The Continents State University

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Mac Juli, Dec 12, 2020.

Loading...
  1. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Going back to their Florida registration, they incorporated in July 2020 under the name The Continents State University Inc.
    They have an Ohio business registration under the name Continents Academy.
    They have a religious exemption under the name "The Continents State University School of International Business and Theological Education."

    They don't seem to have much of a presence in Florida.

    Some of this is noted by tadj above.

    They have a parallel website at https://www.continents.edu.eu/, but I can't get any WHOIS info on it. In fact, the WHOIS tells me that domain violates some kind of rule for domains.

    Looking at the faculty page:

    Nilsa Fleury's bio gets her university's name wrong, saying she has an EdD from "Nova Southern University" but such a university does not exist. A Nilsa Fleury did graduate from Nova Southeastern University.

    Meriam Bellarbi's name is misspelled, if her LinkedIn (which gives her name as Miriam Bellarbi) is to be believed.

    Daisy Whitaker is listed as having a PhD, but in her LinkedIn she identifies as having an MS in Organizational Management and to be in the middle of a Liberty University Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL).

    These 3 have no profile or photos:
    • JoAnne Hayes, PhD
    • Dave Stephens, MBA
    • Derek Killebrew, MBA
    Veronica Felipe has a LinkedIn that identifies her as a Volunteer Professor.

    "Fabio Davidovici, MBA" does have several graduate degrees but none look like an MBA.

    "Patrick Jana, MBA" says on his LinkedIn that he's working on his MBA (2019-2021), not that it's been awarded.

    This is all, at best, very sloppy.
     
    innen_oda likes this.
  2. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    This could be attributed to variance in Anglicization of her name - which may have been like either "Miryam" or "Maryam" originally. Or a simple mistake as you say.
    She's got another variant - "Meriam" on The University's page, cited below. No alarm bells here. People simply aren't used to overseas names. They write what they hear.

    The University's page shows: Richard Madison, PharmD - Chief Executive Officer. And everyone else: https://www.continents.us/page/board-of-trustees-and-academic-team
     
    Dustin likes this.
  3. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Good point, I hadn't considered that ber name in Arabic may be rendered several different ways in English.
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Here's the Uni's write-up on Dr. Madison. He's been listed as Dr. Richard or Dr. Ricky since 2015 in various Continents Academy and Continents University docs.

    "Dr, Madison is an American Pharmacist and educational entrepreneur, founded The Continents State University. He believes that many people around the world, need education but they cannot afford it. while some got the chance to finish their education, others do not! It is time to give back, so he founded The Continents State University, and he is making the efforts, services, knowledge, and educational materials available to build a better-educated universe. Today, 3.010 billion internet users in this world and the estimated global internet penetration are 42% as compared to 84.2% in the US.Around 52.4% of the global online population access the internet from their mobile devices, and more than half of the worldwide population is estimated to go online using their mobile devices during 2020. He is confident that education remains a far-right for 759 million adults who are illiterate and do not have the awareness necessary to improve both their living conditions or those of their children."

    * I had to copy this word-by-word. The original appears to be an image, not text. I noticed a few grammar errors. I think this was hand-coded or word-processed by some person doing the website, who may/may not have been associated with the University - that's what it looks like, anyway. J.

    --And if you search Google for "Miriam Bellarbi" - Continents U's chief legal officer comes up at the top - her Linked-In profile. That's as expected. The errors are by web page makers, I'm sure.

    Sorry Dustin - I just realized you found this already.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I notice on their site, Continents State say they intend to apply for DEAC accreditation - and are seeking donations to be used for that accreditation purpose, which will be held in a fund overseen by a professional accountant.
     
  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Dustin likes this.
  7. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Good eye! I tried looking for differences between the two sites but hadn't found and yet.

    Edit: Spoke too soon. I did see that on the original site, there is a special advisory for Mississippi students. I looked up that word, eleemosynary, assuming it was a typo but it's not!

    They also don't enroll students in 23 students including Iowa, as you noted earlier, so unfortunately I couldn't try them out.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I messed up the DEAC part a bit. So here it is from the site. They intend to use the Course fees ($125) for purposes of advancement including accreditation purposes. Here it is, right from the page, so there can't be any more errors or omissions on my part. (They are, however seeking donations for some purposes. If you want to give, I'm sure you can find how from the home page.)

    WHY WE NEED THIS MONEY?

    We care about quality in education, and we will be seeking national accreditation from the Distance Education Accrediting Commission ( DEAC). The Council recognizes DEAC for Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education as an accreditor of higher education institutions. The accreditation is a multi-year process of peer review and evaluation, and it’s required by most employers and government agencies to test the quality of education we offer. Accreditation will allow us to enroll students across the United States and abroad by increasing the university’s credibility of enrolling international students who cannot afford to pay for education because of war, life, or financial hardship.

    HOW WILL WE SPEND THIS MONEY?

    The money will be assigned to a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to monitor the spending and making sure we are executing our mission as we promise our people.

    From here: https://www.continents.us/blog/index.php/2020/11/10/encourage-more-people-in-education/
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Right. It bit me in a spelling bee in elementary school. Never forgot it!
     
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    So what have we got - after a couple of pages of people doing their homework etc?

    (1) We don't (as yours truly thought we might) have any indication whatsoever of ANY link between Continents State U. and International Theism U. - or any with International Theism's ancestor (some say) Breyer State. And as for the founders of BSU and CSU - the only similarity is that both at one time or another were qualified and licensed nurses and both are/were residents of Ohio. And both have founded Universities. That's it. There goes Johann's "Theory One." Poof!

    (2) We don't (as, again, yours truly thought we might) have any indication whatsoever that the school has done anything, up till the present, that the State of Florida doesn't seem to countenance. Yes, they have established a religious-exempt school, apparently within the structure of Continents States U. From its name, it appears the intent may be to offer both religious and secular (business) degrees. BUT -

    (a) They are not yet doing so. No indication whatsoever.
    (b) Johann doesn't like this religious exempt / secular degree stuff - it drives him crazy. But another Florida school, International Theism is doing so openly - and Florida seems to tolerate it. If they do - what can Johann say? Well, maybe he can say stuff - but he can't do anything.

    There goes Johann's "Theory Two" - perhaps a smaller "Poof!" (End of "Poof")

    (3) We still have several salient facts. (largely "non-Poofable.")

    (a) The school has no USDoE or CHEA- recognized US accreditation - and I forget now - did anyone see a standard disclaimer about that?
    (b) The school's web page indicates faculty holding degrees that some have not yet completed.
    (c) The school has allowed numerous grammar errors etc to be published on its website. For a University - not a confidence-builder.
    (d) For an overseas student, a non-recognized US degree may do him/her no good whatsoever in his/her home country.

    I think this school may very well have good intentions. At these prices, nobody gets rich. It's modeled somewhat on University of the People, but there are things here that Shai Reshef and his team never did. They never overstated Faculty Qualifications. They did not graduate ONE STUDENT before DEAC accreditation kicked in. Thir web-presence was error-free. They never relied on US-unrecognized accreditation.

    Interesting fact. Now we know what ASIC costs - or at least what it cost Continents State. They published ASIC's letter, that mentioned the fees: 3,250 pounds initially and 1,000 pounds yearly. $4360 now, $1340 a year. I thought it was about three times that...



     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
  11. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I forgot --- I always used to see that disclaimer - but someone recently told me such boilerplate was not mandatory in all cases - surprised me.
     
  12. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Interesting, both International Theism and Continents have ASIC accreditation and Florida religious exemption to issue degrees, using the combination of those things to claim they are accredited. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like someone who has a PhD in History hanging up a shingle to deliver alternative medicine under the name Dr. Scam Ola. Technically entitled to the honorific, but it's used in a way that's different than we would expect.

    The implication of the word "accredited" here is that they're accredited by a USDoE/CHEA-recognized accreditor and that's not the reality (as you note.)

    I always thought in order to get DEAC (or any other type of accreditation) you needed to be up and operating in order to graduate students and demonstrate outcomes. Maybe that's my ignorance of the process. Glad to see UotP didn't saddle anyone with an unrecognized credential before they were able to get NA though.
     
  13. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Mine too. I've changed mouthwash six times but it won't go away. Nothing I can do, if Florida countenances it...
    Implications are for us to see and lawyers to argue about.
    I believe you can apply earlier, but you have to be up and operating for two years to receive DEAC accreditation. Nothing said about graduates. I've known schools to graduate students for 30 years before accreditation. UotP had their ducks all in a row and applied at the earliest possible moment - and received accreditation at the earliest possible moment. Prepared, experienced and well-financed. Can't beat that. I view the fact they never graduated anyone before the school was accredited as bonus points for UotP. Wasn't required of them, but a good thing to do. Every grad got a fully meaningful degree. I like that.
     
    Dustin likes this.
  14. tadj

    tadj Active Member

    It's hard to imagine the bad taste that would result from transferring 29 ACE credit recommended courses from Sophia Learning into this entity, especially among the young & clueless.

    https://continents.sophia.org/
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Good point. Those Sophia credits are good at hundreds of fully-accredited schools. I didn't think they partnered with non RA or non NA schools. News to me.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
    Mac Juli likes this.
  16. Mac Juli

    Mac Juli Well-Known Member

    I was surprised when I saw this claim, too. And even more when I found that claim confirmed!
     
  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Or was it eleemosynary school? I forget - but I'm sure it was in 1954! :)
     
    Dustin likes this.
  18. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Approximately 66,945 people have the surname Ola. It is most common in Nigeria. Doubtless we shall be hearing from many of them, momentarily. :)
    https://forebears.io/surnames/ola

    Ola is the Yoruba (a Nigerian people) word for 'wealth.' Now I know two Yoruba words. :) Only 250 languages in Nigeria. It's like Pokemon. Gotta catch 'em all!
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2020
    Dustin likes this.
  19. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    I just remembered I emailed Sophia about this and never heard back. I'll follow up.
     
  20. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    They must be reading this board, because they appear to have changed their name to "The Continents University of Arts and Sciences". I think that's better. Although I recall seeing a few Master's degrees under 30 credits in some places outside the U.S., a 24 credit Master's degree may bring some issues as it's more common in the U.S. (and a number of other places) for it to be over 30 credits. If I were them I'd add two more classes and at least get it to 30.
     

Share This Page