iicts information

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by tomC, Mar 24, 2009.

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  1. tomC

    tomC New Member

    Does anyone have any experience with the International Institute for Counterterrorism Studies ? I have tried contacting them for the past couple of months with no success. Is this school still in business ?

    TomC.
     
  2. tomC

    tomC New Member

    If anyone has any plans on attending this school, I would suggest holding off until we find out if it's still in business. The only contact is to a answering service and no messages are ever returned.

    TomC.
     
  3. pacificamark

    pacificamark New Member

    I'm just finishing up the beta bachelor's program right now. I just emailed the registrar the other day and received a reply from intl-law-group.com which is helping them manage their accreditation process. I posted that email in another thread I updated today.
     
  4. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I know nothing about this school but they have a very millish looking web site.
    http://www.iicts.com/betadegree.html
    How many reputable schools show pics of their diplomas and class rings?
     
  5. JetTroop

    JetTroop New Member

    Yeah, interesitng but shaaaady looking! Might not be but it comes off that way. I'm all for affordable but it seems unrealistic and at the rate their of they want you to complete (from what it says), I dont see how they'll get regional accrediation.

    Who knows...
     
  6. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Here's an earlier thread about it.

    http://www.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=29143

    Information in that thread indicated that NM licensed schools have three years in which to initiate an accreditation process. IICTS apparently started up in NM in 2006 (it had apparently been using a Florida address before that), so that suggests the possibility that its NM state license might have expired a few months ago. The website's still up though.

    I remain skeptical.
     
  7. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    IF they are still licensed in the state of New Mexico then what does this mean exactly? I'm unfamiliar with the process of accredidation. Schools in this position should be watched but this doesn't mean a mill right? Also doesn NM have a high percentage of mills? Just a few curious questions. I also see the beta Master's for $750 being offered but it's also stated from 2008 and only available for 300 people. This alone should raise questions....
     
  8. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

  9. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    If IICTS is licensed in New Mexico, then the degrees that it issues will be considered legally valid in New Mexico.

    If IICTS loses its New Mexico license (which may perhaps have already happened), then it will no longer be able issue legally valid degrees (unless it can find some other state or country that will authorize it to issue degrees). However, any IICTS degrees that were issued before the New Mexico license expired should remain valid in New Mexico.

    Without recognized accreditation, there is no guarantee that IICTS degrees will be recognized as valid in states or countries outside of New Mexico. Outside of New Mexico, you will have to take your chances. In some situations, a state-licensed but unaccredited school such as IICTS might be considered an acceptable degree source. In other situations, a school of this kind might be regarded as a potential diploma mill, and so their degrees would not be acceptable.

    New Mexico currently requires licensed schools to get recognized accreditation within three years. This policy is not ideal for mills. However, there are questionable schools that were operating before the current policy came into effect, and which are therefore exempted from this requirement. Century University is a well-known New Mexico school that may fall into this category.
     
  10. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    Very interesting indeed. I never knew much about state licensed programs before this thread. The next question is what does it take to become a state licensed degree granter? If it's simply filling out the paperwork, paying the fee, and a few other easy tasks then why don't mills just bounce around and do this? Once their license expires they just haul over to the next state and keep raking in the money.

    I am not in any way suggesting anyone do this but for $750 bucks if you lived in New Mexico and this place was still licensed then why not utilize this? It all sounds very millish to me but again if NM recognizes it then why not?

    *EDIT* Ok I just read this and answered my own question sort of. I guess the why not would be that for $750 I would question the integrity of the courses and material presented. But aside from that then why not?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 10, 2009
  11. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    Found this on the New Mexico Higher Education Department website:

    http://hed.state.nm.us/content.asp?CustComKey=193250&CategoryKey=195543&pn=Page&domname=hed.state.nm.us

    "“License” means a written acknowledgement by the New Mexico Higher Education Department that an institution has met the requirements of the Department for offering a formal educational curriculum in New Mexico. While licensure permits an institution to operate in the State of New Mexico, it is not an approval or endorsement of an institution's academic program. An institution licensed by the Department may not use terms such as “accredited,” “endorsed,” or “recommended” in reference to its approval by the Department, but may use the phrase “licensed by the New Mexico Higher Education Department” in its advertising and promotional literature."

    According to this--> http://hed.state.nm.us/cms/kunde/rts/hedstatenmus/docs/799045904-11-06-2007-13-25-16.pdf the IICTS still holds it's license but if I were someone considering this as an option I would contact the NM Dept. of Higher Education and verify that the IICTS is still in good standing.

    Even after all of this I would be very hesitant of dropping $750 and getting garbage in return. It's still interesting that they seem to still exist as a degree granting entity.
     
  12. brow276

    brow276 Member

    What good, if any would one of these degrees be? With a lot of government jobs you need RA for your degree to e of any good. At least that was what I've always been told.
     
  13. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    Within the state of New Mexico they would be worth it if they are still licensed by the state. Like CalDog said above I imagine the utility outside of New Mexico to be a case by case basis. I really have no experience with this at all.

    As far as government jobs requiring RA that is incorrect. Most government agencies are now accepting NA degrees as well. Most federal jobs used to specify RA but now they just say accredited degree which NA obviously is. The IICTS though for clarity is neither RA nor NA.
     
  14. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I think that I have a philosophical difference of opinion with Caldog, which is relevant to Soupbone's subsequent point.

    That's where I think that I differ. I'm not convinced that there's any law in NM that defines what is and isn't a "valid degree".

    My understanding of state licensing is that it's defining and regulating whether a school's operator is violating state law by operating his/her education business. There are usually some conditions placed on legal operation and some penalties associated with running a school that doesn't meet the conditions.

    In other words, state licenses are all about whether or not entrepeneurs stay out of jail, and are only indirectly relevant to the question of a degree's legal status, a matter that the licensing laws rarely if ever address.

    I think that I would restate that by saying that if IICTS loses its NM license, then its owners/operators would probably be violating NM state law if they continued to operate IICTS from out of NM and would become subject to prosecution. I'll speculate that might be why the school is reportedly unresponsive to inquiries these days. Despite its website not having been taken down, it might not be operating any longer. That in turn suggests that Pacificamark might experience some difficulty collecting his degree.

    Inside NM, graduates will be taking their chances too. There's no guarantee that any NM employers will recognize an IICTS degree. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, depending on why they require a degree in the first place. Is it just a check-the-box formality that they won't even bother to verify? Or are they really looking for advanced training in counter-terrorism and security subjects? In that case, a great deal would depend on whether the employers are familiar with IICTS' program.

    Yeah, I agree that's the situation for people who already have IICTS degrees. Myself, I'm skeptical. IICTS seemed to be big on boasts but didn't seem to have very much tangible substance. But if it really did/does deliver the kind of training that it said it did, then it might be reasonably well-known in the specialized military, law enforcement and corporate security circles concerned with those kind of things. They might take it seriously and hire its graduates. I'm doubtful of that though.
     
  15. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member


    This is the odd part. Maybe they just don't operate in my state but I have never heard of them before they were posted here. I'm still not suggesting that IICTS is a mill because I would have liked to look over the material before making that assertion. If the material is quality and they are truly attempting to become accredited then I can see them offering a "beta master's" for such a great price. Still the whole thing looks suspect and since people seem to be having issues with them you might be correct that they simply don't exist anymore.
     
  16. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    A graduate of IICTS can legally advertise his IICTS degree in New Mexico, without restriction. That is what I meant by "legally valid in New Mexico".

    Outside of New Mexico, on the other hand, restrictions could apply. Some states do not allow the advertisement of unaccredited degrees, even if they are from schools with valid licenses in other states. Other states only allow such degrees to be advertised if disclaimers are attached. That is what I meant by "Outside of New Mexico, you take your chances."

    This is true, but there is no guarantee that employers will recognize any degree from any school. Hiring decisions aren't always entirely rational: certain employers may be biased against particular schools, even schools with impeccable accreditation.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 10, 2009
  17. pacificamark

    pacificamark New Member

    I just finished the beta degree program and I'll be lucky if I even receive my degree or a transcript. I was taking a look at their site again and looked at the license they have. It expired in August of 2008. So I followed up to see if the license had been renewed.

    I called the New Mexico Board of Higher Education, and spoke to the licensing department, they have not received an application or fees for licensing for 2009 or 2010 from IICTS. Looks like they are changing states again, huh?

    This is the email address I received when I emailed registrar@iicts [email protected] Richard is the person who wrote to me.

    I would highly recommend you not consider this school!
     
  18. pacificamark

    pacificamark New Member

    I just received my degree and several transcripts from the school. Frankly, my associate's degree from a brick and mortar is a lot nicer looking this than degree.

    I also don't like that the transcript lists lots of general education classes (which I already took for my AA). This really makes this transcript useless as no one would repeat all the lower level material again.

    They sprinkled in a range of grades for all the classes. The transcript uses a script font, it's not even signed.

    Well at lest they spelled my name right...

    Yuck.
     

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