Is Textila American University an accredited University?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Jan, Jan 8, 2018.

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  1. Jan

    Jan Member

    I read that Textila American University provides distance online doctoral programs in Psychology that is accredited due to their association with the University of Central Nicaragua, which supposedly grants the degree. Is this factual?
     
  2. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    Textila or Texila?

    If Texila then whatever this means:

    Accreditation[edit]
    Texila is registered with the National Accreditations Council of Guyana Higher Education Authority Ministry of Education ,Zambia.[9] The school has applied as of July 2015 for accreditation with the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions(CAAM-HP).[10] It is listed in the FAIMER International Medical Education Directory (IMED) effective in 2011 as School #F0002428[11] and is listed in the World Health Organization's World Directory of Medical Schools. By virtue of its listing in IMED, students graduating from IUHS are authorized to take part in the United States Medical Licensing Examination three-part examinations. Those who pass the examinations are eligible according to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates to register for and participate in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).[12]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texila_American_University
     
  3. Jan

    Jan Member

    Thanks Decimon. In fact, I previously read the accreditation data you provided on their website. However, I'm unclear if it has any relevance in terms of recognition and credibility of their doctotates in the US?

    There is also the issue of their alleged association with the University of Central Nicaragua which they claim confers these doctorates?
     
  4. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    I've always been skeptical of schools whose claim to credibility and accreditation of degrees rests on what is usually a loose, questionable, or difficult-to-verify relationship with some other school in a different country.

    Basically if it smells bad, it probably is bad. This smells bad. If it were me, I'd find a different alternative.
     
  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    "The school is registered with the National Accreditation Council of Guyana"

    Note that in many West Indian countries registration is not the same as accreditation.
     
  6. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    Neither Texila American University or the U. of Central Nicaragua seem to be recognized for medical licensing purposes in California. The only Guyana medical school listed is the U. of Guyana and the only Nicaraguan medical school listed is the National Autonomous U. of Nicaragua.

    http://www.mbc.ca.gov/Applicants/Medical_Schools/Schools_Recognized.aspx

    A number of other US states use California's list of recognized foreign medical schools for their own medical licensing purposes. Which suggests that while some jurisdictions may indeed recognize schools like this, it isn't universal. So prospective students need to consult with the medical licensing people wherever they hope to practice.

    The text Decimon quoted says that Texila has applied in 2015 for accreditation by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine, but I didn't see Texila listed among the schools that this organization has assessed. (All of the accredited schools seem to have been accredited with conditions, other schools were assessed but weren't accredited, and still others have subsequently lost their initial accreditations, perhaps because conditions weren't met.)

    http://www.caam-hp.org/assessedprogrammes.html
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2018
  7. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Decimon: Textila or Texila?
    Me: Tequila.

    Seriously, this one has been up before us a while back. Here's the thread. https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/texila-american-university-is-it-legitimate.45364/

    In it, a real expert wrote the following, which I think was a very salient point:

    "Texila American University is an "accredited member" of the International Association for Distance Learning, IADL, apparently. I don't know what it means to be an accredited member but I see that Bircham International University, Calamus International University, Commonwealth University, Newton Hills University of Science and Technology, West Coast University, West Coast Institute of Management and Technology, University of Western California, St Clements University, Intercultural Open University Foundation and LIGS University are, or have been members of the IADL."
     
  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    It looks like Alltere Education, which sponsors/manages Texila programs, among others, may have ceased operation in 2017. https://webb-site.com/dbpub/orgdata.asp?p=1496870
    I remember the name from about 10 years ago. A Caribbean med. school had branched out and was offering distance degrees in business. Name of the school was Saint Xavier U. or similar. NOT the Chicago school of the same name - or St. Xavier's in Kolkata, India. Can't find the Caribbean school any more.

    Alltere seems (seemed?) to be most active in India and China.
     
  9. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    You can check the university with the database below that is used by universities and credential evaluators:
    http://www.univcheck.org/#sthash.4NNFW37k.dpbs

    The university is not accredited in Ghana, India or UAE. The school might be legit but it will not be recognized by foreign governments unless is officially recognized in one country. The deal with University of Central Nicaragua is also problematic, UCN might be legit but many places do not recognized validated degrees. Validated degrees are like degrees granted on the basis of an international agreement but they are not considered official but almost like honorary degrees. Most credential evaluators will not accept validated degrees so you might not get it recognized even if granted by UCN. UCN would need to disclose that the degree is validated in the transcript and this can be problematic. This type of degrees are legal but very risky if you need it for an academic career, license, etc. This type of degrees work well for those that just need a doctorate for a resume booster but they are aware that the recognition is limited, a bit like a DEAC degree.
     
  10. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Don't know about most, but some wouldn't accept it. The issue here is not that Central de Nicaragua or Texila aren't legitimate, the main problem is that the distance education programmes (in cooperation with schools in Austria, Germany and elsewhere) and affiliations of UCN may not be under the supervision of authorities in Nicaragua. The affiliation between UCN and Universidad Azteca in Mexico is particularly interesting. If memory serves me right, UCN validated programmes at Azteca and awarded doctoral degrees, although at the time Azteca's accreditation was limited to three or four bachelor's programmes.
     
  11. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Nicaragua and Mexico have different education systems. In Mexico, the minister of education accredits programs and not universities. Azteca's degrees are only valid in Mexico if recognized by the minister of education and transcripts would need to match the program registered with the minister. A validated degree from Azteca is legal but it is not accredited in Mexico. In Nicaragua, government accredits Universities so UCN could grant any degree they want and they would be accredited.
    The problem is that at the view of some credential evaluators, the student would have completed the degree at Texila and not UCN so they usually go with the source degree and not the validated degree. It is like the validation report that comes from the University of Toronto (I have one) that states that a degree is equivalent to a degree from the University of Toronto, the University is validating the degree as equal but the degree was completed at a different University so I cannot state that I have a degree from the University of Toronto but that my degree was validated by UoT.
    In the case of UCN, it does dot grant a report but a degree but the transcript probably would state that all credits were transferred from Texila so the evaluator might look at Texila as the originator.
    In some countries, Universities are allowed to operate even if not accredited like Texila. The degrees might have some value in the local market if the employers recognize the school but the degree lacks value at the International level if it is not accredited by the government of origin of the institution.
    This kind of deals are risky and might or might not work for a person. The best would be to contact your local minister of education and ask if the degree would work. For example, I checked in Germany, and validated degrees are not recognized.
     
  12. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    The procedure in several Latin American countries (Mexico and Costa Rica are examples) is for the accreditors to accredit individual degree programs at private universities. In other words, it's possible, entirely legal and actually quite common for private universities to offer both accredited and non-accredited programs.

    https://wenr.wes.org/2006/06/wenr-june-2006-education-in-mexico

    This creates confusion for Americans who are used to institutional accreditation where entire universities are accredited (including, by implication, all of their degree programs). The whole idea of 'GAAP' easily falls prey to that confusion. A Latin American school gets one or more local B&M degree programs accredited. Then it seeks a listing in the standard reference books on that basis. Then it makes franchise agreements with various DL entrepeneurs outside the country (and its jurisdiction) to offer degrees (typically English-language DL doctorates) in the school's name with the promise that the validating school is 'GAAP' and hence the degrees are 'RA equivalent'.

    According to WES, the situation in Nicaragua since 1990 has been pretty anarchic. In 1990 they loosened their laws to allow the creation of private universities. Some 40+ of these appeared and their academic quality was all over the map, from good to terrible. The legal regime that governed them required approval from the Consejo Nacional de Universidades for their foundation, after which they were effectively autonomous and received no ongoing quality assurance oversight. To their credit, the Nicaraguans recognized the defects in this situation and as of 2007 were in the process of creating a new national accreditor, which was apparently to be called the 'Sistema Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación'. This was intended to be in charge of quality-assurance, site-visits and such things.

    https://wenr.wes.org/2007/05/wenr-may-2007-nicaragua

    So... my questions are:

    1. Is the Sistema Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación up and running?

    2. Is the Universidad Central de Nicaragua accredited by the Sistema Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación?

    3. If it is, then is this accreditation American-style institutional accreditation, or Latin-American program-by-program accreditation in the style of Mexican RVOE or Costa Rican SINAES?

    4. And does this accreditation (if it exists) extend to the various off-shore programs outside Nicaragua that University of Central Nicaragua validates?

    I don't know the answers. I certainly wouldn't send thousands of dollars to anyone on the basis of 'RA-equivalency' promises until I do.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2018
  13. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    Googling the term yields a link, so answer to 1 seem to be "yes":
    http://www.cnea.edu.ni/

    Moreover, UCN is listed as one of it's "Membros", whatever this worth. I'm 70% sure answer to question 2 is "yes" as well. For more definitive answer, and to evaluate 3 and 4, we'd need someone capable of reading in Spanish.
     
  14. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    The thing is, sometimes a degree being "accredited" is not the whole story. For example: TAU's medical school is listed in FAIRMED, so can reasonably be called "accredited". Does this mean it is a good idea to enroll? Not necessarily. Apparently, it's a huge gamble to go for any Caribbean medical school (beyond perhaps - perhaps! - the top 4: St. George's, Ross, Saba, and MUA) with the goal to be licensed in the USA. So after you establish that TAU is "accredited", further questions must be asked: do they have licensed graduates? what are the tuition fees? attrition rate? board exam scores? where do they hold clinical rotations? how many grads are successful in residency match? which specialities? where? I have serious doubt TUA's program would pass muster if all these questions are asked; their lack of California approval is somewhat of a black mark already.

    In other words, having accreditation means graduates can be successful without lying. It doesn't mean the experience won't be a costly disappointment for the particular applicant. YMM very much V.
     
  15. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    That's true in the US. In the 1970s I looked into NYU's school of continuing education, a school within a school. That had both credit and non-credit programs. If you were in a credit program and wished to transfer to NYU proper then you would be evaluated as a transfer student.
     
  16. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    A while ago I contacted WES about UCN and they told me that they would only evaluate up to the master's level for Nicaragua's degrees as the country had no strong education system. However, I am sure among the tens of credential evaluators, there might some that would give UCN the equivalent to RA status for a PhD. They told me that they could recognize graduate credits from UCN or Azteca but not the PhD degrees so they could be good if someone needed extra graduate credits to teach but not for someone needing a PhD degree.

    To be fair with UCN and Azteca, they are doing the same that a lot of schools in Europe like the University of Liverpool that outsources to Laureate International their course offerings. The difference is that the University of Liverpool has a lot more credibility so their degrees are not questioned regardless of who is the real educator.

    We are getting into an age of global education where schools are making partnership around the globe to make money. There is nothing wrong with the UCN, Azteca or Empresarial degrees as they are legally granted but because these are not top schools, people will always question the partnerships and they will question the quality of the degree.

    I think this could be still good options for self improvement or a little boost in your resume. It is a step up from a degree mill. I rather a PhD from UCN than one from any of the degree mills discussed here. Let's say I am self employed trainer, I can always include my PhD from UCN without fear of being tagged as a scam or fraud, I wouldn't have to defend my degree in every discussion, the degree was earned at distance from an accredited school and it was not meant to be a tenure track career booster but just self improvement and the right to use the PhD tagg. what is wrong with this?
     
  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    We have at least one member who has had good US recognition for his UCN PhD. Know of none similar with the other two schools. Not to say there hasn't been - I've just never seen it. The UCN grad's other degrees are US and RA.

    "Real educator?" To me, that's whoever the "real examiner" is - who / whatever org. sniff-tests the applicant's work and knowledge to make sure it's up to the standards of the University involved. The validation game is different from having a contract distance arm like Laureate. It's basically one university agreeing to certify degrees of another as equivalent to their own. But what if the degrees of both are of low value? There's a lot of "you validate me and I'll validate you and we'll both make out like bandits." Remember how the U. of Wales, with its beginnings 800 years ago, imploded as a result of its zero-oversight validation spree (200+ overseas schools) a few years back?

    "There is nothing wrong with these degrees..." Hell yeah, there is, sometimes. Empresarial in particular has a habit of granting degrees far beyond its CONESUP pay grade - which IIRC is confined to two Bachelor's degrees - business and accounting and a Master's in Business. And those are only to be studied on-ground, in Costa Rica. Any distance-ed degrees or any degrees beyond the original three are outside the scope of its CONESUP approval. Heirophant is right. A school may offer accredited and non-accredited programs. As far as Azteca goes, make sure whatever program you're contemplating has a Reconocido de Validez from The Mexican government - or you could get surprises on graduation.

    Nothing wrong with a distance PhD. at an accredited school. I think UCN qualifies. Make sure there's authority for your chosen program. Others may differ in opinion. But a "validated" school with deficient or zero accreditation, backed up by a "validating" school, also of limited degree-granting authority? Nope - those "doctors" will end up defending their degrees. There's self-improvement and self-aggrandizement. This crosses the line.

    J.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2018
  18. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    How would you know if the degree is validated or not? A Texila graduate is not going to put in his CV "Validated PhD NCU". From the legal perspective, UCN PhDs are accredited while Empresarial and Azteca are not but only because Nicaragua's accreditation works different but at the eyes of the consumer, all these 3 schools have very little reputation.

    CONESUP has a provision for degrees conferred outside Costa Rica in partnership with international institutions. San Juan De la Cruz and Empresarial are legally entitled to grant PhDs but these degrees are not considered "official" but "own" degree, are these degree prestigious? Most likely not but they are legal.
    Azteca has a similar situation, they can grant degrees outside those accredited by the minister but these degrees cannot be recognized for professional licenses.

    UCN is also involved in the validation of degrees from unaccredited schools in the US, they validate the prestigious "University of America" that practically grants degrees in any subject in the planet with a high school license in California so they are doing something similar than Empresarial and Azteca but the only difference is that because the weakness of the Nicaraguan law, they are entitled to grant degrees from Philosophy to Quantum Physics.

    UCN, Azteca, Empresarial and San Juan de la cruz are just a set of a new trend of latin schools trying to make a buck by validating degrees. They are just following the model of many European schools doing the same thing (e.g. UoL).

    Their market is mainly people with low budgets and in need of a distance doctorate that can be completed quickly and it can be used in some less saturated markets like in Africa.

    I found few faculty members in the US with PhDs from Empresarial and UCN working as adjuncts but none from Azteca or Universidad de la Cruz. Again, I am sure some credential evaluators would give RA status to UCN so it might work for adjunct work
    at some schools.

    To the OP, this type of deals are good for someone who wants the PhD letters but is not interested in academic or other prestigious positions, it can work for self employed consultants or personal growth or those wanting the PhD letters to write a book.
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2018
  19. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    When I contacted hte UCN rep, I was told that there was not certainty of getting RA equivalent status. I was only told that they would give me a list of NACES evaluators that have given RA status to UCN.
    Even if you do an on campus degree at an accredited school from a Latin American country, there is no guarantee that the NACES evaluator would give the RA status as there are other factors to consider. A PhD from Belize would have a harder time to be recognized than a PhD from Mexico or Brazil from a good school.

    In Canada for example, WES told me that there are several countries that they would not consider for equivalency for a Masters or a PhD given their weak systems. University of Toronto has a pre approval system that guarantees recognition after graduation but it costs about $500. A person could send the name of the schools and the degree and UoT would pre approve you for those degrees so you don't waste your money.

    The problem with the evaluations is that things change. If UCN starts over selling the PhD, many people would turn out with PhDs from UCN for promotions and this will ring the bells of some places and warn NACES accreditors and put the school in a black list so even though it might be accepted now, it might not be accepted in the future.
     
  20. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    (1) In my book, ALL these "own title" i.e. unapproved degrees, at schools that offer a mix of approved / unapproved programs, are suspect - they appear to have zero official recognition.
    (2) NACES evaluators evaluate individual degrees, not entire schools. It would help to know what degrees (subject and level) an evaluator has approved as RA equivalent. Will UCN tell you this?
    (3) "If UCN starts over-selling the PhD" - what would that entail, that's different from right now?
     

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