Hi all, First of all, please forgive me if this post goes a bit long. I'm Rajesh, from India. New to this site. I'm an embedded systems engineer, and am doing well with my career. Two years ago, while looking for some distance learning course, i stumbled across Kensington University, and on contacting them, was directed to Natraj Institute of Science & Technology ( www.nistonline.com ). To cut the story short, i studied for two years, in nights, and was happy to get my MS this year. In fact, i even got a new job in a big semiconductor company (Though my job was nothing to do with the MS in Computer Science, a qualification is a qualification..) and about to move in another couple of weeks. But then, i accidentally saw that kensington.edu was no more, and nistonline.com was "Under Construction". I smelt somethign fishy, and started looking, and then stumbled upon this site. After looking at all the comments in this site about KU, i was a bit worried and felt duped, and mailed the nist that i find this degree more of a disqualification than a qualification. Today i got a mail from them saying that they are now approved by Warnborough University, and that our KU Credits can be transferred to WU, and re-award a degree after a few more papers and a project.. blah blah. Being a bit wiser this time, i did a search again, and.. Well You know all the previous posts in this site on WU... My concern now is that as i have published quit a bit - In my resume, all over the internet, into the hands of big companies (including my new employer) that i am a MS (Which i honestly worked hard to get at). Will i be called a cheater or be accused of providing a phoney certificate or something like that?. Can i still claim that i am an MS?. (May be i am bit greedy.. But it was my money & time..) Thanks for any replies. Regards Rajesh
Kensington has lost its California approval. If you have received your diploma before they lost california approval.. you have a state approved degree. But for now Kensington is an unaccredited university. I am not sure about the legitimacy of your degree. Many HR/recruiters in india are unaware of accreditation. But below outfit in Hyd still show kensington university degree on their web site. Contact them and find out more info. If you work for a multinational company and if they try to find the legitimacy of your MS .. you will in trouble. http://icbmhyd.com/about-kensington.html
Familiar with IGNOU? Svagatam Rajesh, This is not on topic of your thread but... Are you familiar with IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) in India? Their degrees are reputable in India but they don't answer my emails. Perhaps you have a friend who has studied with them. Good luck solving your degree problem
Hermes: I myself did a CIC (Certificate in Computing) from IGNOU. Not that it was really useful, but it was the first step for MCA, which i decided against pursuing because i changed lines (From Software to Embedded). Yes. It is a headache to communicate with them thru emails. Best is to visit one of their centres (spread all over the country) and next is to call them by phone. cableplus: I enrolled in 2001.... Thanks & Regards Rajesh
I think you already know the answers, Rajesh. You have become a textbook case of a "time bomb" ticking away. Now there are probably a lot of people in comparable situations who will go through their entire career and not suffer. But the potential is always there, and it is not comfortable always to be looking over your shoulder, as it were. There is no easy short-term solution, other than hoping for the best, and NOT making things worse by dealing with another questionable school. For a medium and long-term solution, it might make the most sense to earn a "replacement" degree, and phase out your use of Kensington. The best solution would be a doctorate, since it would be entirely reasonable to use ONLY only that degree, and stop mentioning the MS at all. If you are Dr. Rajesh, from a good school, no one will even think about your MS. Assuming you have a problem-free Bachelor's (you didn't mention), you should be able to find a decent distance doctorate, at not too outrageous a cost. There have been postings in this forum about some very inexpensive South African options, and there are quite a few Australian universities that have moved into the distance doctoral world at costs far lower than the US or Europe (Cowan, Sturt, Southern Queensland, etc.). It is not that rare to enter a doctoral program directly from a Bachelor's. Someday, there will be properly-accredited Master's programs where the degree will be based entirely on prior learning. Indeed, one popular university with distance Bachelor's degrees is working on permission for that. But it is nothing to count on at this point; it may be years away. And the small 'saving grace' is that at least you did not deal with a totally fake school. Kensington's Hawaii operation, while not wonderful, was at least legal (as far as I know). Best wishes on this difficult path. (Incidentally, I still wonder on what basis Warnborough grants degrees. Where do they claim their authority to do this? The last time I tried to find out, it seemed to be that they had given themselves this power, through the corporate charter they wrote for Ireland.)
John, unfortunately Kensingtons Hawaii operation was not legal. We sued Kensington last year and I reported the entry of judgment against it several months ago.
Thanks John. Fortunately my Bachelor is problem free, fulltime from university that is perfectly recognized in india. In fact, i survived more than a decade with it. Right now i'm with a big multinational in india, and just hope that i don't have to float my resume again for a long time to come, until when i will be able to sort things out, get a decent PG etc. Thanks & Regards Rajesh
