Universidad Azteca

Yes, in life there are always pecking orders. The thing is you have to be comfortable with your choices. If a PhD from Azteca or University of Phoenix or Northcentral will meet your need due to accreditation (etc) then go for it.

 

All options are "available," just not easily affordable. I will not recommend a substandard degree to anyone simply because it's all they can easily afford. I understand the day to day relities of the situation, perhaps better than you, but I would prefer to recommend a quality program. With all that said people will do what they will do and that's OK with me.

 

I do not need to be a hollywood director to say that a particular movie sucks.
I do not need to have a pulitzer prize to say that a particular book sucks.
I do not need to have a painting hanging in the met to say that a particular piece of art sucks.
I do not need to be tattooed in order to say that I don't want tattoos.
I do not need to eat ultra hot mexican food to say I like milder spicing.
I do not need to enroll in a shitty school to say it's a shitty school.
I do not need to read substanderd to know that it's substandard. (cheap shot, I'll take the heat.)

 

NCU site used to suck and it is RA. TUI University's site used to have a very amateur look and is RA.

I would be more concern about explaining how come you live in India or Pakistan and your degree is from Mexico or you live in South Dakota and you don's speak Spanish but have a Mexican degree.

If the person in question lives in Latin America, the Mexican degree would do fine but it might be hard to explain in other parts of the world.

With globalization, this kind of things will become more common. However, school name recognition is still a factor when landing your first job so this type of options are dangerous for people starting careers.

I just recalled that TN visa status can be given to people with Mexican or Canadian degrees, this could be a good reason to get an Azteca degree. Again, if I needed a degree just to satisfy licensing or immigration requirements or for getting into graduate school, the obscure legal degree from an unknown school might do as long as it is considered RA equivalent.

 

That is what I said above and Steve Levicoff's argument. If you get a PhD from Australia and try to explain how you went to that school but did not go to that school, he feels it does not look good (RA equivalency or not). I think to a certain extent he overstates it but it has some validity in a world skeptical of DL doctorates. To be fair to Steve I think he said that is why even in one of his US based degrees he ensured some residency so he could say he did go to the school.

Mind you someone could say "Well...er....no I have never been to Australia but I did eat at Outback and downed a case of Fosters after passing the dissertation.

PS I am being funny as I know Australian and South African schools have a reputation for high academic quality.

 

I have a doctorate from Australian school and have used it for full time and online adjunct positions. Only once the hiring committee asked me about it, I was honest on how this was earned and was hired based on this degree.

I had few interviews in the US and all they asked me was for the WES equivalence report. Nobody never asked about how the degree was earned.

As the doctorate gets old and you have more full time faculty experience, the source of the doctorate becomes less relevant and publications and teaching becomes more important.

However, Australia is known for good quality education so nobody would question any degree from a reputable University from there. I wonder the kind of response if my last earned degree was from "Azteca", I still think that I could use it for some online adjunct gigs as many schools concentrate more on the experience and only ask for a WES equivalence report in case your doctorate is from a non US school. I know some online adjuncts have degrees from places like India so I don't see why an Azteca degree might not work for some with a strong resume (assuming Azteca passes the WES test).

In summary, a degree from Azteca is better than no degree at all (assuming that can be considered as RA equivalent). If the school offers low price and a flexible format, the option might look attractive for some.

 

Australia and South Africa both have top rated rated world class universities. So, going getting a degree either place from a government run university (eg University of Pretoria or University of Stellenbosch or various AU schools) is not likely to cause issues. I agree Azteca.....well......as long as it meets your needs.

 

I have a WES account, I just tried to pre evaluate Azteca and it is not in their list for Mexican Universities that are RA equivalent. This is a bad sign as normally all recognized schools are in their list.

 

Azteca will award degrees based on 'portfolio evaluation', which reads more like 'life experience' to me.

 

Agreed. That should cause some concern.

 

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this, but it's important to remember that Mexico's RVOE process (the closest Mexican equivalent to American RA) applies to individual programs, not to entire universities. In other words, it's routine and entirely legal in Mexico for private universities to simultaneously offer both accredited programs and non-accredited programs.

In fact, this might be a common practice across Latin America.

Long-time Degreeinfo readers will remember the consternation that MIGS created in years past. Costa Rican Universidad Empresarial generated similar controversies.

Both of these episodes involved highly-obscure Latin American schools that had obtained local academic approvals for a small number of domestic on-campus bachelors and masters-equivalent degree programs. That got the schools' names into the UNESCO listing. Then the parent schools appear to have sold rights to use their schools' names to American entrepeneurs who proceeded to offer English-language DL doctorates, accompanied by grand assurances of RA-equivalency.

So my suggestion is that anyone who is contemplating enrolling in Universidad Azteca's European or Indian degree programs really need to consult with the Mexican educational authorities before sending any money. Prospective students need to verify that the university actually possesses the necessary RVOE recognitions for the specific off-shore versions of the degree programs that are being offered.

WES is well aware of this issue and they have even published general warnings about it in the past. So making inquiries there might be an easier way to get the same kind of information, particularly for those who aren't fluent in Spanish.

 

I'd love to say that I hate to say "I told you so," but I actually don't mind it so much.
(RF - Not referring to you specifically)

 

Eh, that's ok, you win this round Kizmet.

 

Very interesting and useful information. Also a cautionary tale for anyone considering enrolling.

 

There is little doubt that I'll be back to making my usual silly mistakes in the very near future.

 

the funny thing is that their web site mentions WES as one that recognizes Mexican Universities as RA equivalent but it does not mention if WES recognizes them. The school is not listed in the WES system so it is not possible to do a pre evaluation.

I'm sure that WES is aware of how easy is to set up a University in Mexico so they might ask more than a University license in order to recognize them. I know that some evaluators require information such as number of full time faculty members, buildings. library, etc.
it is not like you can set up a basement University and get it recognized by WES.

 

Many people on this thread feel that the degree from Azteca University (UA) is not the real one. I look at Azteca's partners and I am quite impressed. UA has recently signed an agreement with Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (Spain). Please see the link Universidad Azteca International Network System - News Archive. It is difficult, in my opinion, to critisize UA and ingnore their reputable partners, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (Spain) and Universidad Central de Nicaragua. Based on the info I have, it does not look like a degree mill.

 

The issue is not against Azteca but its use for Americans or people thinking about working in the US.

The school would need to pass the WES test before you can use it in the American system. There are other foreign credential evaluators in Europe and other countries.

There is also the issue of licensing, accreditation, etc. For example, If someone wants to use an Azteca degree to write the CPA, they would need to make sure that it can be used for this.

If someone needs an undergraduate degree, I would rather try with one of the big 3 before going with AZTECA. If someone needs a cheap graduate degree that has some use in the US, I would rather go with a University with more credibility and that can easily pass the WES test like UNISA.

 

Azteca, like Unem, will use 'life experience' or 'resume evaluation' to grant you degrees.
I have this in writing, from two separate sources. Both market the universities and the referrals were made direcly from the universities.
Regardless of their apparent legal stature, I think it's clear that they are mills.