La Verne's branch in Athens, Greece goes bust withouth warning

Yesterday morning, the first day of the academic year, when about 850 students and 106 staff arrived at their university, the La Verne university's branch in Athens, Greece, found the doors of their school locked and the building deserted. They soon found out that La Verne Athens, has closed down for good without any warning to either its students or staff!

All students have already paid thousands of dollars each in advance fees. It is a tragic situation which, according to the media here, is denigrating for the entire U.S. higher education system. What's going to happen to those students? Who's going to pay back to them their hard earned money? What will be their educational future as most of them don't have the financial resources to continue their studies away from home in La Verne California?

A plea for assistance has already been sent to the Governor of California. It is doubtful though whether he can do anything in this situation as La Verne Athens was a private enterprise authorized or franchised directly by La Verne California.

We read in another thread about Australian Charles Sturt university's franchisees or authorized colleges in other countries, it seems that U.S. RA accredited universities are not far behind in their gross dereliction of duty as institutions of higher learning with regards to their international affiliates, which in Greece bear officially the same name as their parent university.

John S. Dovelos, Ph.D.

 

It's funny how everyone says they want smaller government, but when a private enterprise school closes down, who do they call first...gov.

 

University fiasco shouldn't be international incident

 

The following announcement on University of La Verne's website is either a lie or some of La Verne people failed to do their job properly. Contrary to what is claimed in this announcement, none of the students or staff had been contacted or notified for this sudden withdrawal of La Verne's authorization from its Campus in Greece. Evidence of this is the fact that hundreds of students and staff turned up at the school yesterday morning. This was actually shown on the national TV news here. There were also dozens of interviews with students and staff about this outrage.

La Verne's Announcement:

"University of La Verne Ends Agreement with Greek Entity
Concluding Association with Athens Campus


The University of La Verne has announced that, effective immediately, it is ending its relationship with the Greek not-for-profit organization Somateo 'Collegio La Verne' and has concluded all educational endeavors in Athens, Greece.

In recent months, administrators at the university's main campus in Southern California had become increasingly concerned with the continuing financial viability of the Somateo. A financial review by the independent accounting firm Deloitte confirmed that serious fiscal problems exist. It has since been concluded the Somateo is unable to meet its obligations to its enrolled students as required by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the accrediting association for both ULV and the Athens campus.

"We are disappointed that it has come to this point. We have always valued our relationships in Athens and have been proud of our ability to extend quality educational opportunities there," said University of La Verne President Steve Morgan. "The university's first obligation now, as always, is to the welfare of our students. That is the primary reason behind this decision, and we have made extensive arrangements to ensure our students in Athens will be able to continue their education."

A team of ULV administrators and staff is in Athens and will work to assist each student. The ultimate aim of the on-site team is to enable every student to obtain either a La Verne degree, if applicable, or an accredited American university degree. All La Verne Athens students have been advised they may transfer to the institution of their choice.

Arrangements have already been made that will enable La Verne Athens students to immediately move to another accredited American institution in Athens. The University of Indianapolis - a private, coeducational university founded in 1902 - has an extensive history of international education. In June 2004 it assumed ownership of a campus in Athens that had housed many of that university's degree programs for 15 years. The University of Indianapolis Athens Campus has agreed to accept La Verne Athens students who meet its admission requirements and will permit students to transfer in immediately without incurring additional costs for tuition already paid (if fully paid). UI Athens has delayed the start of its semester until Monday, Sept. 27, in order to accommodate La Verne Athens students.

The ULV on-site team is working with a UI Athens enrollment team to help with this transition process. These combined groups will provide information and assistance with a wide range of issues including financial aid, potential tuition refunds, registration, academic counseling and degree options.

Officials with the Somateo have informed ULV that they will continue to offer classes. While students have the right to continue their education with the Somateo, they have been advised that any additional course work will not be accredited by WASC and will not count toward obtaining an accredited ULV degree.

The University of La Verne is a Carnegie Doctoral/Research intensive institution in Southern California enrolling students in the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and Public Management, the College of Education and Organizational Leadership, the College of Law in Ontario and the School of Continuing Education. Founded in 1891, ULV is recognized as an early pioneer in lifelong learning programs and in its support of diversity initiatives."

Hopefully all goes well with the tranfer of students to the University of Indianapolis. This is also a locally owned private entrerprise, so let's cross our fingers that it doesn't also close shop after a while without warning.

I'll keep you posted on further developments.

John S. Dovelos, Ph.D.

 

The following is an excerpt from the Pasadena Star News article quoted by oxpecker above:

"This outrageous behavior requires immediate intervention by U.S. authorities. Sixty of the 600 students enrolled are Americans, four of whom are from La Verne.

Seems to us the students are being used as pawns to keep a sinking school afloat. Where are the lifeboats? The Greeks need to address this situation now. Such behavior by an Athens institution tarnishes the good reputation they have gained worldwide with the recently concluded Olympic Games. And it frightens an already jittery world community who could very well misread the incident as hostility aimed at Americans and the citizens of the 32 other countries represented in the study body.

University of La Verne arrived in Athens in 1975 to offer classes to military personnel from a nearby U.S. Naval Center. Eventually the school was opened up to American civilians and those from other nations. Seems a good way to promote international relations."

What ignorance of facts and what bias and prejudice!!!

The first paragraph sounds like the only reason that American authorities should intervene is that about 60 American citizens - who are all Greek-Americans anyway - are students of the university. The other students don't seem to count for this reporter, nor the responsibility of American Authorities concerning a fully accredited American institution duping its students citizens of a friendly country.

This disgrace of a reporter in that disgrace of a newspaper that publishes such articles, then grabs the opportunity to show his open hostility toward Greece shooting his endless crap from the hip. He involves the Olympic games, imaginary hostility of Greeks against Americans and a supposed "jittery" international community!!! An international community frightened and jittery of whom? Of the Greeks? The international community is in fact very jittery of actions by other people much closer to the misreporter's home and not the Greeks.

He even challenges the Greek authorities to do something about the clear failures of an American institution. He didn't of course bother to check and find out that the Greek authorities don't recognize and have neither control nor authority over such campuses of foreign schools. These campuses or branches of foreign universities are simply licensed and registered as businesses that offer educational services. The Greek authorities' control and responsibility ends there. The degree-granting institutions which authorize these schools, grant degrees to their students, call them "their campusses", and allow them to officially bear their name, are solely responsible for the education offered by these schools, their administration and their long-term viability as entities.

This crap-shooting reporter also mentions 32 nationalities studying at La Verne Athens and that, allegedly, Greece's international relations are in jeopardy if Greek (???) authorities don't do something to rectify this situation. For this ignoramus's information, the 32 supposed nationalities are all Greek former expatriates who have returned and settled in their country. Their kids often prefer to do their studies in English.

I'm really sorry about the quality of the press in the U.S. This really explains many things.

John D

 

The University of Indianapolis Athens Campus has agreed to accept La Verne Athens students who meet its admission requirements and will permit students to transfer in immediately without incurring additional costs for tuition already paid (if fully paid). UI Athens has delayed the start of its semester until Monday, Sept. 27, in order to accommodate La Verne Athens students.


Roya,

Did you teach at the Athens campus? I would like to know if any of the actions that is highlighted above has taken place. At least from what has been put up on the ULV website, the ULV administration has found another institution where locals can attend. I have been reading Salami89's posts and it would seem that ULV has done something (although probably not as much as some of the students would like) to find an alternative for the students to continue their education. This is more than what Salami89 is getting from his school at the present time.

Also, the story that was linked above by Oxpecker is a commentary piece not a news piece. There is a difference in terms of objectivity and, unfortunately, many times factuality. That's why I rarely read commentary or column pieces. Sure a few are enlightening, (one of the few columns that I enjoy reading is Dan Walters from the Sacramento Bee) but most border on propaganda. Notice no author was identified, that's an indication of a commentary piece and not a news piece.

My local newspaper also covered the closure. Here's a link to the news piece that I read: http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203%257E21481%257E2417669,00.html?search=filter

This and Salami89's posts point to a trend that I believe is very dangerous for all reputable institutions: Franchising. Until these post came on to this board, I did not know such agreements existed. I thought that all distance campuses were run by the universities themselves and not a delegated to a third party. I don’t think these agreements give students enough protection against administrative situations that are out of their control. Students should not have to worry about such matters. It should be clear cut: a university should administer all campuses. One may argue that fewer campuses would open up, but at least this gives students more confidence that they would not be left out in the cold by a sudden campus closure.

 

tmartca,

Thank you for the link to that article. That's a more or less objective report of the situation.

However, students and staff had been clearly not notified by La Verne about this turn of events as they all turned up at the school on Monday morning. I suspect that the reason may be that La Verne Ca did not even have a list of the students enrolled at La Verne Athens, and the local operators refused to provide them with that list as they obviously objected to the closure of their outfit. Although hard to believe, this is the extent of no participation of the parent university in the running of their branches. The local operators also had the right to use their bodyguards to bar entry to La Verne Ca representatives as the business (the branch) is their own property and not La Verne's. If they choose, they may also continue to teach courses and find another foreign university to affiliate with.

I will briefly explain the situation with the dozens of, mainly U.S. and a few British, "branches" of foreign universities that have been operating for the past 30 years in Greece, Spain and many other countries.

1. Their Local Status: They are not recognized by the government as branches of their parent universities. Although degrees earned through studies in the parent universities are readily accepted by the authorities here, if even part of a single course has been completed through a local branch the degree is not acceptable. All Greeks who present for evaluation degrees from foreign universities that have branches here, are required to produce an official letter from the university verifying that no part of their studies has been completed through the local branch. However, degrees from these universities earned through studies in local branches are accepted in the private sector.

2. So-called "branches" of foreign universities (some U.S. state universities are also represented) are owned and run by private enterpreneurs who often have no connection to higher education. It is well known that the parent universities may provide the curricula and general instructions, but they rely wholly on good faith in the local operators as to the implementation of educational standards. The parent universities have no involvement whatsoever in the running of the branches and no regular quality controls are performed. As a result, educational standards in the majority of those branches have been described by people with direct knowledge to range from substandard to abysmal. In the exact words of people who have taught courses in some of these branches, "They are just Mickey Mouse universities". Admittedly, La Verne was one of the better ones. However, students from these branches graduate with degrees that are exactly the same as degrees earned at the parent universities. And, although these degrees are not officially recognized locally, they are fully recognized in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

3. The Greek government refuses to control these branches as it does not even acknowledge their existence. On the other hand, the government refuses to close them down as it is their democratic right to operate as businesses selling a bona fide service to willing and informed customers. A very strange situation.

4. The student body of these branches does not consist, as the U.S. media reports claim, by students of many nationalities. Foreign students, usually from Africa, the Middle East and Balcan countries, who come to study in Greece, study at the many state universities and not the unrecognized branches of foreign universities. The vast majority of students at these branches are local young people who failed to reach the grades required for entry to state universities, and the sons and daughters of former expatriate Greeks who have re-settled in Greece and who find it difficult to gain entry to Greek state universities. There may be also a handful of the sons and daughters of foreign diplomats stationed here.

The situation is more or less the same in many other countries around the world.

John D

 

Universities forge alliances overseas at their own peril.

However, bad tiding from a handful of universities does not spell disaster.

Yet many universities regard the overseas affilaition as a golden goose, but often the only goose around at the end of the alliance is the university!

 

Is there a possibility that St Regis could step in and breach the gap?

Ha..ha...ha...

 

Adam Smith wrote:

"Universities forge alliances overseas at their own peril.

However, bad tiding from a handful of universities does not spell disaster.

Yet many universities regard the overseas affilaition as a golden goose, but often the only goose around at the end of the alliance is the university!"

True, but what is the obvious conclusion? There are currently many thousands of U.S. RA degree holders throughout the world and also in the U.S. who earned their degrees through those "Mickey Mouse" outfits abroad!!! It's not only a question of substandard education - if that was not enough - I forgot to mention in my previous post that some of the operators of those outfits, have been accused by the media for offering degrees for a price to students who are not able to successfully complete even the substandard education provided by those outfits.

This is a very, very serious matter as it has been going on for many years and definitely casts doubt on all U.S. RA degrees. If someone, for example, presents to me a degree from X RA university which has "campuses" in a dozen different countries outside of the U.S., how do I know that this degree was not "earned", or even bought, at one of those "campuses" over which the parent university has not control at all, but provides the degrees and uses them as its "golden geese"?

That's a big question, isn't it?

John D

 

John D

The whole concept of 'franchising' is undermined by the loose relationship between the awarding university and the courses taken by the students. Corruption and fraud are prevalent and made easy by the soft exam regimes of many universities both in the foreign country and in the home country when the faculty cannot be reasonably certain that the name on the degree certificate is the author of the assignments undertaken off campus and out of sight which contribute to the final award.

The Quality Assurance Agency in the UK is hostile to the notion of 'franchising' by British universities overseas. This is especially true where the campus taught programmes are run by sub-standard entities, whether within the public sector or the private sector.

To be an Approved Support Centre for University abroad the facilities must reach a stated standard, the faculty teaching must reach a stated standard and - most crucial of all - the exam regime must be run exclusively by the awarding University. Exams must not be 'franchised'. Also the Approved Support Centre must be inspected at least once a year by the awarding body.

It is also imperative that the awarding body takes full responsibility for every one of the students attending the Approved Support Centre. This would avoid the failures and evasion of responsibility exhibited by Charles Sturt and now La Verne 'universities'. Should an Approved Support Centre fold for whatever reason, the awarding University must ensure that every student can complete his or her studies, even when the Approved Support Centre has taken the fees. In such situations, the costs of meeting its reponsibilities must be borne by the awarding University. There is absolutely no reason to run to the Government for a bail out. The University must bail itself out. It should not evade that responsibility and no reputable university should need to be reminded of that.

These events are not confined to private bodies. They are prevalent in public bodies too (Charles Sturt University is fully funded by the Australian government).

We should be careful that we do not lose sight of these points and thus damage both the principles of distance learning provision and the idea of priavte institutions. Education left purely to the public government funded sector is an expensive route to education access for students. Worse, it can be a barrier to innovation and pedagogic improvement.

 

Yes, terrible I'm sure. Can you post a link that provides better coverage? Maybe something from the Greek press?
Jack

 

beating a [your favorite adjective here] horse

John D,

While we're going about proving that all RA universities are awful, awful things because of this unfortunate mess in Athens, I would be interested to hear how the now-under-splendid-new-management Saint Regis will go about monitoring the quality of its "affiliate" schools. Even though some of the schools seem not to have been hatched yet, the web site makes it seem that they are already recognized just as thoroughly as is Saint Regis.

Can you tell us about this, or is that also included in the SRU pledge-of-secrecy? And did Saint Regis refund the money paid by those Georgia teachers who lost their teaching licenses?

And what DID happen to Ishaq Shafiq and Richard Novak?

G

 

Prof. Kennedy,

I would go even further and suggest that the only solution to this increasing mess would be for the parent universities to fully own and operate directly their branches abroad. This would guarantee the quality of education offered and the reliability of those branches.

If that happened, I'm pretty sure that local governments would also recognize those campuses as official branches of the parent universities.

John D

 

Galanga,

Oh man, oh man, I don't seem to be able to escape SRU no matter what the topic of a thread might be.

Nobody is trying to prove anything against U.S. RA education, not in the U.S. anyway. But, what is offered by those "branches" in foreign countries is regarded as U.S. RA too. If someone bothered to do some research to find out how many such franchised operations of U.S. RA universities are operating overseas and for how many years and, then, multiply them by the average number of graduates each year, the sum total of graduates would be probably in the tens? Hundreds? of thousand. All these tens or even hundreds of thousand U.S. RA degrees are questionable as there was no control by a legitimate authority over the way they were earned.

As to your questions about SRU which seems to be chasing me around, all known staff of the former administration are gone with the exception of the technical assistant. Concerning the matter of how they are going to supervise their affiliate colleges, I would't have a clue. I'm not currently directly involved with SRU.

I believe that their attitude towards most of those Georgia teachers is that they were party to possible fraud committed in cooperation with some of the then advisors who were discovered to be engaging in corrupt practices.

John D

 

Why should we think that they lack control by a legitimate authority? LaVerne University did exercise control. They were not satisfied with their Greek affiliate's financial soundness and terminated the programs that were being offered in Greece with the assistance of the affiliate. LaVerne stated in their announcement that Somateo was unable to meet its responsibilities as required by WASC.

If you don't know who they were, then how can you be sure that they are really gone?

And while I can easily imagine a total change of staff accompanying an ownership change if the "university" consisted of just a website, it's much harder for me to imagine a total replacement of staff happening at a real university.

What's more, if SRU underwent such significant changes, then how did it retain its Liberian accreditation? If the changes at SRU were as dramatic as you suggest, then you are inadvertantly verifying that their accreditation probably isn't credible.

But your Athenaeum International University Center claims to be an affiliate of the "DegreeToday Program" and that it awards degrees accredited by Liberia. Although you rather artfully avoid specifying precisely who awards the degrees (while insisting repeatedly that they are equivalent to degrees from American RA and British chartered universities), the claims made echo those associated with SRU.

http://www.unicollege-edu.net/html/accredit_affil.html

 

***********************
This is a very, very serious matter as it has been going on for many years and definitely casts doubt on all U.S. RA degrees. If someone, for example, presents to me a degree from X RA university which has "campuses" in a dozen different countries outside of the U.S., how do I know that this degree was not "earned", or even bought, at one of those "campuses" over which the parent university has not control at all, but provides the degrees and uses them as its "golden geese"?
***********************

here in Italy is the same.
moreless unknown foreign outfits ( a few with "prestigious" sounding and bombastic names ) FRANCHISE to/at say priest ridden high schools ( the old kind of, with plenty of rooms, dorms being restyled into rooms, gardens etc ).
The campus is therefore run AT the premises of the former high school ( often the high school still operates from there ) and often by the same personnel.
Then they hire "faculty" ( typically runners-up at major university in the position of assistant and a few "brand names" if money can buy a lecture of two ).
Usually their fees are extortionate and the final award comes from some low key foreign institution ( however legitimate ), like UK polyrehnics and US entities, which may have be even restricted onshore in their capacity of bestowing degrees.
I read once of one of these local branches offering some humanities degree through some US institution.
Although legitimate, the degree bestower wouldn't issue such degrees onshore and the foreign bound one was a "special issue".

They often twist words about accreditation; about "being independent from any outside control/authority "; about the foreign bestower being "private & independent" itself...about being UK or foreign law "compliant".
They play the guitar of the multilingualism; of the "international perspective...."
The same old same old we hear from degree mills of all sorts.

Oftentimes these degrees are non recognized by the host country.
http://www.uniese.it/_news/lauree_riconosciute.php
And "fake degree" allegations pop madly up.
Hurried up lawsuits solve little or nothing because everything has still to be seen as a general practice.