St. Clements Univ. -- need info, please!

Hi folks,

Tried the search function, but it's apparently not working again, as it didn't turn up anything. I'm trying to determine if St. Clements University, in the Turks & Caicos Islands, has any legimitate accreditation whatsoever. From what I've been able to Google, it seems to not be a diploma mill, but I'm trying to determine if it is accredited or not by anyone.

Any info y'all have, or memories of earlier threads on this, would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Adrienne

 

Contact Dr. Johan Potgieter, who is on the faculty of St. Clements, at [email protected] for first hand information from the horse's mouth.

 

Without saying anything about the school itself, one of their phd thesis has provided much laughter at our faculty and has been passed around to bachelor students as "how not even to write a bachelor's thesis". Of course this could be a single case.

 

Is the school's Turks & Caicos Islands accreditation meaningless? Yes, I think that it is.

 

Re: Re: St. Clements Univ. -- need info, please!

A single case can tell alot if it is an inferior joke. It is a strong indication that there may be significant problems in the process used to evaluate dissertations.

Referencing Bears' Guide 15th edition, there is a St. Clements University. It is not accredited. The description is nonwonderful.

Another indication that it is an inferior joke.

 

It's not accreditation from T&C. It's a companies licence, unlike, FWIW, accreditation from SKN, which is so named, again, FWIW.

 

BG15, p. 215

Saint Clements University (B, M, D)
Turks & Caicos Islands, West Indies
Fields Offered: Professional Studies, Business Administration
Year Founded: 1995
Although the school is registered in the Turks and Caicos Islands (which has no government accreditation program), St. Clements' Web site is registered with a post office box in Prospect, SA, Australia. Administrative Director Dr. David LeCornu is also vice president of the World Association of Universities and Colleges (an unrecognized and nonwonderful accrediting agency), which accredits St. Clements. In its literature, St. Clements removed all mention of its Australian administration after it came under scrutiny by the South Australian Accreditation and Registration Council. Also claims a "diploma of recognition" from the Association Internationale des Educateurs pour la Paix Mondaile, which is generously awarded to anyone who believes in world peace and human rights. St. Clements appears to be aggressively marketed in Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ghana, and Nigeria.

 

Permission retroactively granted to quote at length from Bears' Guide

George Brown looked extensively into them, I believe, as part of his Master's thesis. I hope and suspect he'll chime in here.

 

Mabruk, everyone...

This is what I suspected, but I wanted to make sure before I came to any definite conclusion on this. Thanks so much for all the good info!

George, if you can add anything further, I'd be grateful!

Cheers,
Adrienne

 

G'day all,

I can confirm that St Clements University holds no recognised institutional accreditation whatsoever, though I do believe they are in the throes of seeking some form of recogntion in an African country, somewhere. The TCI registration is merely a business registration; you, me, or my cat can do the same thing with a credit card and an internet connection.

Cheers,

George

 

Thanks so much for the confirmation, George! Once again, degreeinfo folks provide a valuable service.

Cheers,
Adrienne

 

Can I get a credit card for my cat too? Perhaps a Mastercat?

 

George:

Oh great. Here we go again.
Now why......oh what's the use in asking.

 

Well, in all fairness, I don't think it is Liberia, or another problem country. If they do get it, then good luck to them.

Cheers,

George

 

George:

Why? Aren't they simply a "less than wonderful" deserving nothing more than the boot?

 

To some, maybe. However, if they choose to undergo a rigorous accreditation process administered by a Ministry of Education in a country, don't they (like anyone else) deserve the benefit of the doubt? Because they have been operating as an unaccredited (but legal) entity for many years, should this be held against them in an accreditation submission?

Accreditation is very much a situational process (in Australia, anyway). In many countries there is no candidacy process. Either you meet the standards at a particular point in time (accreditation application and submission), and promise to maintain those standards (via quality assurance mechanisms) or you don't. If St Clements meet the prescribed standards, should they not be accredited?

Cheers,

George

 

George,

Respectfully why should they deserve the benefit of the doubt? There is no doubt if they knowingly operated as a mill providing a substandard education and are accredited by the likes of the WAUC. This would be a total ignorance by a legitimate agency of their past misdeeds.

Should a thief be forgiven by the courts of his crimes just because he has found God and promises not to do it again?


Thanks,
Dan

 

It is a very interesting point Dan, however, just like asserting an institution is a mill, there is no clear cut definition. Believe me, I am toying with the classification system for my PhD at the moment, and it aint pretty! There is, for example, one uni in the US that was seen by many as a mill (was it Columbia Southern, I don't recall) but it became DETC. Many have asserted that CCU was a mill - it is now DETC. Then the even greyer areas; operations like St Regis, claiming RA equivalent accreditation from the MOE in Liberia - found out its not so. And of course Greenwich, which became Australia's third private university - totally legal and then revoked. Extreme examples, I know, but it just demonstrates that its not a cut dried area.

Cheers,

George

 

Rum thing. St Kitts & Nevis has "accreditation" standards. Turks & Caicos has none. If St Clements {h*** no we don need no steenkin apostrophe} wanted even minimal oversight, they could have gone to St Kitts. They're unwilling to meet even the Kittitian stipulations. (I leave out discussion of those stipulations' merit.) But if not even that, then what?

This is what: This outfit is a "university company". That is, it's a company, not a university. They even admit it. It might as well be a bait and tackle company, or an accountancy company, or a siminerry company, or a therapy company for millists, shills, and other cybertrash.

If they go to a real African country with a real accreditation process, hitch up their pants, and clean up their dismal act, jawellnofine. Until then, they've got the wonderfulness of a week-old conch fritter on the back stoep.

 

George:

One of the reasons I'm discouraged with the DETC. Why they even list the likes of Century even if only as a candidate is beyond comprehension. I think they just tried to saddle up to credibility for a brief moment.

If an unaccredited DL school starts out with comparable degree requirements
,credit earning methods,faculty etc.
then I think they have earned the
right to attempt accredidation process. They respect the educational experience and potential student needs from the get go.

And if a school provided substandard
education to students prior to being considered for accredidation than
what does that say about school's
attitude? This might be one way curb substandard DL activity. Banish them from accredidation process unless they provide exact same requirements and methods as accredited schools for all years prior to consideration.

Thanks,
Dan