Greenwich, IUPS and Akamai Universities

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by candice-vn, Sep 12, 2004.

Loading...
  1. candice-vn

    candice-vn New Member

    Greenwich University, IUPS and Akamai University:

    Are all these diploma mills and belong to the same management?

    *Greenwich University was a distance education institution which worked by hiring adjunct staff from normal accredited universities to mentor and assess work. Under this system, it hired Professor Peterson, my old PhD supervisor at the University of Newcastle to assess my completed research, publications and performance as it could relate to a Masters degree. He awarded 43 assessment credits, twelve above the required 30 credits (47 credits required for a PhD). Scanned transcripts are available on this website. Greenwich University relocated from Hawaii and was accredited under an Australian Act of Parliament at Norfolk Island, Australia in 1998. In 2003 it moved once again, back to Hawaii. The last time I checked the internet address (2004) it seemed to have disappeared altogether, which is rather alarming. Akamai University now has basically the same street address and same personnel, so something has morphed. This whole issue is discussed in greater depth in another article on this site.



    http://thormay.net/docsite/tmcv01a.html
     
  2. candice-vn

    candice-vn New Member

  3. candice-vn

    candice-vn New Member

    IUPS shut down by Hawaii?


    Relationship between IUPS and Akamai

    Since 2001 Dr. Somchet Bunditjaroenpun has been associated with global universities such as a Country Manager of university in U.S.A., Faculty and University Liaison of the International University of Professional Studies (IUPS), U.S.A. Until the present time, he is Primary Faculty of the Center for Business and Economic Development and E-Learning Faculty of the Division of Instructional Learning Technologies, Center for Education and Literacy, Akamai University, U.S.A. Akamai University is legally established and operating within the State of Hawaii and the United States of America for the purpose of providing advanced degree studies for mid-career professionals worldwide

    http://forwardinter.com/somchet/bio2.htm
     
  4. oxpecker

    oxpecker New Member

    As noted in previous threads, Akamai was started by Douglass Capogrossi, former president of Greenwich.

    I don't find it alarming.

    I quite like Akamai.
     
  5. Micheal Le

    Micheal Le New Member

    Greenwich = Akamai = Golden State

    Akamai has a same address in Hawaii like Greenwich, I found it in the map of the two universities displayed in the Hawaii college directory web-site.

    Two possibilities:

    1. Akamai is the reborn of Greenwich

    2. Both housed in a same small office. May be managed by the same one man team

    Ian Mc Kencie, the ex-VP of Greenwich started Golden State University in BVI and from their web-site, many of the faculty r the same as Greenwich and Akamai. Even, they hv quite same team of faculty member in Asia.

    http://www.goldenstateuniversity.edu/administration.htm

    http://www.akamaiuniversity.us/AdvanceAcademyResources.html

    Fr US to Asia, there are so many similarities, difficult to explain.

    Greenwich used to partner with Honolulu university n offering their program in China, Akamai also has some ex-Honolulu Graduate n staff


    So, it is hard to believe that Akamai is not the reborn of Greenwich as all these r just coincidence.
     
  6. candice-vn

    candice-vn New Member


    Greenwich still operating in Hawii by Douglas:)

    Chair everywhere, Greenwich, Akamai and IUPS

    Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
    Chair: Greenwich University Applied Ecopsychology
    http://www.ecopsych.com/appbaslenroll.html


    Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
    Chair: Akamai University Applied Ecopsychology

    http://www.ecopsych.com/appbasiclttr.html

    please share the reasons for liking Akamai mr Oxpecker::::::
     
  7. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Dr. Capogrossi (his Ph.D. is from Cornell) has had nothing whatever to do with Greenwich for 4 or 5 years. Nothing.

    Greenwich is no longer operating. All the records are in storage in Hawaii. Former Greenwich faculty (led by Bob Nunley at the U of Kansas) are working to make the records available for former students and graduates, but I think there is almost no chance that the university will be resurrected.

    Reassuring case history: a friend of my wife completed all her Ph.D. coursework at the regionally accredited Saybrook University some years ago. Because of personal circumstances (money, time, etc.) she cannot complete the degree at Saybrook. Her Saybrook committee chairman, Dr. Stanley Krippner (one of the big names in transpersonal psychology; www.stanleykrippner.com) has agreed to work with her through Akamai (just as he did with more than a few students with Greenwich).
     
  8. oxpecker

    oxpecker New Member

    Akamai comes closest to the incarnations of Greenwich that I also liked.

    I think that professional fields such as education, business & management, information technology, information systems, criminal justice, human resources, healthcare administration, counseling, etc. are serviced well by DL programs offered through fully accredited universities. I don’t see the need for (or value of) degrees in these fields from unaccredited universities.

    On the other hand, the fully accredited universities don't provide many programs in more "off the wall" disciplines such as "global peace," "ecopsychology," "transpersonal and consciousness studies" and so on. These are fields where Akamai focuses. I personally think that these fields are full of fuzzy thinking. But I recognize people's desire to study these topics, and Akamai is one of few organizations that supports such academic study, and offers credentials to recognize the knowledge and expertise gained.
     
  9. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    I very seriously considered Akamai at one point. I believe it is a reputable unaccredited school. I was unsure that I would have been simpatico with the (quite competent) person who would have been my director and decided not to proceed, but that is no reflection on the quality or ethics of the school, as far as I know them. Ideologically, I don't think it would have been a good fit for someone as (religiously) conservative as I am, but that's also true of many accredited schools.

    At this point, I think there is a tremendous burden of proof-of-wisdom upon anyone who chooses an unaccredited school, but Akamai would be at or near the top of my "justifiable unaccredited school" list. The case John Bear cited illustrates the terrible fix one is in if a doctoral program gets interrupted and a new school has to be found. That the prof from Saybrook would consent to work with Akamai in just such a case speaks well of Akamai in more than one way.

    May their tribe increase.
     
  10. Rob Coates

    Rob Coates New Member

    Acamai is an interesting school. They offer one of the only (if not the only) unaccredited doctoral degrees in school psychology (within their dept. of Education and Literacy) in the US. However, I'm not sure they should offer this degree as no one on their faculty has any training in school psychology. Nevertheless, I don't doubt it's a reputable school overall.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 13, 2004
  11. Micheal Le

    Micheal Le New Member

    Akamai only offer MBA in Asia

    Surprisingly Akamai does not offer any of the fields that u all mentioned here except MBA and DBA in Asia.

    Why?????

    Becos MBA n DBA r more popular in Asia n the ppl here do not know much abt accreditation.

    So a St. (Saint) in US is also a St. (Sheep Thief) in Asia

    Please come to Asia and see yoursleve b4 all of u put down yr comment here, u may risk yr good reputation with a wrong bet
     
  12. adamsmith

    adamsmith member

    Re: Akamai only offer MBA in Asia


    Mr Le makes an interesting point here. What the home university is offering by way of quality is often lights years away from the sub standard courses through the agents! (However, I have also witnessed the opposite!)

    I think many in Asia would see that this was the case with HU and GU. If Akamai is wishing to expand its borders through the use of agents and associated schools, let's hope they check on quality or they might find their overseas partners spoiling their good work.
     
  13. candice-vn

    candice-vn New Member

    Re: Akamai only offer MBA in Asia

    Mr. Le, yoo are 110% correct. These people at the forum are not at all worried if their rubbish is dumped in asian countries. How many of these people actually enrolled in such instituion as Greenwich, IUPS and Akamai?
     
  14. Micheal Le

    Micheal Le New Member

    Adam r right. Where is the quality control measures?

    Do they check if:

    1. The agent is approved education center in their country

    2. Do the agent has qualified academic resources

    3. Do the agent has a standard entry requirement

    4. Do the student grade in examination being moderated

    5. Is the delivery up to the quality required at post graduate level

    or;

    Just issue degree after fee is fully paid

    In most of the case, unfortunately it is the later
     
  15. maranto

    maranto New Member

    Dear candice-vn and Micheal Le,

    Greetings. This information is based on my understanding of Akamai history as a current member of its faculty and administration. Akamai University is not connected to, run by, or a part of Greenwich University and never has been. They are completely different organizations (Greenwich was a for profit proprietary institution, Akamai is a not for profit institution managed by a board).

    Akamai University was once part of IUPS. IUPS began operations some 13 or 14 years ago as a school devoted to transpersonal psychology and counseling. Around 2000 or so, the school began to develop broader academic offerings in other disciplines. In 2002, however, the leadership of IUPS voted to re-focus its attentions back on transpersonal psychology. The other academic disciplines were separated out and reformed under a new institution, Akamai University.

    Regarding the question about IUPS being shut down by Hawaii; I do not believe that this is the case. There was an incident a few years ago where an old archived web-page for IUPS (one that did not contain the requisite accreditation statement required by the State) was posted by accident, but I believe that IUPS and the State worked out the details/correction for that problem. I do not know if any penalties were involved, but I believe that IUPS is operating in full compliance and has been for some time. None of this involved Akamai University.

    As was stated above and in other treads, Doug Capogrossi who is the Akamai University President was once the president of GU (the president, not the owner; this is an important distinction). Doug, parted ways with GU around 2000 or so (forgive me but I am unsure of the dates). GU operated for a while without a president (the Chancellor Emeritus ran things) and then it had two other presidents (Francesca McCarthy and Norman Pearson) in 2002/2003. The university halted operations at the end of 2003 and has not restarted (last active web page was in November 2003).

    Some of the Akamai faculty have served as faculty of GU but it is not unusual for adjunct distance education teachers to work at more than one institution (and most of them followed Doug because of his reputation and desire to build a significant and meaningful institution). Akamai and Greenwich are in discussion about a caretaker arrangement for Greenwich student records, but that is the extent of the association between the two.

    I am not at all familiar with Golden State University and there is absolutely no connection between it or "Ian Mc Kencie" and Akamai.

    Regarding the issue of the office address; to my knowledge, Akamai and GU have never shared office space. Akamai is currently in a rental space. It is possible that the same rental office may have at one time been rented by Greenwich (I have no idea), but Greenwich has nothing to do with that address today.

    The map to which an earlier poster points to gives no street address for Greenwich, only Hilo, HI. I believe that GU had its own property in Hilo at some point, but I’m pretty sure that property has now been sold. The last address given on the last active GU web-page (per the Internet Archives) was 200 Kanoelehua Avenue # 305. This is not Akamai’s address.

    To the best of my knowledge, there is no longer any functioning Greenwich University office in Hilo (other than the storage area where their files are currently housed).

    Regarding the questions about outside agent agreements in Asia, I’m afraid that I am not involved with this area, so my direct knowledge is limited, however, I can tell you that these agreements do include detailed admission, graduation, and academic quality control standards. Also, the question regarding why business administration is particularly marketed in Asia… it’s is purely because those are the degrees for which we have had many student inquires. That doesn’t mean that other academic programs are offered only to US markets. All Akamai programs are open to all applicants regardless of where they live.

    I hope that this information was of some utility. As always, I am happy to answer other questions publicly or privately.

    Please note that the opinions that I post on this web page are purely my own (I’ve been a member of this board longer than I’ve been associated with Akamai). If anyone wishes an official response from the university, I would encourage them to make direct inquiries; the university has always been very open and willing to address questions from prospective students and the community at large. Openness serves both us and the community best.

    With deepest respect,
    Tony Maranto
     
  16. Micheal Le

    Micheal Le New Member

    Mr Tony;

    Yes u write so much but not answer my questions.

    I posted here again:

    Do they check if:

    1. The agent is approved education center in their country

    2. Do the agent has qualified academic resources

    3. Do the agent has a standard entry requirement

    4. Do the student grade in examination being moderated

    5. Is the delivery up to the quality required at post graduate level

    or;

    Just issue degree after fee is fully paid

    In most of the case, unfortunately it is the later

    May be u also don't know as you do not involve in the operations of the university. Unless it is brought to board discussion, as a member of board I don't think u know everything that happen especially in the appointment of affiliation.

    Anyway, u made it very clear that you r only voice up your personal opinion and stand, it is not the official from university and some ppl in your university may not agree with you.

    I respect your determination and effort here but plase put into action and answer my questions above.

    Mr Tony, the ball is at your court now. Everyone here is waiting for your answer.

    Good Luck
     
  17. maranto

    maranto New Member

    Dear Mr. Le,

    Greetings. My post above was actually in response to the topic of this thread, namely candice-vn's questions about the connections between Greenwich, IUPS, and Akamai. But, to answer your questions, directly and succinctly:

    1-5: Yes (although a complete answer would require some clarification of your points).

    Regarding your question about whether we “Just issue [a] degree after [the] fee is fully paid”, I would answer an emphatic NO. Akamai University is not in the business of selling academic credentials. If I ever suspected that the institution was moving in that direction, I would personally resign.

    I have posted a lengthy response to your other questions in the Akamai University thread, and I hope that this will provide you with additional information. Thank you for the chance to dialogue in an open and constructive manner. I think that your questions were shared by others, so I am glad to have the opportunity to address them

    Respectfully,
    Tony Maranto
     
  18. Micheal Le

    Micheal Le New Member

    Mr Tony;

    Your fast reply surprised me.

    I hope you can regain your respect by doing more check and research to your operations before answer yes to 1 - 5.

    1. No. Most of your agent or affiliate or co-operative college are not even approved to deliver academic program by their home country. Many of them are just private company, some with paid up capital of USD0.50. You can check with the registrar of the company in respective country. If they r not approved to deliever the academic progarm by the Ministry of Education, they are consider illegal. Only Hawaii does not have Education Department and the university is registered under COnsumer Affiar Department. MAy be that is why your answer is yes.

    2. No. The agents use part-time tutor and most of them also associate themselve with bogus universities. Do you check how many of the academic staffss are full-time and how many are part-time? What is the ratio you allow? 20%. 50% or 100%. Do you check if all the academic staffs hold a recognized or valid degree? There r cases in Honolulu and Greenwich university where lecturer without master degree was sent to teach mba class in china and without doctorate degree teached DBA student. Since Akamai claims that they r not Greenwich reborn, why they never check and make sure this?

    3. Yes and No. On paper yes but in actual fact many are accepted based on their working experience. TOFEL requirement is not required and many of them r not proficient in english. HOWEVR, they can pay the tuition fee.

    4. No. There are no exam and all are assignment only, how you moderate. No thesis for Doctorate student. Anybody with money can hire a university student to do assignment for them. For those can not afford to hire, just collect a few sample assignment and job done.

    5. No. In Akamai web-site, it is stated that all students that completed the study with the co-operation center will be honour to the award of the degree. So, as long as the student satisfied the co-operation affiliate, they r guarantee of a degree. Where is the standard?

    Mr Tony, you do not need to resign. You can help to rectify the situation and make the university to the stage that you claims hsall be. May b you shall head the affiliation quality control and approval review committee so that you have the power to do what you always preach in this forum. We have confident on you but may be not your team.

    In Akamai newsletter, last year there are more than 50 MBA students graduated in Malaysia, how many of them are actually qualified? Akamai only start operation in 2003 jan (per what John Bear mentioned in this forum) and you can get 50 MBA graduated in Dec. 2003 and 5 DBA graduated in Dec. 2003. But your web-site clearly stated that duration for MBA is 12 months and duration for DBA is 18 months and above. (It is also too short for an DBA in 18 months).

    So, how can this happen? May be they pay more to get the class completed faster? Or the university just issue degree from the name list?

    Accredited university takes more than 6 months to review a person work before approved for graduation and subjected to final approval of Senate. DOes Akamai follow so or just decision in the hand of the President?

    Awaiting your answer and hope that you don't just answer without research and check.
     
  19. adamsmith

    adamsmith member

    Sadly, what Mr Le says in regard to the operation of the overseas associations of US unaccredited schools in the Asian region is true. It is hard to find a legitimate operation in that part of the world.

    Students are graduated, in many cases, for just the payment of a fee. The attendance at a seminar per subject and the submission of a purchasde or cut and paste assignment is the basis of the 'academic assessment'.

    Affiliating with an overseas institution or company is a tempting source of much needed revenue, especially for a new unaccredited school. However, the increase in the flow of funds is always, unbeknowns to the US institution, accompanied by a decline in the reputation of the university. And what do the overseas party care! There is plenty of competition amoung the unaccredited schools for overseas alliances, and once the the overseas rep. has burnt one school, they move onto the other.

    It is no coincidence that California Coast have never linked with an overseas institution.

    Mr Maranto, my advice for Akamai is to resist the money temptation, don't be hoodwinked by what your overseas school teels you,cut off all overseas ties unless you can be absolutely sure of their integrity and credibility, and struggle along on your home turf, working purely from your academic reputation.

    The other route is going the Heroit Watt road with exam based courses and rigid quality control. If no one wnats to touch you then from the Asia region, you can be assured you are then on the right path!
     
  20. maranto

    maranto New Member

    Dear Mr. Le,

    Greetings. As you had previously commented about the length of my responses, I tried to keep the last post short and sweet (as we say in the US). However, short answers do not provide complete context and details. I will therefore, attempt to address your questions in a more complete manner.

    I have also tried to get as much additional information from the university as I could (and they from the program leader in Asia). As far as I can determine from my conversations with the university, our faculty standards in Asia appear to correlate to expectations (namely a recognized Master's or Doctoral degree and relevant industry experience or a Bachelor's degree with high level professional qualifications). What I was told was that about half of the folks involved in the Asian programs have recognized doctoral degrees, most of the rest are instructing with recognized Master's level qualifications, and one faculty member has a Bachelor's degree (with unaccredited advanced degrees) and professional qualifications from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, U.K. and a Certified Financial Planner of the Institute of Financial Planning of Malaysia.

    Personally speaking, would I like to see every faculty member hold an accredited terminal degree? Absolutely. But this is our starting point and I haven’t yet come across the massive irregularities that you describe. We are constantly seeking to improve the quality of our faculty and teaching methods, so I do take your points to heart. Actually, your comment about the possibility of me being involved with quality assurance on these and other programs was somewhat prophetic since this is actually being discussed.

    I am told that all of our affiliated schools that provide instruction do so according to the business standards and laws of the country in which they operate. They must provide documentation verifying this status before any agreement is established. I can assure you that if we find that any affiliate has provided erroneous or false documents, we will disassociate ourselves from them and terminate the agreement (and Adam Smith's comments are well taken, as well). None of our affiliated schools actually offer degrees, but rather provide seminars/instruction and oversee student assignments and papers. In this context I believe my earlier response to be accurate.

    For the most part, our faculty is under contract to assume instructional responsibilities, one-on-one instruction, or teach individual classes. I do not fully see the relevance of the full or part-time status of the faculty. All of our faculty members (in the US and overseas) are essentially part time. We encourage our faculty to make use of their professional experience in outside endeavors and bring that real-world experience to their teaching assignments. We do not believe in the Ivory-tower model of the sequestered scholar. Our programs focus on practical application to real-world problems and I believe that our faculty’s outside endeavors support that philosophy.

    Our supervisory level faculty are expected to have a doctoral level qualifications. Instructors should have at least the degree qualification at the level of the subject matter being taught. Our doctoral students may enter 500 level courses, however, it is expected that doctoral students are reviewed by faculty holding doctoral credentials.

    Again, our admission process is designed to determine the applicant's likelihood for success in the desired program. If an exception is to be made (and I acknowledge those happen based on the judgment of reviewing faculty/program leader) it is based solidly upon the existing scholarship and experience of the individual, on a case-by-case basis. The assessment of competencies of the applicant is completed across a broad spectrum of expected prerequisites. Simply haveing a high level position in industry does not in and of itself dictate acceptance, but the applicant must demonstrate through other training and actual professional achievements, that he or she holds the needed competencies.

    I did perhaps make a slight misstatement earlier, especially as related to our affiliate business programs. Examinations may or may not (depending on instructors) be incorporated… I spoke based on my experience with our other programs, where oral and written exams typically are part of the regular course rotations (I am most familiar with our programs in Environmental Science). I am told that these programs involve classroom-based activities as well as independent research/scholarly papers. Grades are determined in part by the quality of the face-to-face seminar participation and in part by the quality of the scholarly papers submitted. Students must research the academic literature, do the necessary reading and note-taking and prepare a publishable quality scholarly papers on meaningful topics with adequate citations and references to the literature. These expectations are no different from any of our distance learning programs, although we pursue dialogue one-on-one via synchronous and non-synchronous means. Typically other programs also tend to make broader use of other types of assignments to challenge and assess students (i.e. presentations, critical annotations, performance based projects, field studies, examinations, etc.). Most of our programs have written and oral final examination requirements. A few (very few) programs have a tradition for substituting additional coursework in lieu of the thesis requirements, and when this is appropriate, it is permitted.

    If a student successfully completes all (and I emphasize ALL) of the requirements for the degree, and has provided all required documentation, then, yes, we are bound by the standards of higher education to award the degree as earned. It is our quality assurance and quality control processes that must find and repair any substandard elements of any program offered and its conduct.

    Regarding the Spring newsletter story about the MBA commencement in Kuala Lumpur; it is true that these students "walked” at the ceremony, but in actuality, they continue to complete their programs. So far of the 54 masters and 5 DBA students (not over 100 at you mentioned in a post on the other thread), only 19 students have completed all requirements (and these 19 are still in quality review). To my knowledge, no degrees have yet been issued to this group. It is as I have maintained...all degree requirements and all documentation must be received from the students before any final assessment is completed and the degrees awarded. So far our third party assessments have found the quality of the content of the student written work to be very acceptable, although we have identified several issues with regards to the correctness of the English language presentation, some awkward use of English phrasing and repeated grammatical errors... and we are in the process of issuing corrective actions in this regard.

    Our graduate programs require at least one year of enrollment at the Master's level...and to date not one Master's student has completed the program in less than 18 months.

    The truth of the matter is that Akamai receives very little in terms of revenue from the students in our international programs...and we expect it will remain so. Our goal is to facilitate expanded access to education worldwide. This is in keeping with our institutional mission and something that we deeply believe in.

    Bottom line – I share some your concerns about academic quality and I will be working with the University to help improve the quality of all of our programs (both centralized and affiliated). We are also looking into all of your allegations, but if you have specific information about infractions of our policy that are occurring in Asia, please, please share these directly with the University.

    Respectfully,
    Tony Maranto
     

Share This Page