OUT OF SWITZERLAND HAVE YOU SEEN THIS .???

Folks,
Check this out www.egs.edu any scoop ? They claimed to be authorized by the local ministry of Education & that your Diploma will be signed by the Hon. Minister of Education him/herself. so does that make them GAAP-able ?

Tim.

 

GAAP is a description of what is normally accepted as being equivalent to accreditation. Inclusion in one or more of several guides that have sufficient criteria for such listing is a common way to determine if a school should be considered comparable to an accredited one in the U.S.

From what I could gather, this school would not be considered part of the higher education system in its home country. Therefore, it would not likely be listed in one of the guides that are part of GAAP. Therefore, it doesn't seem likely this school would be accepted as equivalent to an accredited one.

Rich Douglas

 

hm, at least the school has as good homepage (if it really is a degree mill). too bright for a university, but still pretty good (even the "teachers" sound pretty convincing). very good job, i´ve never seen such an amount of information on a degree mill site. maybe it is a real one...

Saas-Fe, where the school is located, is a famous skiing place, but i have never seen a "european university" there.

 

They're dropping some pretty big names...David Lynch is a film and television directorial icon.

Also, the jetsetting between Switzerland and NYC required for the residential sessions is a bit much to ask for most students. Whatever they're trying to do, they've narrowly targeted their audience.

I think most people looking for a degree mill would not find the code words they're looking for on the web site and would move on. Also, most degree mill seekers would find no use for a PhD or MA in Communications.

One puzzling thing: the tuition fees don't fit the high road or the low road, however you want to interpret their motives.

 

I would think this would be the most pragmatic degree a degree mill graduate could have. Think of all the communication techniques one could learn, which would really facilitate a lifetime of convincing everyone the degree was real.

OOPS, I forgot that a degree mill degree is bought, and very little work (if any) is done, so the graduate really wouldn't learn much of anything.

Russell

 

Jean Baudrillard on the faculty? Hmm.... Wasn't he a famous philosopher or sociologist? I learned about him in one of my classes. What's up with DJ Spooky?

------------------
Sam C
www.uci.edu
UCI 2002
[email protected]
Confusion is just the path to insight and knowledge

 

Hi Rich Douglas,
Can you please contact me privately via [email protected] I'll like to check something with you
Thanks,
Tim.

 

You, or anyone else, can reach me at [email protected]

Rich Douglas

 

If one wants a Ph.D. in Rap Music, then Dr. Spooky is the man you want on your doctoral committee.

And what about Sandy Stone? An excellent doctoral advisor for one is looking for a Ph.D. in certain specific areas.

Russell

 

Glad to see you found us on the Net. Sorry to disappoint anyone looking for a degree mill!

I am the founding Dean of the Media and Communications Division of the European Graduate School and am currently on vacation in Greece, but soon back in Saas-Fee for the second summer residency 2001.

We have made a great effort to clearly outline what kind of programs we offer and who our professors are, but you must click on the many links (e.g. faculty names to the right on our opening page). I gather from your comments that you are not familiar with our field (media, communications, philosophy, art), although the personal web pages of our professors which include comprehensive bibliographies should have helped. Now you can also view video clips of some of our teachers in action in Saas-Fee!

By the way, Jean Baudrillard is (not was) a famous philosopher, and DJ Spooky served as artist-in-residence just a few weeks ago in a class led by Dr. Michael Schmidt, a German professor. And Sandy Stone is a highly respected professor at the University of Texas at Austin where she runs the ACTLab when she is not teaching at our place.

It is precisely this superior faculty which convinced the government of the Swiss canton of Wallis to accredit our programs. Rich guessed wrong when he assumed the EGS "would not be considered part of the higher education system in Switzerland." So why are we not listed in the guides which are part of GAAP? The answer is quite prosaic: We are just starting.

Our division is now in its third year and will issue its first MA degree (only one) this summer. Our first doctoral degrees are expected to be granted next year. Our MA program (BA prerequisite) takes three years to complete, our PhD program (MA prerequisite) four years.

As a Swiss university, lawfully established and accredited, we fully expect to be listed in due course. If the directories don't discover us on their own, we'll let them know; but this is not our top priority.

Our structure combines distance learning and limited residency, and students are required to do both. Our division targets cross-disciplinary oriented media professionals and accomplished artists, rather than the typical grad student: there are never more than forty seats in the incoming class and competition is fierce.

Last but not least, the US Department of Education issued to us last December a school code, enabling our American students to receive federal student loans.

In conclusion, considering the often desolate situation of European and American grad programs, I do understand the feeling people have when they discover the EGS: It's too good to be true! But I have worked for many years (with a lot of help from my friends) to bring this unique program to life, and it is working beautifully.

So next time you are in Saas-Fee, dear triggersoft, keep your eyes open for our newly constructed campus building 'Steinmatte' (the EGS administration is located in Leuk-Stadt), but be advised we are in session only for three months in the summer, from June to August. The rest of the year you'll find us online: www.egs.edu

Wolfgang Schirmacher
[email protected]

 

Only too happy not to find one, even in our desolation.

Perhaps there is some truth to your "too good to be true" theory about our confusion; I pointed out that you were dropping some mighty names. My main confusion was and still is how the tuition fees can support the institutional model that you've described.

I truly hope it works as you've described it. Good luck.

 

i am also happy about the attention the school and the program is receiving.

let me just point out some facts:
rich douglas: what i am trying to do if i cant really figure out what is going on is getting more information about it;
eventually doublechecking the facts.
the availability of the net is certainly supporting such a strategy.
in that case:
the swiss canton of wallis
(and its government/administration)
can be found at: http://www.vs.ch/home2/etatvs/default.htm.
that could also clear up rich's confusion.

triggersoft: the quality of the webpage is only reflecting the quality and the level of the program. as the cio and the assistant director i can assure you that i do my best to work for the school at the digital frontier - including marketing technologies and methods that are appropriate in this area.

bill - tution fees: the egs is using the tution to cover the expenses. considering the fact that we target an international audience we have to think about international tution levels/standards (i.e. american tution compared with european tution/fee systems. most of europe considers education as necessary and free service of the country/state.)
otherwise i share your opinion.

russell:

samc: confusion is fine - but sometimes it makes sense to learn from our mistakes - or read some books

in general:
one thing that i am wondering about:
i could not really figure out why you did not even bother to ask us or send an email to the contact addresses given.
(i guess thats what i would do.)

any open discussion will certainly promote evolution - i am sorry that i was necessary to comb through my server logfiles to trace you back - but i will certainly do it it again if thats the only way to communicate with others.

hope this helps.

------------------
Hendrik Speck
CIO, Assistant Director
European Graduate School

 

forgot to point out that you also could have contacted the faculty directly through their personal webpages or universities.
guess it didnt matter ...
(you better dont come to the egs ...



------------------
Hendrik Speck
CIO, Assistant Director
European Graduate School

 

@ Hendrik:
probably people just like to speak ABOUT a school inside their group before contacting the school itself... (maybe someone has information the others haven´t gotten...). So, it´s just a 1-week-(!)-discussion about your school, you shouldn´t be too wondered about no one having contacted you personally up to this point - I am relatively sure that will happen soon - at least for those people who are really interested in your school, and your program. So no reason to argue...

Best Greetings to the skiing country

Triggersoft

 

@triggersoft:
... and thats exactly the reason why we decided to offer some insight

@bill: tuition fees
as you might guess there are some standard answers:
* distance learning
* reduction of administrative overhead
* swiss and german efficiency
* advanced technologies (hey, you are using the same board ...)
* student value orientation (instead of shareholder value)
* interesting exchange rate
...
(by the way: i was scheduled/accepted to introduce the concept of the egs at the nutn 2001 conference in denver
Tuesday, June 19@‚euture Directions in Distance Learning
"Riding the Wave: Branding and Marketing a Distance Learning Institution" http://www.odu.edu/dl/nutn/at_a_glance.html but i was in europe at that time ... otherwise ...

(can we extend the tread

im flying in 5 days


------------------
Hendrik Speck
CIO, Assistant Director
European Graduate School

 

As another EGS student - second year - who just finished about a million pages of reading in preparation for our residency, I can assure you this is no diploma mill -- far from it. Rather, I would say it is the best of the American system of taking classes with peers (both in person and online) and the intensity of the European, independent study approach. We EGS students arrive as hard workers who thrive independently but feed off each other when we come together. If our website looks to good to be true to you, join the club. We ALL felt that way. And here's the truth, it only gets better when you get to share a cup of coffee with Peter Greenaway or Donna Haraway while you are 10,000 feet up in the alps just talking about the weather or delving into the depths of humanity and subjectivity. EGS is a lot of work but the rewards are (currently) unique and unreplicated. That will change soon so I encourage people interested to apply now while the new method of academia is still being hashed out. You too can be a part of it. Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

Off to Switzerland (literally in an hour!)
Angela Lauria

 

FYI - my email is [email protected]

 

I suppose one could call Baudrillard a philosopher of communication with an interest in humankind's interfacing with technology. One of Baudrillard's contributions has been pointing out how technology has become a tertiary mediator of humankind's experience of the world. Reading and citing Baudrillard was one of the highpoints of my 386 page thesis (which I did on popular culture, social construction and relational discourse as it relates to family therapy over 4 years at Columbia Pacific, after finishing another four years of M.S. coursework).
Earon Kavanagh
(currently working on two related projects for journal/book publication in 2002, taking some HWMBA courses, and other interesting things not yet mentionable).