Axact universities

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Kizmet, Aug 29, 2015.

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  1. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    And while pleas are thrown out and bails are granted, new Axact clones keep coming. One of the more recent is www dot prentyford dot us, website created on 27 May this year. The webmaster did a decent but not entirely successful job in replacing Pittsford with Prentyford.

    Websites created at or shortly after the time the NYT blew the whistle on Axact include www dot msu-edu dot us, www dot grantchesteruniversity dot com and www dot berkshireuniversity dot us. The latter is interesting because there used to be another rather unrecognised university with that name, www dot berkshireuniversity dot co dot uk. I don't think the website is active, but a few years ago, Berkshire was, in its own words, "England's Finest Online University".
     
  2. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    How many incarnations of Grantchester have there been? We've had at least two threads going back to 2015, mentioning a Grantchester with an .ac designation that was denounced in our forum as a fraud - by a couple of people who would definitely know - and a Grantchester that claimed some kind of approval from California University FCE. :shock:

    Not sure if this dot-com one is the "second coming" - or the "third."

    http://www.degreeinfo.com/education-teaching-related-degrees/51647-university-grantchester-fake.html

    http://www.degreeinfo.com/online-dl-teaching/49390-grantchester-university-california-university-fce.html


    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 17, 2016
  3. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    The dot-com Grantchester is behind a privacy screen, says a whois enquiry. Wonder who is "the wizard" behind the screen. As I said, I think we're seeing multiple incarnations here - similar to what mbwa shenzi reported re "Berkshire University." Maybe the mill-meisters have run out of names and are recycling - or stealing from each other, just to keep in practice. :smile:

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 17, 2016
  4. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Maybe, but it's still possible to find websites registered a little more than a year ago or later:

    waxenuniversity dot com or waxen-edu dot com

    kadenuniversity dot com

    rosecliffuniversity dot com

    Waxen is accredited by IAO, the International Accreditation Organization while Kaden claims regional accreditation from the "Higher Learning Commission".

    Rosecliff may or may not be an Axact clone. It does have a few things in common with other Axact universities but is also different from them in many ways.
     
  5. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    and then there's this

    Behind the Name: Random Name Generator
     
  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Monkey see, monkey do. :smile:

    J.
     
  7. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I looked these latest ones up on Whois. Maybe I should open a Domain Privacy Service. Such a demand! :shock:

    J.
     
  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    IAO had its origin in India. An article I read said that it was shuttered around the time of the AXACT arrests. Well, maybe - the Indian website wasn't working today. This one (abroad) was working: www-dot-aiao-dash-bar-dot-org

    Another article on IAO is here: Faking Quality Control for Universities - Al-Fanar MediaAl-Fanar Media

    IAO has a Facebook page and has/had an address in Texas. Nothing on the Facebook page since Aug 2015, so perhaps...

    J.
     
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    During its lifetime, I believe IAO "accredited" over a thousand schools of all types - universities, vocational / career, high schools, etc etc. They did this in many many countries, from Albania to Zambia. They even claimed a (very) few properly-accredited US universities (RA and NA) on their list. I doubt those US schools had any idea they'd been "selected" for this honour. :smile: Some school officials approached by IAO quoted the going rate for IAO accreditation as $1,000.

    I'd have to rate IAO as one of the most prolific bogus accreditors of all time.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 19, 2016
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Kaden University, (from the latest list provided by mbwa shenzi) shares some verbiage and similarities with this thingy - California Central University, accredited by about eight international organizations I've never heard of: cacentraluniversity-dot-com

    California Central has some stuff left over on its pages from WalesBridge University. Now THAT school is known from the original Axact list.

    So -- Kaden - California Central - WalesBridge (Axact). Case closed. Get the rope...

    J
     
  11. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    At least IBARC, the International Business Accreditation and Regulatory Commission and GAC, the Gulf Accreditation Council, are figments of some Axactian's imagination.
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    A good bit of "Waxen U's" blurb on some grad. degrees is cut-and-pasted from RA Strayer U.'s website. That should be a surprise to absolutely nobody.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 21, 2016
  13. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Axact seems poised to resume where they left off

    They have the money to pay 15 months back salary to all employees, and seem ready to re-open.

    http://ow.ly/UQVe3040edR
     
  14. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Heh, and just as I read this, Pink Floyd's "Money" started playing on Pandora.com feed.
     
  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    The new Axact slogan is "Pehle se bhi ziada." I think that's roughly "greater than before." Holy cow! I hope not! :shock:

    J.

    "Make Axact great again." ...Now, where have I heard something like that before? :smile:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 8, 2016
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Back pay from May 2015 to date! :shock:

    J.
     
  18. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    And the clones keep coming. New websites registered, most of them about two weeks ago:

    www dot southcreekuniversity dot com
    www dot queensvilleuniversity dot com
    www dot nelsonvilleuniversity dot com
    www dot calbrooksuniversity dot com
    www dot barkleyuniversity dot com
    www dot northwayuniversity dot com
    www dot walkerhilluniversity dot com
    www dot baychesteruniversity dot com
     
  19. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    They're not all new.

    Part of Southcreek's blurb appears possibly cribbed from University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
    Part of Queensville's - appears in 3 other mills - California Creek University, South America University and Sand City University.
    Part of Nelsonville's - two mills - Sand City U. and Gatesville U.
    Part of California Brooks U's - likely cribbed verbatim from Capella U.
    No Barkley site any more. This is not a new one. It was widely reported in the 2015 Axact stories.
    Northway University is dot-net, not dot-com. It was also named in the 2015 stories.
    Walker Hill University is another pre-debacle Axact "school." No website I could find, but presence on Facebook etc. back to 2015.
    Walker Hill University probably got its name from the Walker Hill International Award, which Michigan State U. awards for "pre-dissertation visits to a doctoral research site in a country outside the United States."
    Part of Baychester U's blurb appears verbatim on sites as diverse as Birmingham City University, (UK - real), Dum Dum Motijheel College (India) and Innova University. Innova claims a Delaware address and states it's "internationally accredited" - but doesn't say by whom? The Innova site certainly has the look-and-feel of an Axact School. Dum Dum Motijheel College? Appears real - Kolkata, founded 1950, affiliated with West Bengal University.

    (Yawn.) "Researching" (?) this stuff feels like a criminal waste of time and bandwidth. Somebody arrest me! :sad: If I don't have better things to do -- I ought to. :sad:

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 7, 2016
  20. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Re Barkley: my apologies, it's barkleyuniversity dot org. Johann, it's not that they're new in name or content, it's that new websites were registered two weeks ago.

    Re South America(n) University: the website is a clone alright, but South American has been accepted as a member institution by ASIC, UK.
     

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