite the bargain it seemed to be, though. "I did not realize that it did not carry the same weight as Berkeley or Stanford," said Mr. Malakar, who emigrated from India. But it was not a complete waste. Mr. Malakar said his M.B.A. helped him get a job as director of product management at a software company in Cupertino. Shakila Marando, a 33-year-old doula from El Cerrito, is seeking a bachelor's degree in management from Frederick Taylor. Although she has been a student for nearly a year, she has never spoken to a teacher, she said. "They e-mail you a package of reading materials to read with a multiple-choice exam that is open book," said Ms. Marando, who is from Tanzania. For me, it is very convenient and I can work full time and read a little bit on the side. It is pretty easy. For Mr. Malakar, Ms. Marando and hundreds of students like them, it matters little that Frederick Taylor has no library or dorms; or that some states, including California, Michigan and Oregon, refuse to hire its graduates for many civil service jobs; or that its degrees are worthless for most professional licenses or teaching certificates. Education experts say California leads the nation in unaccredited schools. Frederick Taylor is one of nearly 1,000 unaccredited or questionably accredited colleges and vocational schools that have been operating in the state without regular inspections or evaluations of educational quality, which is required under a state law that has rarely been enforced. State approval is basically a license to operate. Accreditation comes from national or regional agencies that review curriculums and educational standards. "There are a lot of schools that beg the question "What exactly is going on in California?" " said Eyal Ben Cohen, managing director of Accredibase Limited, a company based in London that monitors diploma mills. California has very weak oversight procedures as far as allowing an institution to operate within its borders. An institution within California can obtain a license very easily. Based in a cramped office on the second floor of a nondescript office building in Moraga, Frederick Taylor is run by Mansour S. Saki and Zhilla Nayeri Saki. Mr. Saki's own curriculum vitae lists a Ph.D. from the C.S.M. Institute of Graduate Studies, which forfeited its accreditation in 2004. Zhilla Nayeri Saki lists a doctorate in business administration from the same institution. Both are listed among Frederick Taylor's six-person faculty, along with the couple's 32-year-old daughter, Maryam S. Boller. Selling diplomas over the Internet is a thriving business. The Sakis live in Orinda in a three- bedroom home with an assessed value of $1.1 million, according to property records. The California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education is responsible for overseeing schools like Frederick Taylor, which was named for a late-19th-century management consultant. But in interviews, state officials conceded that many unaccredited schools had operated with state approval for decades without regular inspections. Frederick Taylor initially received approval to award degrees in 1994, but state records do not show that it was ever inspected. In October, state officials renewed the school's application to operate, again without a visit. "They received approval because the eight-page application that they filled out was in compliance with the law," said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the postsecondary education bureau. Frederick Taylor charges $5,212 for a bachelor's degree or a master's in business administration. The academic requirements are less stringent than those at accredited universities. Full-time M.B.A. students at the University of California's Haas School of Business at Berkeley, for example, must complete 51 semester units of course work. Frederick Taylor requires 32 units.