Canadian School of Management

Is anyone familiar with the Canadian School of Management? Any feedback on areas such as: accreditation, tuition, admissions, etc would be appreciated. Ever since friends of mine know that I am enrolled in a distance degree program - they think I am an authority on such things. I have never heard of this institution before.

 

They've been described in Bears Guide for 20 years or so. Started by George Korey. Originally recognized only by Northland Open University, in the Northwest Territory, run from a mailbox service, and started, amazingly, by someone named George Korey. They got DETC accreditation (or was it just candidacy? -- I'm at a retreat just now and don't have access to my books), then lost it (reasons never given), then were acquired by a British entity which had DETC accreditation (despite awarding PhDs), then lost it again. Korey operated 4 or 5 other universities (including George Korey University), and once offered a no-questions-asked degree to an undercover reporter for the American Journal television program. The one time I met Korey, I literally could not understand him due to his impenetrable (by me) Hungarian accent.

 

Of course, John has it right, but here are some of the details.

CSM was/is not allowed to award degrees outright. Ontario prevents them from doing that. So they would award non-academic awards for their programs, and then have other institutions recognize them and award degrees. John describes Northland Open University, operating in a less-restrictive environment provided by a territory. But the degrees issued by NOU weren't recognized by any competent educational authority that I know of.

John also alludes to the International Management Centres, which either owned CSM, vice versa, or they were partners. Part of a movement called "action learning," they also operated a school in Colorado (the University of Action Learning, later called Revans University).

As John also noted, IMC, CSM and Revans were accredited by DETC. IMC offered several forms of the doctorate over the years, each of which the DETC found unacceptable. DETC had the authority to accredited schools offering degree programs up through the "first professional degree," usually doctoral programs like the JD offered by Concord or the physical therapy doctorate offered by St. Augustine. But DETC concluded that degrees offered by IMC like the DBA or the Doctor of Management were academic, not first professional. So IMC wavered back and forth about offering them. (Of note, IMC had an arrangement with a recognized Australian university, Southern Cross, to "validate" IMC's doctoral degrees, which I would imagine added to their value and recognition. To what extent, however, I don't know.)

A few years ago, without notice and without announced cause, all three schools--CSM, Revans, and IMC--"dropped" their DETC accreditation on the same day. It is not clear whether this was their decision--and it's hard to imagine why it would be advantageous to do so--or DETC's.

A glance at the website for Revans indicates they operate from Vanuatu. Warmer than Colorado, I guess. More legal there, too!

CSM is still "in" Ontario, and still not offering degrees. (At least, it appears to be such; I can't find their website, if they even have one anymore.) One wonders who awards their degrees, but I would suspect the same arrangements are in place.

IMC, now IMC Association, still awards degrees, but not doctorates. Their website clearly states they are not accredited in the US, but claim accreditation from the BAC. I don't believe that qualifies them as being generally recognized as accredited. The degrees they do offer are appended with "of Membership," as in "Masters Degrees of Membership." Sounds like they're acting like a private club to avoid British authority. Finally, much of their site looks like the stuff at Revans.

Note: Both Revans and IMC have .edu domains, received no doubt when such things were more readily available. In their cases, not a sign they're recognized academic institutions.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Gentlemen!

You know - I think I ought to go with the basic rules...if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck...type rules. I looked up the site and it was one of those that not only walked and talked like a duck but it actually looked like a duck as well. Thanks for providing the empirical evidence to support my thoughts...

 

Before I learned about this website and all of the wonderful knowledge here, I had seriously considered CSM for what I thought would be a reasonably priced MBA. The first correspondence I received from them sent all of the red flags up -- the letter came in an envelope that didn't even have the school's name on it -- just a brown envelope with a cheap stamp that one could purchase at Kinko's stamping the address in the corner. (I kept thinking that my mailman would think I was ordering porn from Canada as it came in a 'plain brown wrapper' with no printed return address.) I called and emailed them a few times to ask additional questions and my gut just told me something was not right so I took my $$ elsewhere and enrolled in an MBA program through Amberton.

You're right about it looking and quacking like a duck. The other dead giveaway was the gawdawful name of the school in Colorado -- University of Action Learning. I kept thinking to myself, "I can't imagine EVER being taken seriously if I have THAT school on my resume!" Glad to hear that I made a wise decision.