Duplichain University is another mill?

Is Duplichain University a degree mill? I searched around, and to me it is a mill. Any expert for verification? Especially operating in the United States with "International BED DAF." And I have never heard of this accreditation body until now.

URL: DUPLICHAIN dot ORG (do not want to post active link to avoid advertisement)

"International BEDAF Accreditation

BEDAF is an independent accreditation body which accredits and certifies educational institutions for their quality in various aspects such as curricula, staff, physical conditions, facilities or services regardless of their functioning location. The accreditation process is completely reliable and academic through expert observation, inspections and evaluation. Therefore being accredited by BEDAF is recognised by any governmental or nongovernmental organisations seeking reliability of an educational institution certified by an independent international accreditation body. There are various institutions accredited by BEDAF in different parts of the world including the United States."

[video=youtube;XSZ29Qf4rU4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSZ29Qf4rU4[/video]

 

Less than 90 seconds on their website produced several red flags:

1. Located in Lake Charles, LA.
2. While located in the USA, DU claims "international accreditation."
3. The DU website has an .org suffix.

These red flags are enough for me!

 

According to CHEA, Duplichain University has "Applicant" status with SACS, the regional accreditation agency for Louisiana. This implies that Duplichain has attempted to pursue regional accreditation. However, Duplichain is not currently listed as a "Candidate" by SACS, which implies that it has not, as yet, advanced very far in the process. "Candidate" status is commonly accepted as "pre-accreditation", but "Applicant" status does not have the same weight.

 

The Louisiana Board of Regents discussed Duplichain University in their January 2013 Board Meeting. At that time, they agreed to extend DU's license through August 2013, pending their application with SACS. Don't know what happened after that.

DU does not appear to have recognized US accreditation at this time. But as of 2013, DU was apparently state-licensed and pursuing regional accreditation.

 

This is true, but I want to add the thought that the difference between "Applicant" and "Candidate" is almost the entire distance between "Unaccredited" and "Accredited."

It doesn't take too much to become an Applicant. And being a Candidate means you're school is "accreditable," but the agency wants to observe for awhile (1-5 years, typically).

 

Some quick observations:

Good
Limited curriculum
Board members seem to be real people
Attempting a journal
They seem to be organized as if they want to be a university

Not Good

Awarding doctorates. (Really? Already?)
Claims "international accreditation." No such thing recognized anywhere. This can be misleading and adds nothing to their credibility.
Crummy online library
No biographical info on board members
Broken links
Only 9 faculty members listed in catalog (and they award the Ph.D.? Really?)
The founder might have already sold it

My Take: Insufficient, but sincere. Looks like a few local educators got together and formed a university. Not a classic Louisiana mill, though, but not yet a real university. I'd wait and see.

 

Another unaccredited University with outrageous tuition fees.

 

I went to the BEDAF site (accreditor). I note someone on the Advisory Board there is also on the Duplichain faculty.

Try www -dot-bedaf-dot-org-dot-uk/advisory_board.php

Doesn't appear to me, at first glance, that this level of accreditation would lend any credence to an otherwise unaccredited school's degrees. Reminds me of ASIC in that respect, but at least ASIC comes right out and says so!

Johann

 

Then again, if you look closely at BEDAF, it seems more targeted to non-degree-granting schools - in particular, language training schools. That sounds logical, as I believe BEDAF's founder also owns a TESOL institution. I think perhaps Duplichain is making more of its BEDAF status than it ought. Unfortunately, that's common with schools showing non-standard accreditation.

Whatever BEDAF accreditation means - and I'm not saying it's bad - it does not mean what accreditation normally means for a US-located school. I'm sure Duplichain would like it to, though.

Johann

 

It's bad because, by "accrediting" a degree-granting school that is otherwise unaccredited, it allows that school to deceive with it.

 

OK - you believe in this case that both the accreditor and the school are doing something bad. That's your right, I guess. No argument here.

Johann

 

Maybe you're right. I see no disclaimer about having no US-recognized accreditation. I think there should be one. And it's too "cozy" for my liking. The FOUNDER of Duplichain is the one who's on the Advisory Board at BEDAF.

Well, if SACS says no, here's a plan that might work:

Find a country with no universities of its own and an Education Ministry with an appropriately small staff. Perhaps somewhere in the Caribbean might be suitable. Show the BEDAF certificate and tell the authorities how great that International Accreditation is. Perhaps they'll be so flattered to have a foreign University "fall down on their shores" that they might accord the school some type of recognition --

Yeah -- might work.

Johann

 

President Press Robinson Sr. has only one 'hit' in Google: his Facebook page . . . but that page shows the address of Duplichain, which is given as 116 State St., Lake Charles. Google Street View shows that as an apparent office mall, but signs not visible to me. No mail box rentals at that address. Another address in corporate filings is 256 McGehee Dr., Baton Rouge.

The founder (in 2010) and now Comptroller is Rose Duhon-Sells, is apparently the Vice Chancellor of the regionally accredited Southern University, and author of three education books, and President of the Alice Green Duplichain Peace Education/Emotional Intelligence Foundation, Inc., a Louisiana not-for-profit corporation established 2004. She is also founder or director of 4 or 5 other Louisiana non-profit corporations in mental health and juvenile justice, and manager of the Sophie Wright Bookstore. She is the daughter of Alice Green Duplichain.

Bottom line (so far) for me is that this is a sincere and legitimate place, unfortunately misguided (as many other sincere people have been) in pursuing and using meaningless and misleading accreditation. Another misleading (but not uncommon) thing is using clip art for the only picture of a human on the site; that picture is found in quite a few other websites, such as this one: FlexTime Solutions – Client

I am referring this site to the folks at Duplichain, in the hope they might come here and comment or explain.

 

I agree. Even if ASIC's "international accreditation" is questionable, the organisation itself is UK Border Agency approved: BEDAF, on the other hand, apparently is its own master.

 

You said I am referring to Charisma, Steve. I didn't. How could I be? Mere conjecture. I've never seen any admission of the sort I dreamed up from any school, and I'm sure I never will. But someone who might have been speaking for that school, for all I know, did say, on another forum, that G*d had cursed me (and others) at his request, though...

Is ASIC any more or less recognized in the UK than BEDAF? They both advertise "British Accreditation" and it appears they both consider themselves recognized. Yes, ASIC was empowered to accredit schools for the UK Border Agency -- and BEDAF never was, but I think both agencies claim about equal recognition as "international accreditors," despite that accreditation being meaningless in the normal US sense of the word, as it refers to degree-granting schools. BEDAF and ASIC claim the same "international" authority - and each probably has about the same -- but what each has might well differ from that claimed.

Getting back to Duplichain, it seems that BEDAF has accredited some very good schools, e.g. Suleyman Demirel University in Turkey. Someone reminded me a while ago that ASIC had done the same, including an excellent Medical University in Iran. To me, that doesn't say anything bad about the schools in either case -- or anything particularly favourable about the accreditor, either. In each case, I'd say the school paid for recognition they didn't really need, having sufficient already.

I don't like to see people from schools on the boards of the "International accreditors" that accredit their schools. Not always a problem, I suppose, but it reminds me of a case where it was a problem. There was (and still is) a US school that has/had no recognized US accreditation. Its founder and several overseas academics formed an overseas acreditation agency, in the Pacific region. The organization proceeded to accredit the US school - and one other, not in the US, IIRC.

On another board, one of the forum-members, smarter than me, (doesn't take too much) determined that the US University's founder was also Chairman of the accrediting org. when his school was accredited. One of the overseas academics hotly denied this, demanded that posts on the subject be deleted -- and the accreditor's website was hastily altered. ...but the archived version was still there.

These days, that school still has no US recognition -- but hey, it's got ASIC!

I'm not saying Duplichain has bad intentions - but close relationships with "international accreditors" that freely accredit schools where their imprimatur is unrecognized as accreditation (US)... Yeah - that bothers me some. Well, if SACS sees no problem, then there is none, I guess.

Johann

 

Cachet? Yes. And cachet works like crazy in marketing -- "Meaningful" is often an irrelevant construct in the marketing world. I know that for sure. I studied marketing, quite some years ago. Hey, I even got a small scholarship out of it... :smile:

OK by me - not on its own, as you say. And I think that applies in both cases. Examples - ASIC and the fine Medical University in Iran, BEDAF and the excellent Suleyman Demirel U. in Turkey.

Johann

 

It seems Duplichain was established in 2008 and last year, the school held its first graduation ceremony, including Doctoral awards.

From the site:

"On June 2, 2013 Duplichain University (DU) held its first ever graduation exercises at the Lake Charles, Louisiana Civic Center. Ten (10) students (7 PhDs and 3 Master’s) participated in the ceremony, including the husband-wife team of Joynal and Tanesha Abdin.* Four (4) additional students received their PhDs in December."

Johann

 

Did you try putting quotes around his name, Dr. Bear? -- or try another search engine? There were many, many references on Bing.

Dr. Robinson is the retired Chancellor of Southern University. He retired after 41 years service at that school. I believe he also served and held office on the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board from 1980-2002. I read that he was the Board's first black member.

And this from the Duplichain site itself:

"Dr. Robinson received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Howard University in 1964; a Master of Science in Physical Chemistry from Howard University in 1962; and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Morehouse College in 1959."

Johann