St. George University International, St. Kitts

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by adelheid, Jun 4, 2002.

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  1. adelheid

    adelheid New Member

    I would like to start a new thread on St. George University International, St. Kitts, based on two of my earlier posts.

    http://www.stgeorgeuniversity.edu

    The most open and in my eyes honest legal disclaimer I have seen so far in my short but turbulent life is that of St. George University International, St. Kitts (don't kill me for this statement) - I am aware of the past SGUI threads here and at a.e.d. and their history, - nevertheless I somehow respect this disclaimer:

    "SGUI is a private international university, and not a UK, USA or Japanese university and not accredited or recognized by any governmental ministry of education. It does not offer licenses and credentials. SGUI is a non-traditional university without the traditional campus, and has no offices or facilities in any other country except for the registered head office in St. Christopher and Nevis. Therefore, some countries or institutions might not accept our degrees. It is the responsibility of the student to confirm acceptance of the degree prior to enrollment. The university does not act as an employment agency and can not give assurance that its graduates will automatically obtain pay rises or employment."

    Further looking at the SGUI website I found that they do not offer any "assessment" programmes anymore, which I remember they did before (remember their "Earn your degree by work and life experience" slogan?). It seems that they offer only "Self-Directed Independent Studies"(apparently 12 assignment papers required) and "Degree by Thesis/Dissertation (Research Degree)" (apparently a Research Proposal and a Thesis or Dissertation required).

    However, I e-mailed them asking if I would qualify for the "Assessment option" (as it can still be found in their Application Form) and this is the answer that I got through e-mail today:

    "Requirements for the Degree by Assessment (of a Previous Publication):
    A person may apply for admission as a candidate for a degree by assessment of a previous publication, provided that
    a. he or she is a graduate or staff member or tutor of a university recognized by or affiliated with SGUI
    b. that the previously published work has not been presented to assessment to any other institution before
    c. that the previously published work follows the guidelines for all SGUI dissertations, and that is: it must be a contribution to academic knowledge and literature, show originality, reflect advanced learning and thinking, have a practical application, meet the paper length requirements, and be written in an academic style.
    An application shall be made on-line through our website and accompanied by ordinary mail to the registered head office and shall include:
    a. identification of the academic area
    b. the published work(s) on which the claim for admission to the degree is based, to be presented in, or translated into, English,;
    c. a statement, which shall be an overview of normally not less than 5,000 words, setting out ways in which the previous publication(s) provide(s) an original and significant contribution to the field of study"

    This sounds fair enough to me. Does this bring the SGUI, with its open legal disclaimer, its "Charity projects" (?), "Children projects" (?) and "Optional Residential tutorials" (?) in the league of "not-so- bad-after-all"? HAVE THEY CHANGED FOR THE BETTER??? OR AM I MISSING SOMETHING???

    PS: On the funny side, I want to clearly state that I am neither for nor against SGUI, but have a curious and inquiring mind, consisting of apparently - so I am told - not too many brain-cells. But that makes life easy!

    adelheid:)
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    By their own statement, they have no legal authority to grant degrees. They just do so.

    Their degrees will almost certainly not be recognized in any situation where a legitimate degree is required. That leaves the usual degree mill hunting grounds: situations where it doesn't matter, and situations where no one checks.

    Even seen in the most favorable of lights, this remains not a university, but a business pretending to be one. Given that, whether or not they've "improved" seems moot.
     
  3. adelheid

    adelheid New Member

    I don't understand your point. I thought they were identical to those Hawaii universities (such as Pacific Western) - by virtue of being registered there they can award degrees but they are not state authorized and need to state that they are not government accredited? Please do CORRECT me if I am wrong!

    Jason Vorderstrasse's wonderful website
    http://eduskn.tripod.com states:
    "Nevis Limited Liability Company Ordinance Act of 1995

    Under this law, entities must obtain Nevis government approval in order to incorporate in Nevis if they wish to use certain names in the Corporate titles. Most importantly in the education field, these names include "University or their foreign equivalents." This means that any corporation on Nevis with the word "University" in its name must have received approval from the Nevis government coporations office. Under the law, however, it does not appear that such an entity would necessarily need approval from the Accreditation Board in order to incorporate. "

    I totally agree, they themselve state that in their website: "It is fully and properly incorporated as a private commercial university company in the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis...The company registration number is: 003061. In addition, our Service Mark is fully and properly registered as No. 150 by the Registrar of Trade Marks in Saint Christopher and Nevis."

    adelheid:)
     

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