Dennis Ruhl Defines "Degree Mill"

"For one - any graduate program that does not consist, in near totality, of new work is a degree mill."

Didn't Knightsbridge award Neil Hayes a Ph.D. entirely for work done elsewhere and prior to enrollment?

"Another - any school not licensed or recognized in its jurisdiction of residence is a degree mill."

Doesn't Knightsbridge lack any form of legal recognition or licensure in its jurisdiction (Denmark?)

"Also any school that has to be justified as not being a degree mill probably is one."

Didn't Knightsbridge's operator spend quite a bit of time posting on this very issue?

Sorry, Dr. Dr. Hayes, but Dennis has got your school covered. You might want to keep shopping that book around....

(Extracted from a rather odious forum that Dennis, Neil, James Crabb and others post on. This thread is filled with someone complaining about Concord, so you have to scroll all the way down the page to find Dennis' criteria at Online-College Info I'm not saying Knightsbridge is a degree mill, but it would appear to meet Dennis' own version of NIFI.)

 

For the uninitiated, "NIFI" stands for "Name It and Frame It". Steve Levicoff wrote a book titled Name It and Frame It? New Opportunities in Adult Education and How to Avoid Being Ripped Off by "Christian" Degree Mills.

 

It was a PhD awarded for published work and Dr Hayes has done more than adequate publishing. I was thinking of the American, not European model when I made the comment.

Licensure - apparently Knightsbridge has all the licensure possible. Europe is the domain of state universities.

I guess I was applying the American model to areas where it doesn't apply. I was wrong.

 

Re: Re: Dennis Ruhl Defines "Degree Mill"

I have no idea what kind of work Mr. Hayes has or hasn't done. I'm unfamiliar with the guy apart from his posts here.

But if shopping a book around to universities in exchange for a "Ph.D." is accepted European practice, then why couldn't he find an accepted European university that was willing to perform the practice? Why claim a degree from TC&U and then from Knightsbridge?

Translation: It has no license of any kind. It never has throughout its wanderings, in England, Scotland or in Denmark. Not only that, but KU's owner freely admits that he avoids all forms of external quality assurance. He takes offense at the very suggestion.

I think that you were absolutely right, but you are letting your emotions get the best of you right now.

I'm struck by how people so selectively appeal to the "British model" or the "European model" to try to defend some very questionable things.

No supervision is necessary, so we are told, despite the QAA stressing the need for it. Doctorates by previous work are an accepted practice, except no accepted university seemed willing to perform the practice. We are told that no license is necessary while we are simultaneously told that only state universities are recognized.

And behind all the smoke and mirrors, we have a "university" that seems to consist of one man (with no discernable background in higher education), that moves from place to place as the whim strikes him, a "university" that by his own admission was created as a business venture.

This "university" offers "research" doctorates in many fields despite producing no visible research. It publishes nothing. It takes part in no academic collaborations. In receives no grants and wins no awards. It receives no recogition that I can see from the professional or scholarly communities.

Everything reduces to ego.

There's the ego of those who want recognition so badly that they will recklessly pursue questionable "degrees". There's the ego of "university" proprietors whose only argument seems to be "because I say so" and "trust me". And there's the ego that drives discussion board personality flame-wars.

It's sad and it's more than a little ridiculous.

 

> Translation: It has no license of any kind. It never has
> throughout its wanderings, in England, Scotland or in Denmark.

You left out a couple of countries.

 

Re: Re: Re: Dennis Ruhl Defines "Degree Mill"

They could write a book about what you don't know. Oh they did - Encyclopedia Brittanica?

 

In Antigua the corrupt Bird dynasty has just fallen from power after more than half a century. Baldwin Spencer is the new prime minister. Three cheers for integrity--in distance learning and in democratic process. It's amazing where people will run when they can't hide.