Northwestern International University, Ltd. Cyprus ??

Any news on Northwestern International University, Ltd. Cyprus? Has anyone visited their Cyprian or Danish addresses??

CFr

 

Degree mill. Just write the check, and they send you the sheepskin.

Bruce

 

I emailed several governmental agencies in Cyprus out of curiosity and all referred me to the Minister of Education who, in turn, emailed me and stated it is a legitimate, recognized school in Cyprus whose degrees are recognized by the Cypriot gov't. Personally, I wouldn't fool with them unless unless one is vainglorious.

Jimmy

 

Out-and-out fraud, regardless of what the Cyprus government says. The degree is worth less than the paper on which it's printed. I suspect that this is the same fraud that's been spamming something like a million messages a week and has changed the name of its school at least a half dozen times so far.

You would do much better to print your own degree. Mind you, I'm not recommending this, because it's fraud, but at least if you pick a bogus name, it's a little less likely to *immediately* be recognized as fraudulent by prospective employers.

 

It is difficult to imagine the government of Cyprus recognizing Northwestern as a legitimate institution of higher learning. If this is true, then Cyprus is certainly "THE" place to begin a less-than-wonderful school.

Russell

 

@@@@ Attention : Jimmy Clifton @@@@

That is very interesting indeed!!!!
Are you sure that you were dealing with
the Minister of Education & not a bogus
pretender?

CFr

 

Doesn't Cyprus have an application in to join the European Union? Would the EU be comfortable with having a degree mill haven as a member? After all, I think that there are all kinds of efforts underway to make qualifications more uniform and portable among EU members.

Another question: What does the phrase "legitimate, recognized school" actually *mean* here? What benefit is there in having degrees "recognized" by the Cypriot government?

Is Cypriot approval as meaningless as Hawaii approval? If that's the case, and it apparently is, then would these degrees be automatically accepted throughout Europe by EU reciprocity agreements? Does this school get a listing in the UNESCO Handbook on he basis of its Cypriot government approval, and thereby qualify for GAAP?

It's still another example of a school exploiting an "off-shore accreditation haven". And another example of why an international extra-governmental accrediting association, perhaps patterned off of an American regional accreditor, will come into existence within the next ten years to replace the increasingly inadaquate GAAP.

 

Recall that Cyprus is also the ultimate destination of the 2 to 4 million dollars wired each month to the perpetrators of the major diploma mill enterprise originally called University of San Moritz and now, after 4 interim names, Shelbourne University.

And a reliable report suggests that the "university" address in Denmark is an apartment house, with no relevant signs.

John Bear

 

Does that mean it had met GAAP criteria?

 

Dear Jimmy,

Did your reply come from the Council of Education Evaluation (Department of Higher and Tertiary Education, Ministry of Education and Culture?)

This is the body that accredits programs offered by private higher education institutions in Cyprus.

As I understand it, the Government of Cyprus does not give institution-wide accreditation to any private higher education institution. However, the Government does accredit individual programs of study that an institution may offer. For instance, Cyprus College (http://www.cycollege.ac.cy) indicates on its Web site that it has gained accreditation for eight Bachelor's degree programs and 12 sub-degree programs.

Such accreditation means that the Government will recognize the qualification for the purpose of entry into the Cypriot civil service or other public sector jobs (teaching, for instance). Accreditation is only given after a review by the Council of Education Evaluation. I would be startled indeed if any of Northwestern International University's programs have passed this screening -- or, indeed, if this "university" has even bothered to submit any of them for review.

The Web site at www.universitydegree.com describes Northwestern International University as "a corporation registered in Cyprus". This is far, far different from being a university operating in Cyprus. Cyprus has thousands of offshore corporations that are registered on the island, and may even have some token physical presence, but do no business there. The university also doesn't appear to claim accreditation in Cyprus on its Web site. Instead, they have created their own suspect accreditor, namely the "Euro-American Accreditation Agency".

I notice also that the university's Web site misspells its supposed home city, Limassol, as "Limasool". Hardly something you'd expect a Cypriot institution to do.

Best wishes,

Bruce

 

I totally agree with Chip's assessment!

The NIU web site states that "Maintaining academic integrity, scholarship free from fraud and deception is an important educational objective at Northwestern International University."

Scholarship free from fraud? This is certainly a worthy goal, however, of the literally hundreds of college catalogs and web sites I have perused over the last several years, this is the first time I have seen this listed as an academic objective. Could it be that self-justification is taking place? Or in this case, institutional justification?

One of the accreditation criteria of the Euro-American Accrediting Agency (NIU's very own accrediting agency) is that an EAAA accredited school agrees "not to use misleading advertising." WOW! Should this not be a given among legitimate institutions? But the EAAA requires their schools (if there ARE others besides NIU) not to mislead anyone.

Scholarship free from fraud! Agreeing not to mislead anyone via advertising! Ph.D.'s for $395.00 and in less than 6 months!

Surely, no one would be so naive as to see even a hint of legitimacy here!

Russell

 

I do not believe that NIU in anything more than a common overseas-based Cypriot-registered legal entity/corporation (West Indies style). And I would be very surprised if the Cypriot Ministry of Eduction have even heard of NIU let alone authorise it.

CFr

 

Dear all,
I've been living in Cyprus nearly all my life and it's the first time i am hearing about such a *university*. If you want to find out about universities / colleges in Cyprus go to http://www.cytanet.com.cy/links1/interlink.html
none of them offers distance learning education though.

If a degree mill wants to be *located* in Cyprus then noone can blame Cyprus for it!!

And Bruce you are absolutely right, I am just surprised you know so much about a small island called Cyprus that was so bruttally violated by Turkey, as a result of Turkey's aggression against the island in July 1974 and the continuing military occupation of 36% of its territory!

Thank you in advance for reading my reply,
Eva.

 

Well this is interesting. I have heard of them but was not aware of their offices in DK. You see I live about 15 minutes away from there corporate offices. I've lived in DK the last 9 years and I will contact the education dept. here tomorrow to make sure they are fully aware of this institution. I think I'll pay them a visit as well. I'll let you know if I can get a group discount on Ph.D.s.

Jim

 

Well after looking further I see a funny clause:

------------ from http://www.universitydegree.com/notice.htm ---------
"...Northwestern International University is a corporation registered in Cyprus with its adminstrative office in Denmark. As a foreign university we are in full compliance with all the laws regarding education in Denmark. Our degrees are neither designed for, nor are they recognized by the Danish government due to our status as an international university. ..."

------------------------------------------
I think that says it all. They are not recognized by the Danish government. It has nothing to do with a status as an international university however. A number of international universities operate in Denmark and they must be accredited by law. NWI simply does not have any teaching facilities here. I suspect they are simply registered as a private company.

Jim

 

Well as I indicated yesterday I visited Northwestern International University Ltd. today located at Lautruphøj 1-3, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark. I did a little research and found the address is common for many large companies such as Microsoft & ECSoft but NIU was not listed anywhere??? So I played private detective and sniffed about. I found a company on the second floor called Regus. Well that rings a bell so I thought ok- I'll try it. Outside I found some brochures offering "Intant Offices Worldwide" - Bingo!!!

I went in and asked about NIU and what do you know- Jay Wise has an arrangement with Regus called a Link service which is everything but physical office space. All calls and mail are forwarded to a phone/address in California. There is no NIU office or staff at this location. The person I spoke to (identity is a secret- don't you love Danes) took me into an office and we discussed this at length. Regus seems to be a credible company with clients such as Coca Cola, Microsoft, Dell, Epson, Marks & Spencers etc. and they are not interested in having a sleezeball for a customer. I suspect the Cyprus "campus" is exactly the same setup.

The Danish Ministry of Education was also notified and they are looking into it now. Probably nothing they can do directly but will refer it to a fraud dept. of the police once they confirm the practices reported. One thing that will get them in trouble is the web site explicitly states there is a Danish Campus.

An investigation into the Euro-American Accreditation Agency will also be conducted to see if they have any other operations in DK. This is the NIU homemade accrediting agency advertised on the web-site.

The individual at Regus indicated that they will cooperate with any official investigation into the operators of this scam so I suspect if there are a few messages to Regus management regarding this issue they will drop NIU like a hot potato. You can visit the Regus web site at http://www.regus.com/ They specialize in providing high profile addresses and office space.

Well that is all to report for today. Now to find Mr. "Jay Wise" president and recipient of all calls and mail. I think I'll call him first (via the Internet).

Best regards,

Jim

 

Jim:

Thanks for your PI work, and for sharing your results with the group. What you found isn't suprising, but does confirm suspicions. Any "school" which would sell Ph.D.'s for $300.00 doesn't even qualify for the joke list.

Russell

 

Well just got a call with an update. The Cyprus operation is coordinated by Best Servus Ltd. http://www.bestservus.cy.net/ As you notice if you do a Who is search for Universitydegree.com you will find this:
------------------
Registrant:
Northwestern University Ltd (UNIVERSITYDEGREE3-DOM)
P.O. Box 57489
Limassol, Cyprus 3316
CY

Domain Name: UNIVERSITYDEGREE.COM

Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
Wise, Jay (JW14529) [email protected]
Northwestern International University, Ltd.
P.O. Box 57489
Limasool
3316
CY
+357.5.747583 (FAX) 45.44.20.99.10

--------------

You see the address given is the same as Best Servus Ltd. Check it out! Apparently associated with a "CPA" company A. Kakofengitis & Co. This is another international business center for "offshore" companies in Cyprus. As the plot thickens apparently if you look at http://kypros.org/CSE/members/
under EUROGROWTH STOCKBROKERS LTD you will see this:
-------------
EUROGROWTH STOCKBROKERS LTD
P.O.Box 57489
3316 LIMASSOL
TEL. 05-761212
FAX. 05-761888
Stockbroker representatives:
Andreas Koufkis
--------------

Same address again and the name seems to be close to that of the business company!

I'm sure if you visit this office you will find the same. The problem is the office is a P.O. Box. The exact same P.O. Box as the Best Servus Ltd. and the Eurogrowth Stockbrokers Ltd.

I'll let you know when we get "Jay Wise" on the wire.

Jim

 

universitydegree.com isn't the only domain name registered by Jay Wise.

The WHOIS lookup info for americancollege.com:

American College of Metaphysical Theology (AMERICANCOLLEGE-DOM)
8014 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 210
Golden Valley, MN 55427
US

Domain Name: AMERICANCOLLEGE.COM

Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
Jay Wise (JW42-ORG) [email protected]
American College of Metaphysical Theology
8014 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 210
Golden Valley, MN 55427
US
612.595.0173
Fax- 612.525.1566
Technical Contact:
Hostmaster (HOS360-ORG) [email protected]
151 W. Burnsville Parkway, Suite 236
Burnsville, MN 55337
US
612-882-7711
Fax- - - - 612-452-6360



------------------
Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com