Monarch Business School - Can't tell..

Looks so close but I can't tell: Independent Study Doctorates – UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland

Thoughts?

 

I've seen better. It's cantonally licensed, so zero institutional accreditation or equivalent. Even so, sometimes programmatic accreditors, notably ACBSP figure that since the school has legal degree-granting authority in its own country (cantonal permission suffices) they can accredit its programs, if they see fit. That doesn't apply to this program.

Degrees of cantonally-licensed schools are "legal" but lack the standing of mainstream Swiss Federation degrees. Sometimes, they lack any standing at all - and wind up on "lists", like the famous Oregon one. Programmatic approval often adds sufficient "starch" to the diploma that the degree becomes useful. No such luck, here. No programmatic accreditation I can see. This looks like a 15,000 Euro unaccredited doctorate.

It's pretty well impossible to open a distance school with mainstream Swiss Federation approval. Requirements include buildings, 100 full-time professors and much more - so all DL schools, good or bad, go the cantonal route. Quality varies.

We had a thread on this school in 2011. At that time, its degrees (and those of about 17 other schools of varying quality) were being "validated" by Universidad Azteca, a Mexican private university with rather a short history. My take: the validation isn't worth all that much. I'm pretty sure Azteca takes the money and validates with virtually NO oversight -for quite a number of schools, some quite dubious. U. of Wales made a ton of money doing exactly this, before their validation scheme imploded and pretty well blitzed the University of Wales as we knew it.

I wouldn't touch it.

http://www.degreeinfo.com/accreditation-discussions-ra-detc-state-approval-unaccredited-schools/37960-monarch-business-school.html

Johann

 

From the UGSM-Monarch FAQ:

FAQ #6 is a good question, but some people might suggest that the provided answer is misleading. The reality is that membership (even "important membership") in an accreditation organization does not mean the same thing as accreditation. Accreditation is a separate step, and UGSM-Monarch has not taken it with any of the listed organizations.

So a shorter, clearer, non-misleading version of FAQ #6 would look like this:

For some reason, UGSM-Monarch seems to prefer the longer, more ambiguous, and potentially misleading version.

 

I do have a problem with it, Steve. It is legitimate - as in legally able to confer degrees - of no standing, or dubious standing at best. These doctorates are from a school without a shred of anything even close to either programmatic or institutional accreditation. The "validation" by a school (Azteca) that itself confers (legal) degrees with less-than-mainstream standing is suspect at best, quasi-worthless at worst.

The very idea of someone spending even 'way less than $20K for a doctorate they'll have to defend for the rest of their lives does indeed give me problems. Smells like Rushmore... or maybe RKC.

Johann

 

I think maybe they should re-name the school "University of Zero Oversight." if you want to earn a degree from a Swiss Cantonally approved school, look for one that offers good programmatic accreditation for the degree you're seeking. There are some really great ones - and they tend to be priced accordingly.

Johann

 

We're not so far apart, Steve. The degrees are legitimate, but I'd rather they were more useful, like the ones with programmatic accreditation. Yes, RKC is a better choice, now it's a centre for two UK schools. And yes - there are better choices in Cantonally-approved schools than UGSM-Monarch.

Johann

 

While the website "proudly" claims membership with ACBSP, I don't see the listing!

ACBSP : Current Accredited Programs and Members

 

Correction! It is listed under UGSM Monarch Business School as a member but not accredited program.

 

There are many institutions on this list that are not worthy of accreditation. Students are going to learn the hard way.

 

Yes, unfortunately some are - the ones that don't read this thread first. Right - ACBSP membership and accreditation are two different things entirely. These degrees may be "legitimate," i.e. not fraudulent, taught, earned and conferred with the best of intentions, but they're just not very useful - in Europe or especially in the U.S. It won't do a U.S. grad much good to talk about "legitimacy" if the Monarch degree has to pass a NACES-member (WES, ECE et al.) or AACRAO sniff-test. It just won't. It has nothing going for it, not even a programmatic accred. sticker, even though it costs $20,000. It's about like a State-approved degree in the U.S. Those are "legitimate" too, but most have very limited utility.

Don't like their marketing-speak either. Especially where they intentionally use membership as a substitute for accreditation. Not good.

Johann