A NUMBER OF YEARS BACK DR BEAR SPOKE HIGHLY OF THIS SCHOOL. IS IT STILL IN OPERATION. IF NOT ARE THERE ANY SIMILAR PROGRAMS WITH FAMOUS MENTOR BASED STUDIES.
To answer your second question, not really. However, learners at The Union Institute have often included luminaries from their respective fields on their doctoral committees. International College was a nice idea that never really lived up to its early promise. Operating from Los Angeles, it indeed matched mentors and students. As Bear reports, however, many of the more illustrious faculty members had few--if any--actual students. International operated a bachelor's program affiliated with the University Without Walls for awhile. It also offered a state-approved master's and a state-authorized doctoral program. It closed in the 1980's, with its remaining students transferring to William Lyon University, an unaccredited school in San Diego. (Some of these students participated in a survey I conducted that included William Lyon graduates. They were peeved at International for closing and moving them to William Lyon.) William Lyon changed its name to American Commonwealth University, and was accredited (ACIS?) briefly before closing its doors, too. Rich Douglas
The "International College" name has since been reused, by the regionally-accredited (SACS) International College in Florida ( http://www.internationalcollege.edu/ ).
As it happens, the man who bought my Degree Consulting Services business in 1981, Paul Proehl, long-time Vice Chancellor of UCLA, also served as International College's president for 5 or 6 years. Paul said that in general, the problem with some of their big-name mentors was that they seemed to expect too much of their students. He shared with me a letter from Yehudi Menuhin, lamenting that his International College student, whom he had provided a bedroom in his London house, was unwilling to practice as much as Menuhin thought necessary, and things were not working out. During my time with Greenwich University (1990-91), I enjoyed trying to find prominent mentors for students, and we had our successes. For instance, one student wanted Ronald Reagan as his mentor. So I wrote to Reagan, who replied that he did not have the time, but passed the request on to Henry Kissinger, who did agree.
The link you provided is to the International College in Naples-Ft. Myers in Florida. I graduated from there in June of this year with a B.S. in business management.
