Robert Welch University

I wonder is this is named after the Robert Welch who founded John Birch?

Robert Welch University:

http://www.robertwelchuniversity.org

 

Yes

 

RWU is unaccredited university.
They sate on their web site that they will pursue accreditation.

RWU received approval from the state of Wisconsin for its Associate Degree program in liberal arts.

I don't know what is the value of Wisconsin state approved degrees, maybe someone who is familiar with such approval can comment.

learner

 

You are correct in noting that Robert Welch University is not yet accredited. This is something that we will most certainly pursue as soon as we are able. In our course/curriculum development process, we insisted on utilizing faculty with PhDs to develop and teach our courses. This positions the university at a higher level than many online institutions which will utilize people with Master's degrees for courses. The university's credits have been accepted for transfer by Rutgers and Saint Michael's College.

The approval process by the Educational Approval Board (EAB) for the state of Wisconsin was approximately a two year process. It required an internal review of courses and an external review of the degree program and curriculum by 5 PhDs teaching at different universities. The external review required professors to certify that the program and courses were equivalent in content, rigor, etc. to those found at other insititutions. The EAB's approval was granted in February, 2005. They were so impressed with the university's application that they have kept it intact as a model for other schools seeking approval in the state.

The university's focus is classical liberal arts and includes unique subjects such as Latin, Greek and Hebrew. It is named after Robert Welch, who you correctly identified as the founder of the John Birch Society. The university is not affiliated with the Birch Society however. We are implementing the dream and vision of Robert Welch for an institution of higher education. Robert Welch was homeschooled and was the youngest student to graduate from the University of North Carolina at age 16. He was a successful entrepreneuer, as the owner of Welch's Candy Company.

The university now has 86 students that have applied and been accepted. We are looking forward to continual growth in our student body as we create more awareness of our unique online offering.

Jesse Frickenstein
Director of Marketing
Robert Welch University
www.robertwelchuniversity.org
http://www.robertwelchuniversity.org

 

Promises, promises. "........ something that we will most certainly pursue as soon as we are able." Yeah, right! I will believe it when it happens, not one second before.

Uh, huh. Guess which other entity said/stated something similar on their website? Yep, the entity known as KW"U" or Kennedy-Western. It has been unaccredited (and woefully and shamefully substandard) for over twenty-five years or so!

Big talk. Not much to show for it.

We like - and do welcome - DI newcomers and newbies, but a suddenly materialising, new poster promising "future accreditation" for a now-unaccredited entity cannot fool too many readers and posters here on DI.

Do not just talk. Do.

 

Jake

Thanks for pointing that out. The state of Wisconsin authorities expressed great concern about KW also. As you very likely know, a university cannot begin the application process towards accreditation until it has atleast two years of operation under its belt. We have contacted several accrediting bodies that have given us this information. What a new university can do, however, is work with the accrediting bodies after the first year to begin to put the pieces in place....so that when the two year mark is achieved, the application process can move forward. I thought I should point this out in case you were unfamiliar with this requirement.

Jesse Frickenstein

 

A question for those interested in the topic of accreditation. There are some odd 645 universities and colleges which are not accredited. There are roughly 1000 not accredited by one of the big 6 regional accrediting bodies. A significant list can be found here:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Non-accreditedSchools_78090_7.pdf
You'll find some of the names on the list very interesting.

What does it mean for the whole process? Is this a real measure of quality to which we should subscribe or is it something that we all feel that a university should do because people have been led to believe that it's important and that it's an indication of quality or some level of scholarship?


Jesse Frickenstein

 

The very same Robert Welch founded the candy company bearing his name, known for its filling-yanking "Sugar Daddy."

There is a Wikipedia article about Welch, but I do not have independent confirmation of the accuracy of its information.

 

More on Robert Welch

You are most certainly correct, Robert Welch was the founder of Welch's Candy Company, famous for sugar-daddy, sugar-babbies, etc.
Here's some more about Robert Welch. I'm not certain that the Wikipedia definition is accurate:

Robert H. W. Welch, Founder

Robert Welch was born on December 1, 1899, in rural Chowan County, North Carolina. An uncommonly gifted youth, Robert Welch learned to read at age two with the help of his mother, who was a schoolteacher. By age four he knew his multiplication tables, and by age six was proficient in algebra. At age seven, young Robert began learning Latin and also read all nine volumes of Ridpath’s History of the World, a sweeping account of world history as admired for its depth and scope in the nineteenth century as Will and Ariel Durrant’s multi-volume world history is in our time.

Robert was schooled at home by his mother until age ten, when his parents decided to enroll him in high school. Robert so astounded the local high school principal with his grasp of mathematics, Latin, English, and history that he was enrolled as a high school junior, even though he was still a ten-year old boy.

At age twelve, Robert Welch became the youngest person ever to enroll at the University of North Carolina. While at the university, Robert Welch developed a passion for languages, and mastered both French and German sufficiently well to read literary classics in the original. He also became an accomplished chess player and displayed an exceptional aptitude for mathematics.

Young Robert flourished, developing a lifelong passion for scholarship that informed everything he did. He became a successful businessman and world traveler, as well as a husband and father. He amassed a personal library consisting of more than five thousand volumes, most of which he had read. Robert Welch dreamed and wrote of setting up a liberal arts university, where young Americans could be educated in the same classical traditions as the Founding Fathers. Robert Welch passed away on January 6, 1985.
He was also a student at the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Law School.

Hope this is interesting to some.

Jesse Frickenstein

 

Mr. Frickenstein:
"A question for those interested in the topic of accreditation. There are some odd 645 universities and colleges which are not accredited.There are some odd 645 universities and colleges which are not accredited."

John Bear:
Sounds definitive, but very wrong. Based on what research, I wonder? My list of universities and colleges that are not accredited is currently at 2,672, and is far from complete.

 

Correction

John Bear

Thank you for the source. The information I found was online. Obviously incomplete based on the information that you provided. THanks for clarifying this one particular point.

Jesse

 

Well, from the student's, client's and employer's perspective, accreditation is a reasonably reliable way to distinguish credible schools from those that aren't.

Accreditation isn't an absolute guarantee that an accredited school is academically sound, but it creates a defeasible presumption.

And lack of accreditation doesn't always mean that a school is a joke. But given the probabilities, lack of accreditation does shift the burden of proof to the questioned school's champions.

 

I would guess that the vast majority of the two or three thousand unaccredited colleges/universities are diploma mills.

 

I certainly think this school deserves a chance before the regulars put it in the same old unaccredited = bad, substandard or mill category. It does not have the typical characteristics of the unaccredited diploma mills. For example:

The school only offers an associate degree in liberal arts (not the typical degree in nearly everything at all levels)

The faculty is listed with each members education from real schools, and the usual mill crowd is not listed.

This school is new unlike KW"U", so it may really be planning on seeking accreditation rather than shooting a bunch of bullhockey.

Tuition is charged by the hour like normal schools instead of pay it all at once like KWU and others.

The degree is designed to be completed in 2 years not 2 months.

and so on.

Give it a chance.

 

I have not criticized the school. I have criticized the man.
Jack

 

Absolutely agree! Has all the signs of a genuine school.

 

Happy New Year, all!

Thanks, plcscott, for your factual, research-based comparison of the KW"U" entity with the new, unaccredited Robert Welch. Based on this comparison, it does appear than RW may be a far cry from the perpetually unaccredited and substandard KW.

Ummm.... this is a bit unfair. Blame not the entire DI for the transgressions of one (me) or even a few. I am one poster who viewed with skepticism, RW's promises for future accreditation, not DI "regulars" and certainly not all of DI.

Fair enough. Hopefully we will know, in two years' time or so, whether the promised future accreditation was sincere or a great example of one "shooting a bunch of bullhockey."

Ok. Agreed. Let's (for those admittedly few for whom an unaccredited degree or education suffices now, and maybe, even later). Time will tell.

Thanks.