Is there a legit Kensington University?

I was just browsing the website of a well know DL school and found a faculty listing for someone with a degree from Kensington University.

I know we've talked about a Kensington University here in various threads in less than wonderful terms. Is there a legit Kensington University out there that I've missed?

Regards - Andy

 

The only Kensington I know of was a California-approved school, until California denied their re-approval, about a year before the same thing happened to Columbia Pacific. It was, and as far as I know still is, owned by the law firm of Calabro and Calabro.

 

Spam today

I opened a smam email today titled 'Startomatic' and when I opened the email there was an ad for Kennedy-Western! The ad states they are a post secondary institution charted in Wyoming but the programme offerings mentioned in the ad were not open to people living in California or Oregon. The ad also attributed the K-W start date back in 1984. So, I guess it is the original California institution and it may well still operate its administration from California..or Hawaii? In this sense, I guess it is legitimate in that it has satisfied the regulations (however good or bad they may be) of Wyoming and this permits it to continue to grant degrees/run programmes.



AJJ

 

Re: Spam today

There is a great deal of information in these threads regarding Kennedy-Western and the subjects you bring up. Perhaps you should do a search of them before drawing the conclusions you draw.

 

Hi AJJ: This very brief summary on KW may help. KW has a fairly stereotyped set of requirements regardless of circumstances. These requirements are wildly inferior to those for any normal degree, accredited or unaccredited; they are inferior to the "portfolio" schools' stipulations because the portfolio schools (TESC, COSC, and the ridiculously named Excelsior) require very rigorous documentation of claims made in portfolios. KW's jurisdictional history is checkered and its claims of merit unfounded. It may still technically be legal in Wyoming, but Wyoming legality marks a complete absence of any quality control whatever, and Wyoming has been a jurisdiction of refuge for degree mills fleeing other states, when those states enacted supervisory legislation with any "teeth" at all. There are defenders of KW on this board, but they have been signally unpersuasive, even to those of us who are not univerrsal experrts. Go and sin no more. Janko

 

I was a member of the site visitation team for the CPPVE that inspected Kensington.

The California Court of Appeal found that the old California Kensington University was not a diploma mill but it did not comply with the California Education Code and that the CPPVE action in closing the school was proper.

Years later I inadvertently discovered the judge who wrote the opinion was on the Board of Trustees of another law school – a fact that apparently had not been disclosed to the parties. Had Kensington known this at the time, it might have had good grounds to set aside the decision.

I have no idea what Kensington is like since they lost California approval.

 

A Google search....

on "phd, kensington university" will find that as well as a few others who claim PHD's from there. There is a University of New South Wales - Kensington and it is legit. However, I don't think that is what they mean as several use the Glendale, CA address.

 

Bloody hell, David! They're still at it. Lookit this:

http://icbm.ac.in/kensington.htm#California Education Code Categories

 

Kensington Univeristy - Not Legit

Kensington University was shut down by the State of California for lacking educational merit. Subsequently, Kensington University relocated their "University" to Hawaii. Hawaii subsequently became the second, and final, state to shut down this school for lacking educational merit.

Many states consider Kensington University to be illigitimate and state so on their state websites - as the one linked below"
OREGON: Office of Degree Authorization
MICHIGAN: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Non-accreditedSchools_78090_7.pdf
TEXAS: "kensington university" texas - Google Search
MAINE: Non-Accredited ID-KN

In Texas, city workers who claimed pay raises owing to improvement in their educational status had those raises taken away when it was discovered they claimed degrees from what Texas deemed "diplomma mills" - specifically Kensington University.
Laredo firefighter won't have to pay back raise - TEXAS-FIRE.com Message Board

Finally, individuals who claimed Kensington University degrees were greatly embarrassed when CBS News aired a story on Government Officials with "Fake Degrees" citing two individuals with Kensington University Degrees.
Top Officials Hold Fake Degrees - CBS Evening News - CBS News

In my personal opinion, I would consider Kensington to have been a mail order diplomma mill. Further, I would not hire anyone claiming such a degree. Just my opinion, do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

 

Thought I'd add my two cents

I worked at Kensington University from 1990 to 1996. Fred Calabro was my boss. The rules for California at the time allowed us to operate under different rules than they do now. We NEVER told ANYONE that we were accredited. We were all trained to explain the difference between accreditation and approval. Anyone who paid their money and did their WORK at Kensington got what they paid for. Alfred Attilio Calabro is now dead. I went to his funeral last year. To say that his work was a diploma mill is false. You were not there. I was.

 

Who necromanced this old thread?

 

Kensington was a degree mill, not a diploma mill.

Big difference.

 

With any luck this will turn into another "threat of the week." They're always so amusing.

 

I would be reluctant to call a state-approved school whose law degrees qualified graduates to take the California Bar exam a degree mill (or diploma mill). I do not recall that they ever claimed to be accredited by anyone.

After they lost their approval and their Bar qualification, that's another matter entirely.

 

I'd be most interested in learning your definitions and distinctions here, Bruce.

In our books, Ezell and I say that "degrees" are the credentials that schools award (or give or sell), and "diplomas" are the physical artifacts that one hangs on the wall.

 

I go with the Levicoff definition; a degree mill requires some work, but far less and of less quality than a legitimately accredited school, while a diploma mill will outright sell you the piece of paper for no work at all or a ridiculously token effort (a book report or two for a Ph.D.)

 

Levicoff's distinctions, while utile, are uniquely his. In practice, the two terms are used interchangeably.

Kensington was one of the 94310(c) Authorized schools, pretty much awarding degrees in anything. I began receiving their materials in 1980. While I can't measure it, I always felt they were more substantial than some other Authorized schools (like Pacific Western or Central California). They seemed less substantial than Columbia Pacific or California Western (now California Coast). (When California got rid of the Authorized/Approved distinction around 1989, a lot of Authorized schools didn't get the new approval. Kensington, like Columbia Pacific, got it for awhile.) An opinion? Sure. But I was there and, for those who don't know obscure little ol' me, I did a Ph.D. on this stuff.

 

I think they're useful distinctions; one of the many hats I've worn in my career is working background investigations, and if someone presented me an application with a Kensignton or Pacific Western degree, I'd raise my eyebrows, completely discount the degree, then look at their other credentials and qualifications. By law, we only require a GED, a driver's license, and no significant criminal history as baseline qualifications, so I would likely give the applicant the benefit of the doubt that they didn't know they were being scammed.

If I got an application with a Columbia State degree, I'd stop reading and immediately send the package to the chief's office with a very strong recommendation to not hire him/her.

 

Nice to see your occasional posts.

 

i heart thats Kensington University is a very reputable and Accredited online University s i dont think that there may be any problem with getting a degree from there