I put most of this in the other topics forum when this one crashed last week... This is how I am planning to make a new university: I will give FREE tuition material and some tests online for the five main CLEP exams and three GRE subjects (Literature, Biology, Psychology) plus extra bits such as Diploma and Advanced Diploma ABE exams (UK). I may make a course based on the material I gathered for my own Ph.D. to ensure students know how to present researched academic essays and oral presentations (by Broadband or posting a video/DVD). I intend to award degrees if students get good enough grades on CLEP/GRE/ABE and my own course(s). Probably they won't want my unaccredited degree but they will have been given the chance to get a Charter Oak/Thomas Edison/Excelsior degree. The point is that I will be providing tuition for recognised degrees. I think my your own degrees will be respected if they are backed by transcripts with CLEP/GRE/ABE exams), even if I afford the accreditation process. If nobody takes up the offer of a degree, I will hopefully have established a good distance education for CLEP etc. Anyway, that's how I'm starting up, but which is the best US state where to register? Report this post to
Thanks for one of the funniest posts I've read on degreeinfo.com to date. You, a mere wazoo with no profile information who has only posted on this forum twice, intend to grant degrees? You are either the latest sleazebag to come along, or very naive. My take: You're a very naive sleazebag. No one person grants legitimate degrees, period. Ah, but I digress . . . Perhaps you'll be kind enough to identify yourself more fully, and tell us about the source of your own alleged Ph.D. But before you do, whether or not English is your first language, take a writing course - your skills are atrocious. I hope you make your response as funny as the first post in this thread.
I have taught now in several universities and when students arrive they are told to discuss the idea, not attack the person who suggests it. In your case you are insulting someone you know nothing about. Secondly, you are ignoring the advice given by www.degree.net to be civil in your language. This forum has a most unfortunate culture. Don't you people have any manners at all? Is this the way you deal in everyday life with social encounters? I have read this column for several years (it is not necesssary to register) and seen many letters like yours. People like you have nothing to offer but want to ensure that anybody who does will never get a civilized response. Yes, I have a proper doctorate, publications, professorships, fellowships et al., but I sympathise with people who have neither the time nor salary to afford full time quality education. I have given a proposal. If all I get is abuse, I will have nothing more to do with this column.
Like, for example? Yes he does. He knows that you have only just now registered, won't tell us anything verifiable about yourself so that some credibility may inure to your words, and here proposes a silly notion. He knows at least that much about you, does he not? And did he really say other than that about you? Hmm? Hmm. By performing the following search at Google: civil language site:degree.net I am unable to find anything about "civil language" on that site. The degree.net site is the Ten-Speed-Press-owned site that mostly just hawks John Bear's past works, among others. Are you sure you meant degree.net and not some other site? What this place has -- and in spades, in Levicoff's case -- is zero tolerance for tomfoolery when it comes to education. Simple as that. You're certainly welcome to come here and float a new idea, but be prepared to have it summarily shot down -- and if by Levicoff, not daintily -- if it seems either facially meritless or cluelessly proffered. It's a "forum," not a "column;" but I pick nits. Please continue. People like Levicoff have nothing to offer? You're kidding, right? And you honestly believe that Levicoff and/or his ilk, here, wants to ensure that people who offer new ideas "will never get a civilized response?" Really? I mean, you see that as his actual aim, do you? The ridiculousness of that allegation, alone, doesn't suggest something to you about your marginal propensity for silliness? And, if so, is Levicoff to be chastised because he can recognize it 10 miles out; and, in keeping with his tendancy not to suffer fools, calls it both as soon as as spots it, and also for what it is? Is it Levicoff's fault that his silliness sensor is well-tuned and highly refined? Then name 'em. One of the unspoken but nevertheless understood rules around here is that no one's qualifications are questioned or challenged unless they put 'em out there, like you've just done. So name 'em, Mr. Credibility. So do we; and, in fact, many here are the very poor souls with whom you say you sympathize. And because people like Levicoff believe they deserve not to be misled -- even by the self-declared well-intentioned -- he rightly nails propositions of silliness which are either facially so, or simply are so by virtue of their lack of supporting information as to nature or source... as is the case, in your case. And it has been fired-upon by a credible master... as it should be around here. Suffering fools ain't how this place (or Levicoff) got its (his) rep. No one abused you. Get a grip. Again, it's a "forum," not a "column"... but I digress. Now, there's an idea (your having nothing more to do with us, I mean). But just remember that it's yours idea -- at least for the moment -- and not ours. You may potentially garner respect (if not support) for your idea here by bothering to present it alongside some sort of obvious (and verifiable) evidence that you are truly qualified to at least present it, much less execute it; as well as some sort of indication that you truly grasp the very nature of the complex conventional educational beast, so that when you offer an alternative thereto others won't feel the need to stifle laughter. All Levicoff was doing was writing to you what others here were thinking... ...or would you actually prefer a "The Emperor's New Clothes" way of doing things around here, instead? That's the very sort of crap that has earned some of the other fora their reputations for, among other impediments, being repositories of the ridiculous; and why DegreeInfo is so universally reviled by the purveyors of riduculousness who are post in those other fora with impunity, and with their silly notions largely unchallenged in any meaningful ways. You're most certainly welcome here... at least so far; but if you dare to come here and float a new idea that has an air of ridiculousness about it on its very face, as you did, then just be prepared to defend it... ...an eventuality for which an education and experiences such as those which you ask us to believe you have (but which you're seemingly not willing to offer-up about yourself here) should have more-than-adequately prepared you, I would think.
If you are legitimate I would love to hear more of your ideas. Offering free tuition for CLEP study material would be great. I am not sure how you would do that but, I am open to hear all that you have to say. Here or PM would be fine. Thanks, have a good day.
An exam prep program might be valuable. Why in the world would you do that? Setting yourself up as your own little one-man degree-granting university will only discredit what could have been a useful venture. Please don't do something foolish. Perhaps you should investigate the existing exam-prep operations, and figure out if you can offer something competitive or even better. Then start out slow with only a handful of exams, by creating a good product that actually helps your students succeed. Expand it to more exams only as you acquire the staff and infrastructure to support them. You aren't going to be able to teach a whole degree syllabus, even in one subject, all by yourself, while serving as your "university's" entire administration at the same time. Try to be realistic here. I don't know if any state will approve a one-man degree-granting university. You would have trouble starting a one-man exam-prep company in many places, I think. Here in California, you would need CA-approval from the BPPVE to operate pretty much any kind of post-secondary educational operation, even if you aren't granting any degrees.
The first 24 years of my career were spent in third world countries setting up, firstly, high schools; secondly, writing distance education programs for teachers; and, thirdly, teaching at universities where libraries had been looted, staff butchered, and students traumatised. For the past eight years I have been a university lecturer in first world countries, where university education is now big business. A month ago I visited an African student I taught in 1968. She is now a senior lecturer at a teacher training college. She earns US$160 a month. The bookshops in the nearby city sell only religious material. Termites wrecked her own small book collection when she was away on a short scholarship to Britain. Next year, hopefully, she will get another scholarship, this time to the USA. Her story is typical. In Asia and Africa, education in the first world, especially in an English-speaking country, is the path to career success. However, people like my former African student, with low salaries (and the cost of living isn't low) develop a "cargo cult" mentality, looking to the external donors for hope, knowing that their local degree(s) do not command respect. During my three week stay in that country, I was invited by its prime minister to tour with him the northern part of the country, visiting agricultural and industrial projects. In every case the senior staff and technical experts were foreigners. Worse, even jobs such as advising peasants how to vote in elections were being undertaken by NGO staff, many of them “neo-missionaries” - young foreigners, indubitably enthusiastic but a bit short on understanding. The country has not been providing adequate technical and educational expertise for a long time. I am hardly in a position to offer a grand cure-all solution but I have been strongly influenced by two events: (1) the termination in that country over 25 years ago of the Cambridge University secondary school examination system. Consequently, richer families, particularly those of South Asian origin, sent their children out of the country; (2) the termination of London University's former external program when the university didn't care how you studied so long as you passed its examinations. These days London University's external program is "in-house" - you may pay for tuition. Before I left Africa in November I had a big reunion with many of my friends, former students and colleagues. One had married the country's president. All agreed that internationally recognised school and university qualifications had done much to launch them into successful careers. For example, one man had spent his early career in deep despair, sent as a primary school teacher in a very inhospitable area (when I went there they gave me a spear to ward off nasty fauna on the way to the drop toilet). He studied successfully by correspondence course for British university entrance exams in Maths and Economics and eventually got a management position in the Central Bank. These days a primary school teacher cannot afford to do such a course. Now university entrance ("Foundation Course" and "Pre-Masters) and University education is global big business. I have taught at two British universities and was told at both of them to go easy on foreign students because we needed their fees. Worse, many are passing their degrees by assignments written by other people, sometimes impecunious or plainly greedy academics. I failed a student his qualifying Masters course because his assignments had been copied out of books. He appealed and got lecturers in the university from his country to support him, telling my superiors that he was a genius. He was acepted for a masters degree and , according to my Chinese informants, he sits in Chinatown (London) paying people to research and write his dissertation. Yes, his father does govern an important Chinese province, which is probably why the university took him without an English Language score. Earlier this year a rich Iranian told me there was always a way to get an academically challenged student into a British university by "putting pressure" on administrative and academic staff. This is hardly new. In 1968, my former professor's daughter made a mess of her university entrance exams but told me "Daddy will fix it." Daddy did - she went to Oxford University. Lastly, I am sick of the university culture whereby many students expect A grades as a matter of course, because they have paid the fees. Strict lecturers and tutors incur bad student assessment reports. So there we are. I am nostalgic for the world that is lost - cheap internationally recognised higher education. There may not be books in my former student's country but there are internet cafes even in the villages. And the internet can also help already educated personnel receive materials, organise residential, and deliver tuition. I am aware that this background is not shared by most who read this column. I am looking at the American system from another perspective and, because this does not conform, I am ridiculed. Maybe my critics in this column (from Central casting or “Deliverance”?) abuse people who not only think differently but look different or are physically disadvantaged. In my view the CLEP/GRE/ABE/DANTES examination system followed by credit recognition and degree granting by Charter Oak, Thomas Edison, or Excelsior is a good way to get a quality degree, but it is still cumbersome and expensive for the people I am thinking a about. My solution therefore is to recreate something similar to the old London system. I don't advocate the old London system completely - e.g. nine papers of three hours (four essays each) plus one also of three hours, where you had to translate texts from at least two languages, all taken in a space of two weeks – but a degree through examinations run by a first world recognised university, which doesn’t care how you got your tuiton. I began corresponding with Dr Bear long before www.degree.net started and am sad that what he set out to do has not yet been accomplished - cheap universally recognised tertiary education. It is even sadder to see that contributors to this website do not behave (at least I hope that is the case) in the same way they would meeting people face to face. In language there is something called "Register". This means you change the way you speak according to whom you speak (parents, friends, boss), where you are (basketball court, movie theatre) or the purpose (ordering a coffee, asking for a loan, disciplining an underling). The same phenomenon occurs in written language and is usually referred to as "genre." Unfortunately, a very large number of people who write on the Internet have abandoned the common courtesies of social interaction. Maybe in their non-Internet persona they are infernally rude dysfunctional paranoid recluses shunned by decent society. Meeting them in real life would be surreal, but meeting them on this forum is most disagreeable. Not one has discussed weaknesses in my proposal. Fortunately, being elderly, revered (!) and internationally experienced, I do have useful high ranking contacts and much tutorial material. However, a first world base is vital, because of internationally accepted accreditation processes. That is why I asked for advice, because I have only been to the USA for three weeks. However, it is obvious, from the response I have had, that the moderators cannot stem the spiteful, denigrator, sarcastic flood from denigrators with personality disorders. I'm sure, in time, my website will be discovered and then you can have another spitefest. Good Bye
Just to clarify the University has not terminated the External Programme. It is alive and well and growing, both in terms of programmes offered and numbers of students - see http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk. We now offer over 100 different qualifications to thousands of students in over 180 countries worldwide. On some programmes students can study entirely on their own, preparing themselves for examinations. On other programmes online tuition and interaction is an important part of the course. Each qualification is different as each has academic direction provided by a different part of the Federal University. All the best, Brendan
DegreeInfo's search capability may be broken, but Google sees all, knows all, tells all. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Bernard+Leeman+site%3Adegreeinfo.com He certainly seems like an extraordinary figure! -=Steve=-
