New Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural Distance University

A new private, non-profit, distance education institution has been established to ostensibly address the needs of Hispanic students (primarily in the State of Florida). Universidad San Francisco at Florida / San Francisco University at Florida, a branch of Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador bills itself as The Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural University, and they claim to be first Latin American University licensed to operate in the State of Florida offering 4-year college degrees. And, indeed, the Commission of Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida has granted them a Level I provisional license (are you paying attention, MIGS?).

The first years of study may be taken in Spanish while the student is learning English; afterwards, the student may elect to take classes in English. A minimum of 30% of the curriculum must be completed in English. San Francisco University at Florida is offering online Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Business, Psychology and Human Resources, Business Administration, Marketing, and Finance. The program does have a residency requirement, however, and it is necessary to meet with your professor and fellow students once every five weeks (each 3 credit course is 5 weeks long at a cost of $200.00 per credit hour). Transfer credits are limited to only 30% of the 128 credits requires for the Bachelor of Arts (supposedly a limitation imposed by the Commission of Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida).

La Universidad San Francisco de Quito was founded in 1988 as a private, non-profit institution. They received Congressional Approval in 1996 (in Ecuador, Congress, and not the Ministry of Education approves institutions of higher learning), and thus probably meets GAAP.

Presently, I do not sufficient information to doubt this venture is a sincere effort (their five-year plan includes building a brick-and-mortar campus and offering master’s degrees), but a few niggling issues remain. First of all, although I understand that they are just getting started, they currently seem ill equipped to deliver on their promises. Their Web sites have scant information, and almost all of the links are broken (I was told they were in the process of changing their web hosting company and that the problems would be resolved shortly). In response to my request for a faculty list, I was faxed the list of the faculty at the school in Quito, and after pointing this out, I have yet to receive the list for the Florida operation. Moreover, the Florida personnel are unclear on critical issues such as the issuance of diplomas and accreditation.

In speaking with the director of the Florida operation, I was troubled by some of the responses to my questions. She did not think that there was a big difference if the diplomas were issued by San Francisco University at Florida (US entity – unaccredited) or by La Universidad San Francisco de Quito (foreign, but probably meeting GAAP). She didn’t think that any of the students would even desire an Ecuadorian degree, but stated that she didn’t think it would be a problem if they did—they could issue a dual degree. She did acknowledge, however, that the licensure by the State of Florida was based on their operations in Ecuador (including a site visit). The director understood the value of regional accreditation (although not the intricacies), and said that they would be pursuing it. However, she stated that it would probably be the operation in Ecuador that would seek accreditation from SACS. They attempted to do so some years back and were not approved due to lack of sufficient Ph.D.’s, adequacy of the library and funding issues, all of which the director insists have been corrected. She seemed to think that if the school in Ecuador were granted regional accreditation, it would apply to all of their programs, including the one in Florida. She understood quite well the difficulty the distance education model would have with SACS, and acknowledged that the Florida venture would never be approved on its own.

I was extremely troubled (and I let her know that as emphatically as I could), when she told me that an ex-professor of hers (at an US RA institution, no less) had suggested pursuing accreditation from another accreditor (not RA) that specialized in online schools. She was considering two of them, but could not remember their names, except that one of them was Online something or other. (I asked if one was the DETC, but she said no.) I told her that anything but RA (or foreign/GAAP) would be academically meaningless and would probably be the kiss of death for the venture. She told me she would look into it.

What troubled me most of all, however, was when I pointed out that a foreign degree from La Universidad San Francisco de Quito would probably be acceptable to many US accredited graduate schools, whereas one from Universidad San Francisco at Florida (independent of La Universidad San Francisco de Quito) would be considered unaccredited, and therefore unacceptable. She agreed but stated that the majority of their students wouldn’t care; it simply wasn’t an issue. I told her that being unknowledgeable of an issue and not caring is not quite the same thing. She countered by stating, once again, that they would be pursuing regional accreditation.

So (shades of déjà vu all over again), it appears only time will tell if yet another (what appears on the surface to be) good idea self-destructs due to poor execution and follow-through.


Gus Sainz