Degree Consultancy

I appreciate that non-traditional internet colleges and universities that do not have USA 'establishment' accreditation are all considered to be 'degree mills'. With this in mind I was somewhat surprised to discover that (whilst googling on this hot afternoon in paradise; around 30 degrees C) that a Vietnamese degree consultancy company is advertising/marketing the following internet educational establishments:

BARRINGTON UNIVERSITY
EDINBURGH BUSINESS SCHOOL
HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY
TRINITY COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY (USA)
SOUTH PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

 

Hot in New Zealand!!!! Never!!!!!

Cheers,

George

 

I’m curious. Since any student could look up these schools on the Internet and enroll – how does this company make money?

 

The Vietnamese Degree/Educational Consultancy can be viewed
on - http://minerva.vietnamopenmarket.com
I can only assume that the educational establishments listed on their website pay Minerva Vietnam Ltd a substantial fee for the advertising, which is, of course, aimed mainly at the very large
oriental market.

 

I hope we'll hear from Professor Kennedy at Edinburgh Business School on this one.

There have been at least three EBS/Heriot-Watt agents in the past (one in England, one in Japan, one in Singapore) who used Heriot-Watt primarily as bait for a bait and switch scheme. Once someone replied to Heriot-Watt advertising, they were offered the option of doing "just as good a degree" at a much lower price, at one of the dreadful or fake schools.

If this is happening again, I hope Heriot-Watt will put its large Scottish foot down once again, and stop this.

Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Not approved here

John

This certainly news to me and I will get onto it straight away, though I do not physically return to EBS until 10 January (I am in France at present, among other things writing exam papers and solutions for 2004-5).

As soon as I get information about this unknown (to me) Vietnamese agency I will report here. In the meantime do not let us jump to conclusions - if it is 'authorised' it will be stopped and if it is a 'switch' selling con, it will be pursued legally.

 

bachelor and graduate credits for online courses

Hi!

I'm new to this website. I'm not certain if my question belongs here, but I will post it because I think someone here can help me.

I am a graduate of Thomas Edison State College with my Bachelors of Arts degree in Social Sciences/History. I have several years experience as a professional instructional tutor as well as extensive volunteer experience as an reading tutor for Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA). I have also taken free professional development courses in History through Camden County College.

While trying to find accredited online graduate programs, I found these web sites.

www.onlinehumanities.com
www.universalclass.com

What do you think of these websites for earning graduate and undergraduate credits.

Thanks for your responses!

Lilith

 

Welcome, Lilith

Re "onlinehumanities.com" -- NO!
They seem to represent one legitimate school (Empire State) and a bunch of others, some dreadful, with no recognized accreditation: Akamai University, American Coastline University, University for Professional Studies, and Saint Regis University.

(Akamai is the new Hawaii venture of Doug Capogrossi, late of Greenwich and IUHS).

I'm not familiar with the other site. Seems to be a huge array of courses of all kinds, but are degrees involved?

Be sure to search here, then ask about, any school you are considering. There are lots of good ones . . . and lots of bad and fake ones out there.

John Bear
Co-author, Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by
Distance Learning (15th edition)
http://circledance.tripod.com

 

Hello-TESC person

Hello, It is nice to have an additional TESC person on the site. If you are looking for some really low cost courses there is one buried in the archives that I hope someone will access. If you need any other ideas feel free to contact me. Dr. Bears book should be at the local Barnes and Noble next week. Have a good evening. Hille [email protected]

 

Sorry

I tried to type there is a list of courses with prices buried in the archives. Hille

 

I've been out of action for a week or so, but have just received a nice email from Barrington University! Not sure how they picked up my email address, but their note prompted me to enquire as to whether Professor Kennedy had determined how his University came to being featured on the Vietnam Consultacy website - with the other colleges and universities listed.

 

Action underway

I contacted Pearson Education (our marketing partner for the EBS MBA) and drew their attention to this and it was discussed last week prior to a visit by Pearson executives to Vietnam.

Their view was that the Vietnamese company was ignorant of the status of these institutions named alongside EBS and they would point our their dubious background. I insisted that, while EBS does not require a monopoly with an agency that they only market the EBS MBA - we are quite happy to have competing universities on their list with ours, we did require that any contracts for local distribution must be with reputable universities, fully accredited by their host countries and of institutions not on any Degreeinfo.com lists of suspicious ventures (I combed back threads for comments on the institutions named).

The Pearson executives return next week and I await their report. Incicentally, I asked for the accounts and there does not seem to be any 'switch selling' going on as they are very healthy and I am assured by Pearson that the local agency is kosher. It may be they are also naive (as, apparently, are many US employers who take degree mill degrees at face value despite warnings from an attentive media - and degreeinfo.).

The issue is far from settled, I can assure you. I am most grateful for you drawing this situation to my attention.

 

Professor Kennedy is obviously a very influencial person in the DL business, as I've just noticed that the Vietnamese DL Consultancy company has dropped Barrington University and Trinity C&U from its website.
Down in the deep south it looks like another great day in paradise.

 

Hi FnHayes

You are too generous in making me "a very influencial person in the DL business", a status to which I would never pretend.

I am, however, influential in EBS and anything affecting EBS that comes to my attention that is contrary to our pedagogy and declared policies I will intervene in where I can exert influence.

It is not always possible to do things instantly and the Vietnamese agent was ill informed about the status of the institutions posted as associated with us (excepting the University of Portsmouth, which is a prestigious British university of good standing the DL). They took appropriate action when appraised of the facts, for which I am grateful (and to you too, for bringing this to my attention).

Somebody else on another thread raised the issue that the EBS DBA advertised the inclusion of off-campus assignments worth up to 30 per cent of the pass grade. This, of course, is contrary to EBS declared policy of an exams only regime (tough but fair) for DL and on Friday the team concerned were reminded of this and the assignments statement was withdrawn. It will not re-appear in the new statement due to be uploaded soon.

The EBS DBA is a new venture for our DL programme and sometimes the details for the October launch run ahead of supervision. Everybody is so busy to get the programme up and running for October 2003 that attenhtion 'wanders', but I am sure that I can rely on the eagle eyes of Degreeinfo.com regulars to keep us on track!