The Canadian Institute of English

This "Institute" has a mailing address at P.O. Box 86, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. They claim affiliation with the Saint Petersburg State University and the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico (Autonomous University of the State of Mexico) - the universities grant the degrees and transcripts. It appears that all programs and courses are offered via distance only.

The Institute website is at (link removed by moderator) and lists Dr. Harry Cotton as the Director, Ms Beth Cotton as the University Accounting Department, Mr. Lloyd Jenkins as the University Liaison Registrar (his address is in Torremolinas, Malaga, Spain), Dean Jenkins and Robin Jenkins as Tutors.

My understanding is that none of the institutions mentioned above is licensed or recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Education, nor are they authorized to teach or offer degrees in Ontario.

 

If a school located in Ontario is NOT recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Education, then the school is NOT legitimate. Even private vocational/technical schools in the Province of Ontario must be registered with and approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

 

It used to be in partnership with Bircham International University for many years. Nuff said.

Cheers,

George

 

Yes, and have tried all sorts of other unaccredited linkages from time to time...

Stay away!

 

I've taken the TESOL course offered at the Canadian Institute of English and have benefited greatly from the instruction. I've learned about various teaching methods that have proved to be effective in teaching a foreign language. The course is designed to prepare TESOL instructors who have the goal of mainly teaching outside of the US and Canada. I think this is a wonderful program and would recommend it to anyone desirous of teaching TESOL outside of the US and Canada.

 

Yet another in an apparently neverending series of people registering with the site for the sole purpose of digging up an ancient thread for the purpose of promoting another un-wonderful entity. This pattern has become so familiar that it is clearly backfiring. Does april really think that she's convincing anyone that this is a legitimate university? I'm suggesting that she's doing the exact opposite. She's convincing everyone that this is a scam school just by dredging up this old thread and making an unconvincing endorsement.
:lame:

 

Thanks Steve, I had forgotten that step. The link has been removed.

 

The original poster has created confusion by posting evidence that the CIE is not a real university. This is confusing because it is not a university of any kind. It is a small business which conducts five-day face-to-face seminars for teachers of English as a second language.

I stumbled on this thread while searching for Harry Cotton's e-mail address. I have registered to post a reply because I resent the aspersions cast on Harry Cotton's character and his course. Before anyone says that I am trying to boost the CIE's page rank, I would like to point out that the link was removed long ago after April's posting was incorrectly identified as spam.

At the end of the seminar the students get a certificate which states that they have completed a 40-hour course in teaching English as a second language (TESOL). I gather the course is primarily meant for young people who want to live abroad for a few years and need a way to support themselves. Teaching English is a good way to do this. I have a friend who took Harry Cotton's course and supported himself as an English tutor for several years in Estonia.

I was sent to a seminar conducted by Harry Cotton by an organization for which I do volunteer work. It was not the usual dull continuing education program. It turned out to be an intense workshop conducted by a very enthusiastic and knowledable instructor. He really does teach important techniques which are not yet widely used. I have since used many of them with great success and would never go back to the old ways.

We were all there for a special continuing education version of the program, but someone asked about the certificate version and prospects for getting work with it. He said that it depended on the country where you wanted to work. For some countries a college degree is required. That was when he mentioned the distance learning program at the Caribean medical school. He said the degree is not at all prestigious, but good enough to fulfill the legal requirements in several countries. This was not something he was recommending to his students in general.

In short, Harry Cotton teaches a good seminar which is well worth the $600 he charges. April's endorsement isn't fake even if it sounds suspiciously generic. That is what all his students really think of the program. Word-of-mouth keeps it alive, not fake reviews.

 

Really?

1) How interesting that my post from 2005 is still generating comment
2) how sad that much of that commentary is from people who feel the CIE needs to be defended
3) how depressing that organizations such as this can continue to operate
4) other threads on DegreeInfo are also concerned with this organization: for example - http://www.degreeinfo.com/accreditation-discussions-ra-detc-state-approval-unaccredited-schools/15134-canadian-institute-english-cie.html. If the link does not display or is deleted search for "Canadian Institute of English CIE"

 

Thanks twice, Maniac.

(1) for teaching me what a TESOL / SLAM is. I thought it was something like a "poetry slam" and perhaps the object was to cram as much English instruction as possible into a 5 or 7 minute rhyming session. :smile:

(2) for exposing Mr. Cotton's business practices. I don't care how good the instruction is - the business model, as described, sounds utterly unacceptable.

Johann

PS - BTW - I've heard that most places hiring English teachers for overseas work make sure applicants' degrees are "real." No?