Article about "Asia's first e-university, Universitas 21 Global"

Pushing the Envelope

 

The school will engage in zone pricing. As the article noted, students in Singapore will pay lower fees than those in the U.S., reflecting differing living standards. Time to get a mail-forwarding address in Bangladesh, I guess....

The degree will be awarded by Universitas 21. This raises some concerns. First, although the 16 participating schools' names and emblems will appear on the diplomas, the degree will still come from the unrecognized Universitas 21. This may have an effect on acceptance.

Another factor in its acceptance is the weird name. Try putting this on a resume:

Master of Business Administration
Universitas 21
May 2005

I can hear the question now: "You have an MBA, I see. But what school did you attend?" Sheesh.....

Still, you gotta love the chutzpah (and the backing of Thompson).

 

Accredited by U21 pedagogica ha ha!!
no one recognize...waste time...waste money
and when you said that you graduate from that U, other people will laught at you.

 

I had a quite an interactive online chat with Prof. Alan Gilbert, ex VC of the University of Melbourne who spearhead the whole project a few years ago. I dont know what his involvement still is, but he promised that U21 would provide the richest, most interactive learning platform ever made. I also drilled him on the degree conferral issue - ie which jurisdiction would confer the degree. He replied that the degrees would be accredited by the Ministry of Education in Singapore - I dont know if that is still the case.

Cheers,

George

 

I just found my questions:

Questions for Alan Gilbert – E-mailed 24/6/02 11.41am

From my understanding, all degrees will be conferred by U21, not one of the member institutions. As such, from which jurisdiction will U21 obtain its degree granting authority? In addition, which accrediting authority will be involved to ensure the degrees are equivalent in standing to a degree issued by an institution accredited by a Regional Accreditation Association or an institution enacted by an Act of Parliament/ Royal Charter?

I recall an interview with Professor Gilbert who stated something akin to the assertion that the U21 online learning model, ‘…will be the most interactive, rich learning environment the world has ever seen.’ Could Professor Gilbert please elaborate on the fundamental workings of the U21 online learning platform and the methods it will employ to revolutionize the world of online learning?

U21 is creating its own quality assurance agency, ‘U21pedagocica’. Could Professor Gilbert please provide a broad outline on the fundamental processes this body will employ to ensure the degrees conferred by U21 will be equivalent in academic rigor to degrees conferred by traditional universities? How will this body ensure it is at arm’s length from the member institutions in order to maintain credibility in the world of academia? Also, how will this body function, especially in light of other national bodies such as the Australian Universities Quality Agency?


Cheers,

George

 

only MBA

As perhaps is to be expected for Singapore and for the largest online DL market, Universitas only offers an MBA. I emailed them enquiring about a BA in liberal arts and got the reply that they do not offer such currently.

 

"Universitas 21" sounds like something the FBI would infiltrate.

 

Universitas 21 (it has 16 participating universities) is trying an interesting strategy, though I do not see it working in its current form.

Originally, it was associated with News International (Murdoch) and was taken over by Thomson Learning. Participating universities make available courses which Universitas 21 markets. As shown by others above, the universities do not accredit the degrees under their own powers and the certificates will have all the logos of the participating schools on them, none of which allows its name to be appended as the awarding body.

This is a weakness. Thomson also markets courses from Cardean University, a virtual entity operating out of Chicago (though it seems to be moving base to New York). This institution is a mini-universitas 21. It has several participating universities, including Chicago, LSE, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford (Engineering not the business school), and Oxford, who in return for a royalty allow their names to be used and individual faculty from these distinguished schools to provide the course content of various subjects, which when taken together it awards an MBA. Up to now, the same weakness as universitas 21 applies, the 'degree' is not from any one of the participating schools. You cannot claim truthfully that you did your MBA at Chicago. The 'examining' regime leaves much to be desired.

Naturally, I wish them both well but I do not think they have found the model to crack the management education market yet.