Methods degree mills use to fool people: John Bear offers list, asks for help

These are all excellent suggestions, but there is one glaring omission. Perhaps the greatest tool employed by degree mills to fool people (as opposed to enlisting them as co-conspirators) is requiring just enough work (e.g., 5 to 7 courses or a minimal dissertation or thesis) to convince the student that the degree is actually earned and legitimate, but not enough to dissuade him or her from enrolling.

Here’s a few more:

*Claiming meaningless, false, or unverifiable articulation agreements
*Claiming false exclusivity, such as not everyone qualifies for a degree or is eligible for enrollment
*Claiming to have an available brick and mortar program (usually in distant location, or with enrollment filled for years in advance)

 

Methods degree mills use to fool people: John Bear offers list

I am glad to confirm that most, if not all, points John makes apply to Warnborough with a few interesting additions of their own to the list. The latter include making a full use of their associates to boost their credibility.

The latest one of these is yet another non-accredited 'educator', Eagle Group, which shares Warnborough's Canterbury address and states on http://www.eaglegroupedu.net/switzerland.htm

"Warnborough University commenced its highly respected and international accredited Post Graduate and Master Business programs in Switzerland. You can gain the prestigious Warnborough Degrees in Zurich (part-time and weekend studies) and in Einsiedeln (full-time campus)." and

"Swiss Quality and UK Degree accreditation = a winning formula" on http://www.eaglegroupedu.net/bachelor-degree.htm

which are only for starters.

In fact, Eagle Groups goes even further by claiming a British Council accreditation on http://www.eaglegroupedu.net/england.htm.

The good news is that Warnborough has finally been given 2 months by the British Government to stop using the word 'university' in their company name and to revert to something more appropriate for an Irish registered limited liability, profit making company. I understand that the owners of Warnborough, Messrs Tempest-Mogg and Julian Ng, rather fancy "Warnborough Worldwide Ltd".

I bet they will still be handing out their degree certificates bearing the University coat of arms and the university title at their Hong Kong graduation 26th June although they have withdrawn the venue details from their website blaming:

"Due to spammers and pranksters misusing our online reservation system, please email your interest in attending directly to the Registrar."

Look who's talking ......... that sounds more like Warnborough. After all, they are masters at cover-ups which is unknown amongst genuine operators.

If anybody is interested, the venue was Ballroom of New World Renaissance Hotel, New World Centre, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. I wonder if the Chinese police will invite themselves?? and What is the current rate for fraud in China??


Ismo

 

Resurrection of an old thread, eh.

Do any of the mills make statements like, "As listed in the Bears' Guide." or similar?

 

ISO 9002 accreditation is meaningless unless you state what you are accredited for. A company could get QA accreditation for maintaining the staff bulletin board, but it would say nothing about their production.

A standard joke over here is that companies can get ISO 9002 for making cups of tea while the rest of the organisation falls to pieces!

 

"The good news is that Warnborough has finally been given 2 months by the British Government to stop using the word 'university' in their company name "

Some confusion I suspect. Warnborough is based in Eire as far as I am aware and it should be the Eire government that has put them on notice?

 

WARNBOROUGH NATIONALITY??

You are right - Warnborough is an Irish registered limited company i.e. not a university as Warnborough likes to think. Irish government does not recognise them and do not know anything about them.

They claim to be a 'global university' which is a concept that does not exist and could be translated as 'stateless' which again, may become an advantage for Warnborough because, combined with their off-shore banking facility, they can easily avoid paying tax in the UK where their 'head office' is based. Any student, creditor or anybody else for that matter, would find it very diffcult to sue them.

If things get really difficult for Warnborough they can always repeat their famous disappearing act - see http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1996-7/weekly/071196/news/list.htm.

The current action concerning the university title was taken by the British government after Warnborough had to register their domicile in the UK. They cannot get the usual privy council's permission to use the title in their business name or an exemption under the Business Names Act. Consequently they now have about a month left to comply.

From the British government's point of view, it's really like President Nixon or one of his cronies once said, to misquote:

"If you get them by the balls, the rest will follow!"

Cheers

Ismo