Dr. Berne's new St. Kittsian involvement

There was some speculation on what became of Dale Berne, who used to be based in New Hampshire, near the Massachusetts line, and ran Berne University, accredited by St. Kitts.

Based on a help wanted ad in the Chronicle, noted by Alan Contreras, Dr. Berne appears to be based in northern Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire line, and serving as the Dean of the Medical University of the Americas ((http://www.mua.edu), accredited by St. Kitts.

On first glance, MUA appears to be quite a substantial enterprise.

 

Actually, Dr. Dale Berne, is Associate Dean for both Medical University of the Americas and its sister school, Saba University (Saba, Netherlands-Antilles). According to someone professing to be Dr. Michael D Doherty, Professor of Neuroscience and Anatomy and Physiology, MUA (see here), both schools (including MUA Belize) are run by Berne’s Education Information Consultants, Inc. out of Gardner, MA.

 

MUA Belize:

http://www.muabelize.com/

Here's Warnborough's "fast track" premed program for admission to Saba University School of Medicine and Medical University of the America's:

http://www.warnborough.ac.uk/courses/premed.htm

And here's a different page from another Warnborough website describing their 30 week pre med program:

http://www.warnborough.edu/faculties/science/premed.htm

Here's some kind of proposal for something called the Leeward Islands Health Research Unit to be operated out of MUA:

http://www.lihru.org/proposals.htm

They need $100.000 in seed money to get it going. Here's their appeal:

http://www.lihru.org/appeal.htm

Medical biochemistry poster session. It doesn't look particularly sophisticated:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/biochemposter/

A pharmacology study guide written by a MUA author:

http://www.allecto.ee/meditsiin/pharmacology.htm

Here's what appears to be a reference to something (a review?) published in the New England Journal of Medicine by MUA authors:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=npg&cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11961151&dopt=Abstract

Something called the American Association of International Medical Graduates seems to like both schools. I have no idea what that means.

http://www.aaimg.com/list/meeting.html

Here's a Canadian student who visited MUA and has a webpage with his impressions and some photos:

http://www.morrisflats.com/Tim/MUA/MUA.htm

 

Interesting, thanks for the links Bill. I especially enjoyed the last link to the impressions by the MUA prospect.

My impression is that it seems similar to Berne University in quality of education, i.e., not quite there but in a gray area.

 

It's impossible for me to compare it with Berne University because I was never able to learn anything about Berne's academics. If there was anything on the web, it was lost in the results from the Swiss Berne.

I Googled "medical university of the americas" and got about 120 hits before I got to that "substantially the same" point. What I posted was the highlights, with the exception of about half a dozen individuals who seem to successfully be doing residencies in the US.

My impressions of MUA are mixed.

The worst thing is the Warnborough University (or is it College?) 30-week "fast-track" pre-med program.

The best is that they appear to have a real campus and some faculty, and have placed some students in American residencies. I'm less moved by one review in the NEJM, but it's better than nothing, as is the pharmacology study guide. (Published by an Estonian publisher?)

I'm still not happy calling this thing "RA-equivalent", let alone "AMA-equivalent". But it might be more sound than some of the other off-shore medical schools out there. It seems more equivalent to the upper non-accredited category, like some of the better CA-approved schools. Except those, of course, don't (and can't) offer medical degrees and probably wouldn't be able to get UN recognition either. So this still smells to me like loophole-exploitation.

The fact that they are teamed with Warnborough also points to an institutional culture of loophole exploitation. We all know that Warnborough is a business licence in Ireland but located in Britain place, proudly boasting an 'ac.uk' web address while offering "non-UK awards" and hence claiming immunity from current UK education law and regulations.

Frankly, I would not be comfortable with a physician trained at MUA.

 

It's a collection of class projects.

This is a top journal, so I looked up the article. Only one of the seven authors is from MUA. The senior (corresponding) author is from Queensland Institute of Medical Research.

 

I looked up MUA in Current Contents for 1996-2003, and this is all I found:

PT: Journal
TI: Reductionism gets a soul
AU: Aswani-V
SO: FAMILY-MEDICINE. NOV-DEC 2003; 35 (10) : 704-705.
PY: 2003
IS: 0742-3225
CC: Clinical-Medicine

PT: Journal
TI: Current concepts - Schistosomiasis
AU: Ross-AGP; Bartley-PB; Sleigh-AC; Olds-GR; Li-YS; Williams-GM; McManus-DP
SO: NEW-ENGLAND-JOURNAL-OF-MEDICINE. APR 18 2002; 346 (16) : 1212-1220.
PY: 2002
IS: 0028-4793
CC: Clinical-Medicine; Life-Sciences

 

quoted by John Bear


Here is the link to MUA's faculty and staff webpage. http://www.mua.edu/facul.php

I don't see any mention of a Dr. Berne. Maybe I didn't look close enough but I couldn't find him mentioned on any of MUA's web pages.

Another interesting point is that MUA is chartered by the government of Nevis not St. Kitts, I know they are both British commonwealths but still operate independently although techinically recognized as 1 government. See this website:
http://www.nevis1.com/government.html


Here is a website of accredited tertiary institutions on St. Kitts and MUA is not mentioned!
http://www.stkittsnevis.net/accreditation.html

 

I am guessing what John means by Dale Berne's involvement is the office that MAU has in MA at the same address as Berne University.

I don't understand why they need an office in the states, can someone explain that to me?

 

Sounds fishy to me.

 

I read that Berne University has a corporate contact in New Hampshire see:
http://www.berne.edu/

And MUA has a corporate contact in Gardener, MA. See:
http://www.mua.edu/

As far as foreign schools having contacts in the USA, from a business standpoint, it would provide better marketing for their programs. Just my guess though! I am also guessing that there are many US investors in offshore medical schools.

 

Ofergadsake Dennis, don' say fishy. Nurse Ratchet she come an' gitchu, man.

 

I forgot - intellectual property.

 

I once had a drill instructor tell me that "Opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one and they all stink!"

 

NYU ....

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.


Apologies to W. Allen

 

mua

The medical University of the Americas advertises frequently in nursing magazines in Massachusetts
"Medical University of the Americas, an accredited medical school is pleased to announce two new innovative programs
* RN to BSN
*BSN to MSN
*Credit for work/ life academc experience
*No additional classroom courses
*No additional clinicals
*Reasonable Tuition
Both programs are structured to be completed within one academic year.
I wrote them to ask:
Are these degrees considered foreign or "domestic degrees since they are located in Gardner , MA. but offered through a Carribean school?
Why are these degrees banned in Oregon if they are from an accredited medical school?
Why does the St.Kitts website not list MUA as accredited on their program list?
The Accreditation Board recognizes the following five (5) institutions in St. Kitts and Nevis as being accredited by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis:

The Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College. This is the National College.

Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. Fully accredited.

Berne University International Graduate School. Re-accredited with full accreditation valid until October 1, 2007.

International University of Health Sciences (IUHS). Fully accredited until May 14, 2005.

Windsor University School of Medicine. Currently has provisional accreditation; a review for full accreditation will be held later this year.

International University of Graduate Studies (IUGS) is now fully accredited valid until March 10, 2005.

No other tertiary level institution that claims to be operating in St. Kitts and Nevis is accredited by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, as at 3rd May, 2002.

http://www.stkittsnevis.net/
Does the ANCC accept these degrees for nurses who desire accreditation? (I 've heard no)
It is also noted that there are no nurses listed on the faculty list.
I haven't received a reply.