Last summer I sent a CV to several African Universites to inquire about whether they had a doctoral program in Psychology by distance study by either research or published work. I received either no responses or "NO we don't responses" Recently however I received this e-mail: Dear Mr.Laferney, Re: Doctorate Degree in Psychology In Respect of Micheal C. Laferney Please refer to your e-mail of August 22, 2004 on the above subject matter. I write to inform you that the Department of Psychology is prepared to accept you for a doctorate degree in psychology under the condition that you do some course work in psychology to remedy deficiences in clinical/child psychology stress areas. If interested, you could correspond directly with the Head Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria Nsukka for further details. I.A.S. Onyeador (Mrs.) For Registrar From : chinemere dioka <[email protected]> MY questions are: Does this seem legitamate? Is this an GAAP University? Anybody know anything about this university or Psychology Dept? Thanks in advance for all responses. LaFerney
Absolutely legitimate/GAAP. I think the Nigeran national interuniversity press is based there (not absolutely sure). Our esteemed Dr Ike Okonkwo could likely give you more details.
Thank you , uncle Janko for your response. I'm interested in pursuing it further but it is hard since they don't seem to have a website. so Dr Ike Okonkwo or anyone else out there does it sound like something possible to complete? I am going to write their Psychology Dept. for further detail on what they would have me do.
This opportunity seems like it could have real potential. I would advise you to ask for a bit more than some general instructions from the Dept of Psychology however. You should ask for a university catalog, a prospectus from the graduate school, and a copy of the rules that govern doctoral students. The details can either make or break the deal. They'll throw it all into the mail. You might want to consider offering to pay for the FedEx costs as parcel post from Nigeria could take some time. Also, when you discover the cost of the program I would appreciate your posting that information. Good luck, Jack
Hi Janko, Yes, that's my alma mater. I received my bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from University of Nigeria, Nsukka eighteen years ago (actually in 1986). Like you said, it is legitimate. It is also one of the pre-eminent tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Ike
It is legitimate I received my bachelor's in electrical engineering from University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in 1986. Like Janko said, it is absolutely legitimate. One of my roommates actually received a degree in Psychology in 1984, so I am sure that the university has a psychology department. The university was ranked #1 among all Nigerian Universities three years ago (I think) by the country's National University Commission (NUC). There are about 60 state and federal universities in Nigeria. UNN is a federal university. As far the psychology program goes, I believe that UNN’s program is one of the best in in the country. About 80 percent of the university’s faculty members received their PhDs in the USA and the UK. One advice that I have for you is to watch out for the kind of people that Nigerians refer to as 419ners (swindlers or fraudsters). Make sure that you are dealing with the right people. I have never heard that the university has DL programs but I could be wrong. Ike
Thank you for the info. I did read that there is alot of corruption in Nigeria and am concerned too about "419ners" The University is listed in The Association of Commonwealth Universities and offers Psychology through the doctoral level. It's not the University itself or Nigeria that concerns me. I am writing to the University itself as suggested in the e-mail (and with the advice of Jack Tracy-thanks) and will see what info I receive. Will share with the site when it arrives.
Section 419 of Nigerian Criminal Code deals with legal responsibilities of each party in a contract as well as penalties/punishment for breaching the contract. In Nigeria (and other West African countries), 419ners thrive exclusively by violating this section of the criminal code. Regarding its origin, I believe that the term became a household word in the late 80s when Nigerian courts were inundated with innumerable breach of contract lawsuits for violation of section 419. Ike
Mr. Laferney, Dr. Okonkwo has very well alluded to the point that I was going to make about the University of Nigeria. I am a Nigerian as well. Yes, the University of Nigeria is a legitimate and one of the leading university in Nigeria. Dr. Ike was also correct to inform you to be careful of the 419 (niners). These are people who swindles other people for their money. Hence, the email address that you indicated seems very suspiscious to me...(From : chinemere dioka <[email protected]> ). For a university having a yahoo.com address seems very suspiscious to me. Just be careful. The educational opportunities may seems great, but the potential loss of your money is as equally great. Like Ike said, make sure that all relevant transactions are made and verified through the appropriate institutional medium (no individual parties). Good luck to you in your quest for further studies. Thank you.
e-mail U. of Nigeria Cehi: Thank you for the advice. On the trusted Association of Commonwealth Universities website at http://www.acu.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frameset.pl?ml=membership&sl=membership&select=members the e-mail address for the University is: Email: [email protected] I was surprised a University would have an aol.com address I will e-mail Admissions (higher degree): Prof. Charles C. Okafor, Dean/Head, School of Postgraduate Studies at this website to see if the original e-mail can be confirmed. I thought that since the registrar instructed me to contact the Head of Psychology at the University it might be creditable. Again thanks for all advce given.
I would really be interested in knowing if this is for real - I would like to join in attempting the PhD from here. Let me know if and when you find out please. Thanks, Howard.
Check the Nigerian Consulate, New York web site for information about University of Nigeria, Nsukka. While it is a good university, certain individuals have been using the school for fraudulent activities. The University has published a disclaimer which was available at the consulate web site recently and I believe Nigeria's embassy web site also. To the best of my knowledge universities in Nigeria do not currently offer distance education. That is not to say there may be no exceptions. The fact that the individual that communicated with you gave a yahoo email address is suspect. Nigerian universities now have internet email access. Therefore, there should be no reason for a high official of one of the premier universities in Nigeria using a yahoo email address for official business on behalf of the university. 419 is a section of a Nigerian law that punishes those who defraud others under false pretenses. Be careful and good luck. oko
Thanks -I have contacted the Nigerian embassy and they have forwarded my question to the proper dept. about the e-mail's validity to be evaluated and will get back to me. The more I research this the more it becomes suspect. I will consider it suspect until I have this verifed from the consulate. Hopefully it's legitimate, but in either case I thank the responders to this post for showing concern for a fellow degreeinfo member and pointing out an example of how "scammers" can attempt to defraud people -even using a real university in their scheme!
Let us know what happens. IF it turns out phony, I think something like this happened before with some university in Peru, where some professor was running a fake program claiming it was part of the university and pocketing the cash. Anybody remember the earlier episode more clearly?
Things do not usually move fast through the Nigerian bureaucracy. I was too busy when I initially read your concern about the University of Nigeria to actually send you the link. Here is the link to the disclaimer on the Nigerian Consulate, New York's web site if you have not already checked it out. http://www.nigeria-consulate-ny.org/News/re-fraudulent.htm I am leaning towards believing the information you got from that registrar to be fraudulent. Then again, I could be wrong. Investigate it as much as you can beginning with the link above. Hopefully, you will hear from the Nigerian Embassy also. Good luck. If it turns out to be true (I am skeptical), the university is a great school. Oko
I finally received a reply after -e-mailing the consulate, university and embassy and sending a letter in the post- The Registrar BARR. P. CHINEMERE DIOKA AMNES, BA, LLB, BL was rather upset about my questioning whether the e-mail sent to me was real or fraudulent. I wrote back that I meant no insult but needed to check it out because of "419ners" He also stated that the University o f Nigeria does not offer corresponsence courses" so I don't know how I could make up the areas he listed that I need. I asked how thay could know what areas I was deficient in as they had not seen my transcripts-only my C.V. He then directed me to contact the chair of Psychology if I was still interested. I can't go to Nigeria to take any courses and they don't offer correspondence courses so I guess this is the end of it. I did e-mail the Head of Psychology to ask what I could do to "make up the deficiencies" and earn the degree but he has not replied. So I don't know what to make of this -was it real or something else? It did seem to originate at the university. I will forget about it for now unless the Head of Psychology gets back to me with reasonable way to meet the requirement.
I am still recommending caution. I saw University of Nigeria.com web site on the internet listing about 37 satellite campuses. That is a bogus web site. For example, there is a University of Benin City as one of their campuses. There is no such thing as University of Benin City. I am from that city. There is a legitimate University of Benin which is a full fledged federal university not an affiliate or satellite campus of University Nigeria. This whole thing looks fishy to me. I usually do not read or respond to this forum while school is in session but I made an exception because I do not want you or others to fall for these guys parading themselves on the internet as university when they are not. The sad thing is on this web site they had University of Ibadan as a satellite campus of University of Nigeria. The fact is University of Ibadan is the first University in Nigeria founded in 1948 with impressive campus. This premier Nigerian University cannot be branch campus of the University of Nigeria. They are simply taking unsuspecting members of the public to the bank. Good luck. Oko
OKO; Thanks for your concern. I am aware of this bogus website. The real U.Of Nigeria website is at http://www.unn-edu.net/index.html and CHINEMERE DIOKA is listed as the registrar so I suspect the message is real. It does appear fishy to me too-I don't know if people from the real U. Of Nigeria were trying to scam me, whether it was a genuine opportunity to work for a doctorate, or a bogus group pretending to be from the U. Of Nigeria. At this point I'm going to forget about it unless some new info comes in that is clearer and more creditable. I appreciate your help and responses.
A great pity that the bogus website is the first website. Then again, I believe that they are a parody site. "World Leaders of Ethical Business Studies" and "Creators of Advanced Fee Methodology" on the front page?", not to mention the testimonials of the alumni. Edit:Looked at more of the site and I am now certain of it.
