MBA from chai university

I saw an ad for this university:

www.chaiuniversity.com

They have an MBA program for 6000 dollars and claim to be accredited by
by the government in India

Here is the website :

http://www.chaiuniversity.com/faq.html

Here is their answer to accreditation:

How are you accredited? 
We are accredited by our association with Eastern Institute For Integrated Learning in Management University (www.eiilmuniversity.ac.in). They are a licensed and accredited distance educator in India by official Act. They oversee and approve our curriculum and teaching. Your degree will come from them. Graduates of this program are accepted for further study at top universities around the world, and work for Fortune 500 companies.

The school is backed by the Rai Foundation (www.raifoundation.org). The Rai Foundation was started with a donation of $150 million by Mr. Vinay Rai a graduate of MIT who also took classes at Harvard Business School (www.vinayrai.in). He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He donates a large portion of tuition for women in India who often do not receive family support.

Although taking classes from a foreign school may be new to you, their standards are as high or higher than American standards. Graduates of foreign schools often work for and run Fortune 500 companies and many go on to Ivy League schools for further studies. The foreign degree is recognized by corporations and universities. We are bringing the quality and cost-effectiveness of these programs to American students via the Internet.



Here is the answer to the email i send them:

I asked them if i can use the degree in the Eu, more specifically in the Netherlands.

Also I asked them how much hours per week i need to study




Please see our FAQ page. Our degree comes from a government accredited
school in India. Many people go on from Indian schools to running Fortune
500 companies or higher degrees in America and Europe. The program includes
the self-study guides, and you can watch the videos on-line.

The hours would be 5 hours a week for one class. Each class is 6 weeks.
With one class at a time, you can finish in 2 years.

You can also take two classes at a time, 10 hours per week of work, and
finish in one year.

If you are interested, please complete the form on the Apply Now page and
we will contact you.

Thank you.

Jack Bloom

So here are my questions to the generous readers of this forum:

Is this a legitimate accredoted degree since i am not famliar with the Indian way of government?

The time to study per week is this realistic, because for other degrees at both masters and bachelor level it takes 12 to 20 hours per week of study?

If legit can i use it in Europe?

Thanks in advance

 

MILL trying to use a Accredited school's name in India.

 

I'm skeptical as well.

I'm not even entirely convinced that the school in India is formally accredited. There aren't any schools in Sikkim listed on the University Grants Commission's National Assessment and Accreditation Council's directory.

http://naacindia.org/accreditedall.asp

As for Chai University itself, its 'contact' page fails to provide a physical location and whois indicates that its website was registered through an anonymous website registrar in Arizona.

 

Jack Bloom - Founder, President, Chai University - Linkedin profile

http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=64599&authToken=YhN2&authType=name&trk=pbmap

 

Hi, I wanted to introduce myself and also post a response to this thread.

My name is Aaron and I am the project manager for Chai University. To answer a few of your questions, we were pending our accreditation and affiliation with EIILM this past December, and have now entered into a successful educational partnership with them to offer our degree program.

There are quite a few people who have questions about the accreditation and how applicable it is to the US job market. The idea of receiving a degree from EIILM may be new to some students. But there are many people leading fortune 500 companies who have degrees from similar programs.

This is very common in the medical field. A future doctor will complete medical school overseas and then come to the states, complete the proper examinations, and then practice in the USA - mostly debt free from student loans. This is the same principle.

US accreditation is a very costly and time consuming process. Essentially, it's a tough and very pricey club to join, costing around $10 million. At this time, we have opted not to go this route and have passes the savings to students.

In addition, all students graduating from our first round of classes will receive a personal letter of recommendation to future employers from our founders, both Harvard Graduates and successful entrepreneurs.

Feel free to email with any questions you may have. I would be very happy to assist you!

 

Hi - Can you copy/paste the profile? That site makes us register in order to see it.

 

Jack Bloom
Founder, President, Chai University

Location
Greater New York City Area
Industry
E-Learning
Current •Professor at Kaplan Continuing Education
•Professor of Entrepreneurship at Pace University
•Founder, President at Chai University
President at Alpha Capital Corporation see less...

see all...
Past •President, CEO, Founder at Auto America, Inc.
•Adjunct Professor of Management at NYU Stern School
•Managing Director, Head of Corporate Finance at Investment Banking, Boutique Firms
Summer Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton see less...

see all...
Education •Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management
•Harvard University
Recommendations 17 people have recommended Jack
Connections 500+ connections
Public Profilehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/jackbloom
Summary
Founder and CEO of Chai University (www.chaiuniversity.com) which provides high quality, accredited, affordable education and degrees. We provide an MBA from $6,000. Our free on-line social education networking site has 8,000 students in 150 countries.

Senior Strategic Advisor Corporations, Individuals, and Government.

Former Professor of Management at NYU Stern School and Visiting Instructor of Beijing University

Specialtiescorporate strategy, investment banking, asset management, capital markets, regulatory reform, marketing, Internet, education, financial services companies, retail companies

Polls Experience
Professor Kaplan Continuing Education
Management Consulting industry

2009 – Present (1 year)

Teach 9 classes for Kaplan

Professor of Entrepreneurship Pace University
Educational Institution; Higher Education industry

November 2009 – Present ( 4 months)

Founder, President Chai University
Educational Institution; E-Learning industry

October 2008 – Present (1 year 5 months)

High Quality, Accredited, Affordable On-Line Education

President Alpha Capital Corporation
Venture Capital & Private Equity industry

January 2006 – Present (4 years 2 months)

Consultant on finance and strategy.

Jack has 11 recommendations (3 co-workers, 8 partners) including:

Jerry Benjamin, Co- Managing Director, A.B. Data Ltd.
David Lippy, Founder - The Lippy Group, The Lippy Group
President, CEO, Founder Auto America, Inc.
Retail industry

August 1995 – August 2005 (10 years 1 month)

Started and ran Auto America, Inc. a sub-prime auto finance company and auto retailer. Grew company through innovative marketing, acquisitions, additional locations, and building organizational strength and investor group. Based in Los Angeles. Sold my interest in the firm to a large hedge fund in 2005.

Jack has 2 recommendations (2 reports) including:

Christopher Hernandez, Marketing Manager, Alpha Capital Corporation
Carlos Dedesma, Financial Analyst, Bloom Securities / Auto America
Adjunct Professor of Management NYU Stern School
Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Education Management industry

June 2003 – June 2004 (1 year 1 month)

Jack has 4 recommendations (1 report, 2 clients, 1 partner) including:

Russ Winer
Bill Lazar
Managing Director, Head of Corporate Finance Investment Banking, Boutique Firms
Investment Banking industry

June 1983 – August 1995 (12 years 3 months)

12+ years of experience in investment banking. Originated and Completed numerous IPO's, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring s. Last position - Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance, Commonwealth Associates.

Summer Associate Booz Allen Hamilton
Venture Capital & Private Equity industry

1982 – 1982 (less than a year)

Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management Masters
1981 – 1983

Activities and Societies: Studied with Nobel Laureates Fisher Black and Robert Merton

Harvard University A. B. Economics (Honors)
1975 – 1979

Activities and Societies: Chairman, Kennedy Institute of Politics, Student Advisory Committee

 

Online lectures

The one thing I do like that AMU doesn't have is online lectures/video. I checked out their samples and downloaded them so I can watch them later since some of them are related to some of the course work in AMU's MBA program. Check them out here. http://www.chaiuniversity.com/free-lectures.php

 

So, they are enrolling their first class in February 2010, yet they are touting "Graduates of this program are accepted for further study at top universities around the world, and work for Fortune 500 companies."

 

Hmmm. Good point by you.

 

Thread on this school at Degreediscussion

Hi -

Interesting thread on this school and its founders benefactors, adherents etc. (with similar conclusions) on Degreediscussion:

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7159

Johann

 

Re: Heimer's point - I believe that with "this program" they're referring to the EIILMU" program, not CU. Everywhere else they refer to it as "graduates of foreign schools" go on to work for and run.....

However, a quick search on LinkedIn for "Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management University" brought 0 results.

"Chai University" returns 41 results.

32 of those work (or worked) for Chai University
6 are affiliated with "Pai Chai University" in Korea
1 is named "Chai"
2 that don't show why they were included in search

So of the "over 55 million" profiles on LinkedIn, the only ones listing either of these institutions on their profiles are employees.

For comparison - "Northwestern International University" shows 4 people claiming degrees, and "Breyer State University" can claim 81.
You'd think EIILMU (as the accrediting body) would have at least 1.

 

I don't usually do this but I've decided to add in a link from our cousins at degreediscussion.com Clearly they've been playing with the same questions that we've been playing with and they've made a few good points.

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7159

 

Hi aplaat,

Please explain this...

http://www.darjeelingtimes.com/news/News/The-university-operates-form-a-car-shed-.html

Bangalore: Following a complaint by some students of the Bangalore School of Business (BSB) in J P Nagar, which is run by Sikkim based Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management University (EIILMU), went to Sikkim to investigate.

When the police finally located the ‘university’ it was in a car shed in a god-forsaken place called Jorethang, 86 kms away from Gangtok. Inside the shed, police found a dilapidated printing press. There was also a table and four chairs. That’s all. This was the ‘university’s’ HQ!

Further investigations revealed that EIILMU is owned by Vinay Rai, who claims to be a US-returned engineer and scientist. His foundation is running 71 colleges across the country. In Bangalore they have six colleges with about 1,000 students. J P Nagar police have shut down BSB in Puttenahalli near Brigade Millenium in J P Nagar and arrested two persons.
.........read on

 

Hi Dl_Mba

To answer your question, there are many different branches of EIILM in India, some of them have many more resources than the others. Professor Bloom recently made a trip to their main campus this past November and it was just like any university you would expect with dorms, dining halls, lecture halls, etc.

Regarding the state of their branch mentioned in the article, there are a lot of regions where limited resources can present a challenge in giving the proper resources and educational experience you and I may be familiar with. But I believe it is a step in the right direction that locations like this do exist, even though they are in need of overhaul.

What Chai University is doing is using the affiliation with EIILM to provide us with an accredited degree. What we do is provide all professors, classroom content, and reading materials to the students, where they will then receive their diploma through EIILM.

Have you reviewed some of the videos available on our website? We have more that are coming, but our most recent interview was with TIME Magazine columnist, who is now at the Harvard Business Review, Justin Fox - Author of "The Myth of the Rational Market" It is an excellent interview and I would suggest watching it!

The purpose of Chai University is to provide you with an affordable alternative to the current options of online education, while having the highest standards in teaching.

We are very aware there those who are unfamiliar or even uncomfortable with international accreditation. This is definitely a challenge to introduce something of this nature!

The current price for a US accredited online MBA through some of the more popular online schools is around $25,000. Chai University is doing its best to provide a cost effective alternative to these classes, while giving its students educational resources that will have an impact on their career.

 

Lets say i beleive everything you say, why is EIILM not listed on the UGC (India) website ?
Also if EIILM is a legit University, why dont you use their "UGC/AICTE approved" courses and materials? Why would an Unaccredited entity design the program and "buy" diplomas from EIILM?

 

How is it that so often employees or owners from schools and "schools" suddenly find their way to this board for the first time shortly after they are first mentioned here?

 

This may be of interest:

http://www.ugc.ac.in/notices/updatedpriuniver.pdf

It would appear that EIILM is in fact listed by the UGC as a private university, but only in Sikkim.
As such they are prohibited from having "branches" unless approved by the State. To be approved the University must have been in existence for 5 years, and as EIILM has only existed since 2006 (see link below) any "branches" would appear to be in direct violation of the law. As of 6/09 no private university has been approved to open a branch.

They are also expressly prohibited from any "affiliations", making their affiliation with Chai University highly suspect. Even if the affiliations clause applies to the 5 year rule, they are still at least a year early.

http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/privateuniversities/eiilm.pdf

aplatt - comments?

 

All of our curriculum is the EIILM curriculum, and quite challenging! We will be posting samples of it on our website for you to review. Our teachers are located here in New York, however.

What we did is take the curriculum and use it as the core for teaching, while also having the interactive video lectures and interviews to use as course reference. It provides a quality education that we are very proud of.

As to how we 'find' these message boards. As the project manager of Chai University, I do my very best to ensure there are no misrepresentations of our school. In addition, if I am able to provide any clarity, I do my best to answer questions.

Regarding the affiliation discrepancy of the school. Chai University is actually not an 'affiliate' of the university, but an administer of their curriculum and work, along with the above mentioned material. Graduates receive their diploma through EIILM.

Again, I am happy to provide clarity as needed.