Lorenz University — Company Information

South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) lists Lorenz University in its official register of bogus/unregistered institutions (Annexure A, updated 8 May 2026). Lorenz University is not accredited by any body recognized in the United States, and its claimed accrediting bodies (IAAFOE, ACTDE) do not appear as recognized accreditors anywhere outside material tied to the same network of sites. GetEducated.com's Diploma Mill Police classifies this pattern, including degrees issued for a flat fee based on a short test or self-reported experience rather than coursework, as a degree mill.

The DHET entry describes an operation run from an apartment in Karachi, Pakistan by a person identified as Salem Kureshi, using multiple "credible" names including Ashwood University, Belford University, Corllins University, Headway University, Hill University, Lorenz University, McFord University, Panworld University, Rochville University, Western Advanced Central University, Wilson State University, and Woodfield University, with websites possibly based in Pakistan and/or the USA and certificates posted from the United Arab Emirates. The register states any diploma or degree can be bought online at a discounted price within days, and that payment is never recoverable. A 2020 AACRAO (the U.S. professional association of college registrars) publication on diploma mills associates lorenzuniversity.com with Axact, a Pakistani company documented (including by a 2015 New York Times investigation) as operating a large network of fake online universities. AACRAO and DHET do not give an identical operator attribution.

A complaint submitted to USAComplaints.com in 2011 names "Lorenz university" as the offender and describes paying roughly $1,200 toward "legalization costs" and then being ignored; it does not raise an accreditation issue. A 2010 complaint on the same site names a wider list of similarly structured sites as promoted from a common hub site (onlineeducationalfacts.com) and sharing the same absence of a real company address or phone number; the allegation that these sites share a common operator is the complainant's. Ashford University, a separately WSCUC-accredited institution (accredited 2013, reaffirmed 2019) acquired by the University of Arizona in 2020 to become University of Arizona Global Campus, does not appear in DHET's current list of names used in this operation. Third-party commentary (a "Lorenz University Exposed" blog and a DegreeInfo.com forum discussion) alleges non-response to degree-verification requests.

This is not the same institution as Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz (also called "Konrad Lorenz University"), a Ministry of Education-recognized nonprofit university in Bogotá, Colombia, whose psychology program holds international accreditation from the Association for Behavior Analysis International. The names are similar but the two are unrelated entities.