Ireland wants M'sia to tackle 'bogus' Irish University

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/20050724083821/Article/indexb_html

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23:

Irish Ambassador to Malaysia Daniel Mulhall has called on the Government to take action against the Irish International University for committing deception by parading itself as an Irish university.

He confirmed today that the university had no ties with Ireland and that he had reported the issue to the Irish authorities to determine what action could be taken against the people behind the institution.

"They do not offer any courses or conduct any classes in Ireland. I find the name is itself a deception because they are neither Irish nor a university.

"I think the Malaysian authorities are aware of this and I hope they will take action to prevent people from being deceived into thinking they have qualifications from an Irish university," he said.

The New Straits Times reported on Tuesday that several hundred Malaysians may be holding questionable qualifications from two unaccredited universities.

Degrees from Cambridgeshire University and the Irish International University are not accredited nor recognised in the UK, US or Ireland.

The Higher Education Ministry is now looking into claims that the institutions are bogus, and will also investigate a local institution offering their courses.

Mulhall said there were seven universities in Ireland and they were "all world class and state-backed".

There were 16 other third-level educational institutions but the Irish Government chose not to call them universities as it was extremely selective and wanted to preserve the "university" tag for a particular level of excellence, he said.

"That is why it is so unfortunate that there are those who exploit the good name of Irish education."

The Irish International University said on Wednesday that it was a legitimate life-long learning institution and a "new concept" university. Executive president Prof H. Sandhu said the institution, a "private corporate university", had no physical entity in Ireland, but was set up as a company there in 2000.

Mulhall said the embassy had received queries over the years about the institution and had raised the issue with the Higher Education Ministry on a few occasions.

He said he was even "offended" to see the Irish native language used in the institution’s prospectus, and to add insult to injury, the Gaelic words were misspelt.

"And I have never heard of the Dublin European Institute," he said, referring to an entity which the Irish International University claims is its ‘bridging campus’.

In the university’s latest prospectus, it is stated that the honorary chancellor is ‘Baron Knowth’. The same man is named as Prof Dr Jeff Wooller in the institute’s prospectus in 2002.

The university says it has four pillar campuses, an open campus (European Business School), external campus (London Executive Schools International), bridging campus (Dublin European Institute) and a credit campus (Professional Development Institute).

It also has pictures of hundreds of graduates in convocations held since 2000.


SOURCE:http://doctorjob.com.my/localnews/display.asp?ID=3201

Degree courses blacklisted

The National Accreditation Board has blacklisted courses offered by two unaccredited and allegedly "dubious" universities. Sources said today the board was aware of complaints about Cambridgeshire University and the Irish International University, and had distributed a circular to officers about the institutions.

"The thing is, we do not know who they are," the sources said. "This is why we are seriously looking into the matter."

The New Straits Times reported today that several hundred Malaysians may be holding questionable qualifications from the unaccredited universities.

Degrees from Cambridgeshire University and the Irish International University are not accredited or recognised even in the United Kingdom, Ireland and United States.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh said today the ministry would investigate claims about the institutions besides looking into a local institution offering their courses.

"We will have to look into whether the universities are bogus or not," he said when met at the Putra World Trade Centre.

Last year, Yap Yee Lan lodged a police report against NetAcademy, a local institution offering courses in collaboration with Cambridgeshire University and the Irish International University.

She took her case to the Consumer Claims Tribunal yesterday, seeking a refund of almost RM14,000 in fees paid for a Master of Business Administration degree.

Yap alleged that after a year of classes in the MBA programme of the International Irish University, she and her classmates were abruptly asked to transfer to a programme offered by Cambridgeshire University.

She then did some research, and discovered the universities were unaccredited and unrecognised here.

 

pulling the wooller over people's eyes

Any chances of serious investigation by the M government?

 

wooler exposed

Dunno - but I hope this scam can be exposed wide open since Malaysia seems to be a breeding ground for fake diploma mills.

Check out this URL:
http://www.iiuedu.ie/view.php?v=GI2005,1

 

Re: pulling the wooller over people's eyes

Snowball in hell comes to mind........!!!!!

They might form a sub committee or something. Hire some consultants (with some serious backhanders to the minister of course) then bury the report..............malaysians love strategy. But doing is a problem..........

Chinese students are good business - "why hurt lah?"(as the locals would say)

 

I wonder if Dr. Wooller will be kind enough to comment on this issue. He did post extensively on the board earlier this year.

 

The 'recognition' section of IIU is a grand piece of deception!

Fancy taking the effort to register an Oxford and Cambridge Association of Management to give the impression that the university has recognition, by implication, from Oxford and Cambridge University.

I think it would be true to say that 99% of students, including the one who made the monetary claim against one of the agents, knew exactly what sort of university they were signing up for.

It's the old story in that part of the world (and elsewhere) that professions want or need a degree, but most opt for the unaccredited route due to cost and rigour.

 

That Jeff Wooler fellow certainly gets around. I wonder if he will post here with any comments regarding this issue.

 

One of the fake degree agents in Malaysia is a so-called "Professor Dr" Tan Man Ho, "Professor of Psychophilosophy" of St Clements "University"
Check out at:
http://www.stclements.edu/faCVho.htm
http://www.education88.com/
Any info on the degrees obtained by this colourful character?
- D. LITT in Psychophilosophy, UKD (1997)
- MBA, University of Dubuque, U.S.A (1995)
- BBA, Ottawa University, U.S.A (1992)

I noticed that "Dr" Jeff Wooller is also a faculty member of St Clements "University"

 

Dr. Wooller has mentioned earlier on this board that his doctorate is from Cass Business School, City University. A perfectly legitimate institution.

I believe he also mentioned that his Professorship was from Irish International University though.

 

SOURCE: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/National/20050727075438/Article/indexb_html

No use of ‘Dr’ for honorary doctorate

SHAH ALAM, July 26:

Those conferred honorary doctorates by universities will not be allowed to add the all-important ‘Dr’ before their names.

The Cabinet decided this out of concern over the growing incidence of bogus claims. It is unclear however, how the Government will enforce this ruling as the number of honorary doctorates in recent years has mushroomed.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh noted a recent case of a "Dr" who claimed that 120,000 Malay students had failed to gain places in public universities despite meeting the entry requirements.

He said the man had a ‘Dr’ title and had "told members of the media that he was the first to graduate overseas".

"This is untrue. We hope to avoid such situations. I asked my officers to call the Registrar of Companies and the Registrar of Societies and they found that the foundation and this man’s name did not exist," Dr Shafie said.

Another reason for the Cabinet decision was the fear that "e-learning" institutes may be churning out dubious degrees.

 

It seems that more and more well-known persons in Hong Kong have been awarded with honorary doctorates in return for money donated to universities. Interestingly enough, it is quite "well-accepted" to call someone with honorary doctorate as "Dr" so and so in Hong Kong. When you read local newspapers or watch TV news, you can't imagine that so many "Dr" so and so are in the news.

 

Interesting article but why is this here? How about new forum concerning Asian diploma mills?

 

Daily Express 28 July 2005

Source: http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=36056

'Not all honorary doctorates were bought'
Kota Kinabalu: The public should not regard all recipients of honorary doctorates as having acquired them through fraudulent means, according to DAP Bureau Chief Hiew King Cheu.

Hiew, who claims to have obtained his through "sheer hard work" said although some are known to bought them through "donations" to dubious varsities, bona fide universities also confer a certain number of honorary doctorates on individuals for their contributions to society or various fields of human endeavour.

Thus, he sees nothing wrong if holders in the second category use the acronym "Dr" before their names. He cited former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad who had received numerous honorary doctorates although he is also a qualified medical doctor.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh said Tuesday that the Federal Cabinet had decided that those conferred honorary doctorates can no longer use the title "Dr" in order that the public is not confused as who had obtained such prestigious acronym through genuine study and who did not.

It has also surfaced that dubious institutions have been offering these titles to gullible members of the public for a fee.

Asked where he got his doctorate, Hiew claimed he had to submit a thesis that he worked on for a year to the International American University, as part of his external degree.

Those pursuing PhDs are conferred doctorates admitting them into the university's Rolls and use of the acronym "Dr" or Doctor of Letters.

Normal study for PhDs may take three to four years of full time course work in universities, with the submission of a voluminous thesis in the final year being a major requirement.

It is believed that several prominent personalities in the State had acquired their honorary doctorates by making "donations" ranging from RM20,000 to RM100,000 or more.

This excludes the air fare and cost of flying in the "deans" of these varsities for the special graduation.

The are also a number of agents in Sabah and Sarawak offering such doctorates for RM30,000 including visiting the university concerned for the "graduation."

 

Talking of honorary doctorates, I recently noted with interest that the China Foreign Affairs University conferred an honorary professorship upon the honorable Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe during his recent visit to China.

From the university Party secretary, "it is in recognition of the outstanding research and remarkable contribution in the work of diplomacy and international relations by his excellency [that the professorship is awarded]."

And with the subject matter of Mugabe's first lecture reportedly ranging from democracy to UN reform to regional cooperation and, of course, to Zimbabwe's support of the one-China policy, it can only be assumed that all parties walked away with the warm glow of freshly massaged egos.

http://en-1.ce.cn/National/sci&edu/200507/27/t20050727_4285524.shtmldemocracy

 

Totalitarian bonhomie does have a certain winsomeness.