Author with PhD from Pacific Western University

I am currently taking a course as part of my bachelor degree in criminal Justice. The text book for the course is Criminal Investigation 6th edition ISBN# 0-534-57654-0 by author Karen M. Hess. While reading her background listed in the text, I noticed she claims a PhD in Criminal Justice from Pacific Western University. Is PWU a degree mill or is it licensed by the state it operates in? I couldn't locate any information on thier site. It seems to be offline.

 

Looks like it is California State Approved. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Their current status with CA is given here -> PWU CA Status[/FONT]

From the PWU website @ http://pwu-ca.edu/about/state_app.asp:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]

 

There were two identical PWUs run from the same office -- a bad one (doing only business degrees, with California approval) and a terrible one (all the other degrees, Hawaii licensed). So a criminal justice degree would have come from the Hawaii one.

As it happens, the TV program American Journal did a really good expose of the Hawaii PWU about ten years ago, including showing their 'campus' to be an empty room, and getting one of their reporters a Master's degree in ten days, no questions asked. After trying and hoping for 10 years, I just received, this week, a video of that program, which I haven't yet viewed, but I will when I come back from the Sierras in a week, a comment if relevant.

 

Two years ago I started a thread here about PWU claiming membership in the AACSB:

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=20022

Do not see the AACSB mentioned at the main PWU page anymore but it is here:

http://pwunews.com/pwu/aboutus.html

The above link mentions seeking national accreditation. It is copyright 2005 so could be an orphan page.

 

Both. Please search this board for many threads about their millish activities, despite BPPVE approval.

 

Northcentral has a mentor listing a "Ph.D., Computer Science, Pacific Western University."

http://www.ncu.edu/info.asp?i=37

He also lists a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Touro University International, a respectable RA program.

Unless he is using the PWU degree for mentoring Computer Science courses why list it? And since it is likely from the Hawaii one, why is Northcentral allowing him to use it? Considering NCU's history with SCUPS you would think they would know better!

Not too pleased with this!

 

Wow some light! but seriously, NCU also list PhD graduates, that their degrees were awarded before they even became candidate for accreditation. Also they listed someone with a PhD from University of Phoenix, last time I check(yesterday) UOP did not have PhD!

 

It can be misleading though, like MD (Management Doctor) or DM (Doctor of Management) can be confused with MD (Medicine Doctor).

 

Western Michigan University has a Pacific Western University PhD listed also:

http://www.wmich.edu/hhs/pa/faculty.htm

No wonder these places continue to operate!

 

And this guy at JIU.

 

And this guy, but it is from the California one. He is a MD from Dartmouth!

 

This person (scroll down to Keiko Anno) at DePaul University. Not sure which Pacific Western University it is.

And this person at the University of Washington (scroll to the bottom).

Ok, I'll stop posting now.

 

This report from the US Government General Accounting Office has been out since 2004 and still we find people listing PWU degrees at RA schools websites:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04771t.pdf

To me it says a lot about the person listing the degree and the school that employs them.