Guglielmo Marconi University is ACICS accredited.

Found this recently.

Accreditation

They have a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in English. All online. The price for the undergraduate 3 year degrees are 9900 EU.

Most graduate programs are 4000 - 6000 EU.

 

Looks like another mickey-mouse school to me.

I mentioned in another thread that I consider the phrase online university to be an oxymoron. There’s another phrase I would add to the oxymoron list: virtual campus.

One key item I notice missing from their website – a list of their faculty, with their degrees.

I’d take a pass when it comes to their credibility in the U.S. As for their credibility in Italy, I’m way too uninterested to look further.

 

I generally think this whenever I think of ACICS schools.

My wife taught for an in-residence one for a couple semesters after finishing up her master's degree and the low quality of students combined with the shady business practices has left me a little jaded against ACICS schools.

 

Well, here in lies one of those questions about whether a school is "legitimate" versus whether it is "well regarded."

Is it legitimate? It appears so. It took me about five minutes on the Ministry's website (with the assistance of Google translate) to determine that the school's programs are registered, it awards degrees with authority of the ministry and the qualifications of its faculty are proper. Apparently, the sin of not plastering their faculty qualifications all over your website to the satisfaction of U.S. based truck drivers isn't enough to cause the government to write them off completely.

Institutional review

Are they well regarded? Probably not. Italy is a fairly small country and it has prestigious universities which date back centuries. I doubt you're going to impress an employer with your Marconi laurea. And without combing social media (which would be in Italian) or, perhaps more interestingly, interviewing numerous employers in Italy we have no way of knowing if Marconi is the Italian version of the University of Phoenix.

But, like the University of Phoenix, the school appears to be legitimate and properly credentialed to do what it does even if its reputation is a bit sub-par. Of course, Marconi doesn't really appear to be marketing itself toward Italians who will use this degree in Italy. The focus seems to be on international students. And ACICS, sketchy as it may be, is likely Marconi's cheapest way to access Title IV funds to make this a more viable option for U.S. based students who want a little international bling on their resumes.

I got to the ministry's website through the WES page for Italy. I'd never presume to know what WES might, or might not, do with an evaluation. But if Ministry of Education authority is what they base their evaluation on (and I don't see any indication that they are using something else) then this school, based upon my cursory and unqualified opinion, is likely cranking out degrees that would be evaluated as RA equivalent.

From an HR standpoint, however, you're probably going to raise flags when you, an American, show up at an interview with an Italian degree, not able to speak a word of Italian and with a work history indicating that you've never lived in Italy. That doesn't mean it's illegitimate. It doesn't mean that "Well, it was an online program in English" isn't a satisfactory answer. But it just raises those flags and will likely cause your interviewer to "notice" your education in a way that isn't particularly helpful when you're hoping to get a job.

 

Molto semplice! If you're smart enough to earn a degree, you're smart enough to learn some Italian. :smile: You could even pass an exam and get credit. This is from a 2009 posting by member Farina:

"Try ACTFL's OPI oral and written exam. ACE has given them the recommendation to grant up to 12 credits pending the results for Italian. New York University also offers a 12 - 16 point exam. If you score at the superior level you can earn up to 16 credits in Italian."

ACICS has been feeling some heat, especially since the Corinthian debacle. All told, this agency has accredited about 900 schools.

From the article below: "Miller’s paper found that ACICS-accredited colleges have three-year default rates that are 50 percent higher than the national average. At the same time, their students are taking out more loans in greater amounts than their peers at colleges accredited by other agencies."

Read more: For-profit crackdown widens - POLITICO

J.

 

Considering that Guglielmo Marconi U. is already accredited by a recognized US national accreditor - a U.S. grad shouldn't necessarily need a credential evaluation from WES. As I see it, it is what it is - a degree from an NA school (ACICS), plain and simple. If I wanted to use it in Canada, that's another story...

Though I guess in the past, US students have put their foreign, but DETC-accredited degrees through credential evaluations and received RA equivalency (Australia, South Africa). The Australian school-names involved escape me right now, but UNISA was once DETC accredited, in addition to its SA authority. No trouble getting an RA equivalency from that school's degrees!

J.

 

I've never heard of it. (Of course that doesn't mean anything, I probably haven't heard of most Italian universities.)

As for the ACICS accreditation, perhaps that has something to do with the fact that they operate an American branch called 'Marconi International University, out of Miami.

Home

 

Buona cattura! (Good catch!)

Yes, the Florida school is part of the Italian one - and ACICS-accredited. Seeing that, I don't really know if one would be able to upgrade the Italian school's laurea from NA (ACICS) into an RA equivalency.

Yet - it's been done before with Australian and SA schools that also had DETC accreditation. But those schools didn't have NA subsidiaries operating in the US, so... :question: :question:

 

However, in those cases the DETC accreditation was not there to provide legitimacy. These were all "fully accredited" schools in their own countries before they became DETC accredited. The standard thinking IIRC was that the DETC accreditation allowed for US federal financial aid. That said, if credits/degrees were accepted by RA schools, it was not a measure of the acceptability of DETC credits. In all likelihood those credits/degrees would have been accepted regardless of DETC.

 

Right. However, this Italian school doesn't need ACICS to provide legitimacy, either. It appears completely legit under Italian law. Maybe it's ACICS accredited for the same reason the SA and Australian schools had DETC - financial aid for US students. And the US branch - same reason.

So - we're still exactly where we were. Can a US student get financial aid to study by distance at the Italian school? I think so... Can he/she then get an Italian-issued Guglielmo Marconi laurea declared equivalent to a US RA degree or not? I dunno... they might....

J

 

That was kind of my point. Marconi is accredited in Italy. ACICS is a secondary accreditation much the way DETC was secondary for Deakin University in Australia.

 

That's the Uni I was trying to remember! Thanks! And I think Kizmet is right. Probably the ACICS accreditation facilitates financial aid to US students. Whether the Italian school's degrees can be leveraged from NA into RA equivalency - I have no idea. They're certainly legit, though. That's not in dispute.

J.

 

The U.S. subsidiary thing is a bit curious. And I agree that such a situation might mean that you are really getting a degree from a US based ASICS accredited school that happens to be owned by an Italian university rather than receiving a degree from an Italian university. Or, maybe that's not the case at all. Or maybe you have a choice of which you formally enroll in.

I've long been intrigued by Italian universities especially their history with the laurea degree. If nothing else this discussion has forced me to investigate how to verify that some of these smaller, newer Italian unis offering DL are legitimate. I think a little more research into the topic is necessary (such as do Italian universities have another level of voluntary accreditation which separates the well established state schools from places like Marconi?). But it kind of opens up a new field of possibilities. The only problem I see is that Italian universities seem to all be out for foreign students. And I'm sure the government isn't opposed to the idea of bring in more foreign money this way. The concern that they may be too accommodating in order to draw those foreign bucks in enters my mind. But unfortunately until the scandal breaks I have very little to base that sort of fear on.

 

Got a list?

 

Cusano came across my radar.

 

Sure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Italy

The list includes public and private, though it's not complete. It does list University Niccolò Cusano, mentioned by Neuhaus. I believe as long as a private university is named under the appropriate Ministry Act, it (and its degrees) are legit. How much (if any) the standing of those degrees varies between individual private (or public) schools, I have no idea.


J.

 

Want another list? This one, a banner that accesses your choice of 26 Italian Private Universities, offered by Google. Nicely done!

Just go to Google, put in Italian Private Universities (no quotes) hit enter and up it comes. Can't link because I have to use dot-ca for Google - and you don't.

J.

 

Thanks for (almost) nothing. I'm looking for what Neuhaus said, a list of smaller, newer Italian universities that offer DL.

 

Sorry - My bad.

This might be of some use. Don't know how complete it is. It's a list of Italian DL programs that are completely by distance - all fields. (There are 50+ other hybrid-programs, but I filtered them out.) I note Uninettuno, discussed in another recent thread, is included.

J.

 

I think you used too fine a filter.