Ukrainian-American Liberal Arts Institute “Wisconsin International University (USA) ?

WIUU | About Us

As WIUU was established as an international university, studying at the American BBA and MBA programs takes place exclusively in English. Courses are taught by professors and lecturers from the universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota and other states of the US, English-speaking countries of the EU and other countries. Ukrainian cofounder of WIUU is M. P. Dragomanov National Pedagogical University (NPU), which formed a complex with WIUU and included it in its composition as a separate legal entity

Confused about their accreditation.

 

MBA
Master Degree (Amer.) Thought in English.

14000 UAH/semester
1 subject – 2800 UAH

42000 UAH/ 3semesters
15 subjects

Conversion Rate (Buy/Sell)
USD/UAH = 0.043270
Results

42,000.00 UAH = 1,817.34 USD

The question is the US Masters accredited?
From what I read so far its unclear to me. Their Ukranian degrees are state degree so they are accredited in Ukraine.
But their US degrees accredited by some German association.

 

Wisconsin University USA has no US-recognized accreditation. In fact it does not even maintain a campus in the US, although it was founded in Idaho. From its own site:

"WIU does not have a campus in the USA, nor does it offer classroom instruction or distant learning in or from the USA. It has an office in the USA for its business work and to communicate with students and WIU affiliates in other countries."

WIU-Ghana has standing as a private University there and appears to be accredited in that country. the FIBAA (German) accreditation of the Ukrainian entity appears to be programmatic, not institutional.

It's site in the US looks very old - 2006. Dr . The Anabin (German) database has 227 pages of Ukrainian schools. I found no listing for WIU, so I'm unable to confirm that the school's degrees would be recognized in Germany.

J.

 

Here's the WIU -USA website Wisconsin International University

J

 

Come to think of it - rather unusual - Wisconsin International - founded in Idaho. :question:

J.

 

Oops - wrong. Not in Idaho. Office in Florida. School site says it hasn't been in Wisconsin for years - so I guess it likely DID originate there.

Sorry for multi-posts. Newest DI forum-wrinkle seems to be no "edit" facility today. Post and you're done - no alterations.

J.

 

Did some reading - it seems DI has been talking since 2006 (with you) about the Ukrainian and American WIU-schools, Lerner. :smile: Before that, threads on WIU go back to 2002.

In 2006, the American branch was claiming accreditation from oft-discussed ACI - something it no longer claims. We agreed back then that the Ukrainian (Liberal Arts) school (not WIU itself) had degree-granting authority in its own country. I like (expert) Stanislav's summary from those days:

"WIU-Wisconsin, in this case, is just a business selling flashy beads to gullible locals." It's here:

http://www.degreeinfo.com/accreditation-discussions-ra-detc-state-approval-unaccredited-schools/25630-wisconsin-international-university-confusing.html

Encore - plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

J.

 

That's 10 years of confusion for you Lerner. What will it take for clarification?

 

Okay, kiddies, here's what you do when you suspect that a so-called university is a mill.

First, punch up the street address in Google Maps and look at the satellite view. Sure looks like a house to me.

And if it looks like a house, do a reverse address search on any phone directory database. In this case, their address pops up as the home of John & Lyla Buuck [sic]. John, coincidentally, is listed on the WIU site as its president.

'Nuff said?

 

I don't recall ever discussing it?
If Johan seen some of my posts I will check it up. I don't remember this entity.

As to confusion is the Ukrainian -American Liberal Arts Institute - WIU
degrees issued by the Ukrainian Institute on its own merit are accredited in Ukraine and RA equivalent.
WIUU is accredited and licensed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the State Accrediting Board of Ukraine to offer Bachelor and Master Programs.

WIUU | Accreditation and Licensure

The Ukrainian address listed for the WIUU is the same as National Technical University of Ukraine 'Kyiv Polytechnic Institute'

As to the International MBA accreditation by FIBAA I simply never heard of that agency.
Bit if it was by AACSB everyone here would considered the degree to be accredited.
Is FIBAA recognized, I don't know but checking.

 

Oh, a few more words. I actually visited that house about 12 years ago. Knocked on the door, and said I was looking for Wisconsin International University. Said door was closed without words being spoken.

Their website: "WIU is a private university, approved as a non-profit university by the United States Department of Treasury." That's a red flag big enough to drape a Buick. Sure makes it sound as they are approved by an agency of the US government. No, it just means they are a non-profit corporation.

 

Dr Bear,
I been posting here and read your guides etc for very long time, ofcorse I seen all the sign of the US entity.

It is the Ukrainian Entity that is confusing to me.
The one that is accredited in Ukraine to award Bachelor and Masters degrees of the
Ukrainian State National Format.

Also FIBAA that is unknown to me.
Never heard of it, but that alone is not sufficient so I'm checking on it.

Best regards,

 

I'm far from being an expert, but here is what I read so far.

Germany – Accreditation by the German Accreditation Council

FIBAA has been accredited by the German Accreditation Council to perform Programme and System Accreditations in Germany and to award its Seal to state and state-recognised private universities.

Only agencies accredited by the Accreditation Council are allowed to accredit degree programmes.

Page # 4 of the following document
http://www.unc.edu/ppaq/docs/GermanAccreditation.pdf

So there is some level of recognition here.
Indeed I found some older posts that I replied to about this agency in 2011.
Completely forgot about it.

Austria– Recognition by the Federal Ministry for Science and Research


The Federal Ministry for Science and Research in Vienna included FIBAA in the 'Decree on Quality Assurance Agencies' in 2013. This means that FIBAA entitled in accordance with the Austrian Higher Education Institution Quality Assurance Act (HS-QSG) to carry out audits at public universities and Higher Education Institutions in Austria.

 

Lerner -

First of all - neither WIU nor the Ukrainian school are German (or Austrian) institutions. For acceptance in Germany of foreign degrees, Anabin's judgment is the deciding factor. It trumps any second-level accreditation - and that's exactly what FIBAA is - your quote says so, in those exact words. Furthermore, as I said before - it's programmatic. FIBAA deals strictly with business programs. Look at it's name. Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation. Doesn't that tell you something?

If FIBAA feels that all universities/colleges it accredits have sufficient degree-granting authority for their (FIBAA's) purposes - then that's their call. But wherever the school is, the country's first-line accreditation/evaluation authority will take precedence. In the case of Germany - whatever Anabin says.

Summary - I can't see how a WIU degree can be accepted in Ukraine or US. The Ukrainian School - yes, in Ukraine, but in the US? I have no idea - whatever a NACES-member evaluator (or AACRAO) says. I have no idea what that would be.

In Germany? ..Well, the Ukrainian School (not WIU itself) is on P. 207 of the Ukraine section of the Anabin database as "Ukrainisch-amerikanisches Geisteswissenschaftliches Institut "Internationale Universität Wisconsin" - status ungeklärt -unresolved, still unclear, with possible ratings of H+ or H- . (H- is "deficient") See for yourself: Anabin - Informationssystem zur Anerkennung ausländischer Bildungsabschlüsse: Institutionen

Look up Anabin again in another 10 years, Lerner. Maybe something will change. :smile:

J.

 

Johan,

good info, I appreciate your input.

I l'm glad to learn about Anabin. Already checked a few schools.

Thanks

 

H - can mean that a school is unrecognized, unaccredited, unchartered etc, or that the school has some form of recognition/accreditation that's not accepted in Germany. The Anabin database is a good source of information, but what's in there is representative for the German take on academic recognition. There are some schools in the database marked with H - whose graduates face few or no problems at all in other countries.

As for the Ukrainian institution, I don't think all of the programs are accredited.

 

When you register a website or put an address on the internet, my thinking is that the possibility exists that someone will one day show up at your door. If I started a garden blog and you could find my address through the WhoIs registration the possibility, however remote, would exist that some cucumber groupie might show up at my place wanting to talk flora and fauna.

So if you're going to run a diploma mill out of your house wouldn't you think you would, at a minimum, get a PO Box? Sure, you can still get to the owner of a PO Box but it takes more work. Get a box at a UPS store and anyone this side of law enforcement wouldn't be able to get the info at all. Use a mail forwarding service that makes me chase you down in some exotic locale. Something. Anything to obscure your home address even slightly to reduce the likelihood that someone might show up to call BS on your BS school?

That aside I find it humorous that they offer a "mini-MBA."

 

I wrote lengthy reply and it disappeared. In short, their degrees (B and M) in Management and "International Management" are accredited state-form (derzhavnogo zrazka) documents; their "international" BBA and MBA are not. The goal of the school is to offer American-style education in English (and perhaps be an ego vehicle for Prof. Romanovsky); they seem completely sincere. Note that Ukraine just passed new law on higher education; I'm not sure how that'll affect this operation.

 

I agree with Stanislavs comments.

Their ranking in German listing is H+, H-.
When you expand the comments in that listing it means that some offering of the school are recognized and some are not.
The comments further explain that things evolve fast and the listing may not present the latest status so for recognized degree one should make sure that it is of State National Format.

In USA most NACES member services would evaluate the WIUU State Degrees as RA equivalent.

WIUU Kyiv is B&M and has full accreditation of the management degrees they grant that are of the State format.
Its the international degrees that are not of the state format that H- is for.

They claim membership with AACSB, but it means very little, maybe their intent to earn AACSB accreditation in the future and maybe not.

 

You simply cannot know that for sure. We don't know what an evaluator would do with this. The fact that "some programs may be recognized and others not" might cause an evaluator to err on the side of "not recognized."

Consider how WES treats NA degrees. NA degrees are wholly legitimate. There is no doubt that an NA school operates with full authority as an educational institution in the U.S. And yet, not RA equivalent even though there are RA schools that would absolutely accept credits (for transfer) and degrees (for graduate admission) from NA schools. It doesn't matter. The answer is a sweeping "not equivalent" response, at least as far as WES is concerned.

It's true that Germany can only speak to the acceptability of degrees within Germany. But Germany is one of the countries that takes this sort of thing very seriously. So, if they are "unclear/unsure" about a school then I think it reasonable to say that, at a minimum, a degree evaluator might take a pause before giving it a thumbs up.

A few possibilities that should be considered:

1. The Ukrainian school is completely legitimate but their affiliation with WIU is not as the WIU would make it seem (think MIGS).

2. The Ukrainian school is completely legitimate but is not approved in the Ukraine to award the degrees being offered through WIU and they are relying on WIU's degree granting authority (hint: it has none). Thus WIU is trying to ride the legitimacy coattails of the Ukrainian school and the Ukrainian school is trying to ride the legitimacy coattails of WIU (which, again, has none).

3. The Ukrainian school is legitimate. The union is legitimate. But WIU is not legitimate and it spells disaster in the future when this is discovered.

4. The degrees are legitimate but the shadiness of WIU will cause evaluators, employers and government agencies to write it off

5. Any number of other possibilities as to why this is a bad idea

Would it be cool to have an $1,800 Masters degree? Yes, it would. But it would really suck to have a $1,800 paper that reminded you of the time you were shafted by some dude in Idaho (or Florida or wherever).

We've expressed concerns about schools like SMC. And yet, this just comes off as so much shadier that I would gladly give SMC all of my credit card numbers before I ever considered this potentially unholy union.

That said, if you do it please share with us the results of your evaluation when it's over. If the degree is considered RA equivalent, I will take you out for lunch*.

*Only redeemable within 50 miles of Syracuse, NY.