Universidad Distancia De Madrid, sometimes referred to as The Open University of Madrid, is a private university in Spain. Now you know as much as me (at least on that subject). A few of the degree descriptions are in English and it's easy enough to translate the costs. I might dig into this a little bit to see if it's really real or a bit millish. Maybe it your Spanish is good you could help. UDIMA
Even with my halting Spanish, I understand that "títulos comprados" means "bought degrees." I don't know if what this article is alleging is true or not. It says nobody fails exams - you pay, you pass. En la Universidad a Distancia de Madrid no existe el suspenso. Noticias de Alma, Corazón, Vida You decide. J.
My first thought is that people wrongly say that about for-profit institutions in the U.S. all the time. Well, Udima is a proprietary institution, and the organization alleging that they sell credentials is a large union of government employees. Considering that Udima is recognized by the relevant agency in Spain, I'll give that as much credence as I would if SEIU smeared the University of Phoenix -- which is to say not much. But I'd be interested to see an investigation from a more ideological neutral source.
I have a coworker who tells a funny story about her brother who enrolled in UofP. He enrolled and then promptly never logged in again. At the end of the first course he was absolutely floored by the fact that he failed the course and absolutely livid that UofP wouldn't give him a refund. To him, this made UofP a scam. He thought it was the sort of scam that allowed him to pay money for a degree and not do any work. Instead it was the sort of "scam" that failed you if you didn't do any coursework and didn't give you a full refund after you failed a term. It's absolutely possible to fail a course at UofP. And I once failed a course at CTU even though I was submitting assignments. None of that changes the perception that some people have that you can just submit "whatever" and receive a passing grade. Meanwhile, at UofS, I had a classmate who was an older cafeteria worker with a slight intellectual disability. He was a nice guy but it was very clear that he didn't have the ability to complete college level coursework. All of his professors just gave him "B"s for effort. His only holdout was his math prof who failed him each of the five times he took the course. Eventually he switched to a different section of the course with a kinder, gentler professor (this was the class we met in) who told him he would pass him regardless of test scores if he sought tutoring at the tutoring center and met with him during office hours at least twice per week. I still am unsure about how I feel about the whole thing. It was certainly a good thing to do in one sense. In another, the school handed a bachelors to someone who was unable to meet the academic requirements of it. Whether a school is for or non profit doesn't change the fact that some schools just hand out degrees because they don't like failing people. So I'd be bothered less by the fact that Udima is a proprietary school than the reputation (deserved or otherwise) it has acquired. I, perhaps somewhat like Steve, file this in the same category as the people who call UofP a diploma mill. I think it's wholly inaccurate. But, the negative reputation would probably be enough to keep me away.
If you say so. Out of curiosity, which school(s)? :smile: Can't say I'd want to earn a degree from such a school, though. If there were a number of such degrees awarded and word got around, then no matter how much work I did, the degree would likely be regarded as meaningless. The allegations - true or otherwise - go deeper in this case. We're told of professors handing out failing grades of 25% and the powers-that-be in administration promptly changing them to 70%. The allegation is that failure is a no-no because the school has hefty tuition income riding on successful outcomes. (Certainly, Udima does not appear cheap, by any standards.) As I said before, I have no idea how (un)true this is - that's just what the article says. J.
The paella thickens. The "source" of the anti-Udima article completely DENIES involvement in it - so I'm guessing it's all a hoax. Here's the denial. http://www3.uah.es/csif/noticias/documentos/desmentido%20El%20Confidencial.pdf ¿Una broma estudiantil? (A student prank?) J.
