Degrees for sale: How U.S. universities enabled the foreign labor pipeline

The Following Content Has Been Provided by:Amanda Bartolotta

Miles Education didn’t hijack the U.S. immigration system alone, it had help. And that help came directly from American universities.

Without U.S. colleges issuing visa documents, lowering admission standards, and redesigning degree programs to meet immigration loopholes, the entire Miles operation would fall apart. These schools aren’t innocent participants, they are active enablers in a coordinated scheme that transforms higher education into a foreign labor funnel.

To pull off its business model, Miles Education needed three things:

A U.S. school willing to issue F-1 student visa documents (Form I-20) to any applicant it sent.
Graduate-level programs labeled as STEM, even in fields like accounting, to stretch work authorization from 12 to 36 months under STEM OPT.
A school that would waive basic entry standards, like GRE exams, language tests, or U.S. bachelor’s equivalency, so under qualified candidates could enroll fast.

Multiple universities delivered on all three.

The universities didn’t just accept Miles’ students, they helped engineer the exact degree programs Miles needed. These schools restructured non-STEM master’s programs by adding a couple of data analytics or IT courses, just enough to meet DHS guidelines for STEM OPT, even though the core program remained unchanged.

FAQ on Miles STEM Pathway Program

They knew exactly what this would do, let foreign students work for three years in the U.S. without visa sponsorship, without labor protections, and without replacing them with American graduates.

Universities also lowered their admissions standards, fast-tracked paperwork, and partnered directly with Miles to feed in large cohorts of Indian students. Some even allowed Miles to advertise the school’s name in job placement packages, where education was a footnote, and the real product was employment in the U.S. workforce.

This wasn’t accidental. It was deliberate, strategic, and profitable.

As Forbes reported, International Students can make up 50% of net tuition revenue, despite being a small percentage of total enrollment. For universities foreign students, especially those funneled in bulk through groups like Miles, became the financial pipeline.

But that lifeline came at a cost and Americans are paying the price.

While U.S. grads face mounting debt, limited job access, and rising underemployment, foreign students are being handed guaranteed jobs, extended work permits, and a bridge to offshoring, all thanks to the universities that were supposed to be serving their own country first.