Country Preview: Poland - Inexpensive European Education

I can see the Jagiellonian/Czech school grants a bachelor's degree but what Masters degree does it grant that would be considered "accredited"?

Do the other degrees (lifelong learning) have any status or are they simply considered unaccredited by the Czech government?

 

I am wondering what status (if any) these lifelong learning EdD and DBAs have. Are they taken seriously by colleagues in the Czech Republic or are they mainly marketed to foreigners? The one school Tadj posted seemed to indicate they take two years to complete.

 

Thanks. It’ s difficult for me to endorse all these lifelong education programs as good extra study opportunities without knowing the content and quality. That’s why I’ve tried to focus more on the external aspects: the things that you can attempt to evaluate as an outsider; trying to decipher their possible meaning within a larger system of higher education in Czechia, accreditation, partnership agreements, legal aspects, etc. I have one such qualification (the one that the Czech FVES branch refers to as “Studia podyplomowe”, the official Polish-language “Certificate of Completion of Postgraduate Studies”, but it had a different area of study, so it did not come with any associated titles (LLM, MBA, DBA) that I could place after my name. I got my Studia podyplomowe certificate in Poland through weekend studies over 3 semesters (a year and a half worth of physical lecture attendance, class participation, 150 hours of outside class practice and a European style Bachelor’s-like thesis – approximately 40 pages). I can’t really speak to the issue of whether the Czech awards could serve as good preparation for further research pursuits. Possibly. Hard to tell. It looks like you will likely be doing some extensive writing and practical case study assignments as part of the study though.

 

They offer those accredited degrees in their Czech branch.

https://www.fves.eu/bc.html

https://www.fves.eu/mgr.html

Garp: Do the other degrees (lifelong learning) have any status or are they simply considered unaccredited by the Czech government?

Unaccredited by the Czech government.

There’s where my concern originated. While these titles (MBA, DBA, LLM, etc.) are not treated as being a part of the Polish or Czech official Higher Education degree pathways (great similarity in that regard), the Czech system does not appear to leave any room for delivering these titles within a recognized partial qualification (such as Studia podyplomowe or some education system-recognized alternative qualification) So, what will credential evaluators think of a lifelong education certificate/diploma/degree, which is simply ‘allowed’, where the students do not get any officially recognized award within the Czech system? The Polish Studia Podyplomowe are an official partial qualification in Poland, which might help foreign evaluators take them more seriously, even as ‘graduate certs’ or something else. But unless FVES somehow delivers the actual Polish certificate to its Czech branch students, I have doubts as to whether NACES members will treat their “Czechia-issued degrees” as equivalent to an official Studia podyplomowe graduation document – “Certificate of Completion of Postgraduate Studies” issued in the Republic of Poland.

Garp: I am wondering what status (if any) these lifelong learning EdD and DBAs have. Are they taken seriously by colleagues in the Czech Republic or are they mainly marketed to foreigners? The one school Tadj posted seemed to indicate they take two years to complete.

You can use the school’s official Czech name and search Linkedin profiles to find out where the graduates of FVES work and draw your conclusions from that. That’s what I did. You may be surprised by some of the positions.

Use this example:

site:linkedin.com “Fakulta veřejnosprávních a ekonomických studií v Uherském Hradišti”

 

Well, the diplomas look nice. This guy has an MBA and LLM.

 

Also looks like the accredited programs (all Master in Admin) are about $1000 US per semester (2 year programs).

 

When you say "Czech Republic Diploma" on the top it sounds official but of course isn't any more than putting United States Diploma on the top. But still nice looking. Not sure $2500 and a year of time nice but still.

 

Here's one accredited Slovak university's staff answer to this posed question:

Source: https://www.paneurouni.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/faq_mba_engl1.pdf

"What is the difference between the university degree and the professional degree in the Slovak Republic?"

Quote: "In contrast with British universities, the postgradual study programmes (MBA or LLM type) in Slovak or Czech republic are not recognized in the local education system and therefore are not underlying to the government accreditation; this study programme is a professional degree, not an university degree. The value of this programme is given by the authority (institution) issuing the diploma. PanEuropean University is an accredited private university in Slovakia fully recognized by the government and the Ministry of Education of the Slovak republic, a part of the European Union. We are allowed to offer study programmes at all 3 level of the study (bachelor, master, doctoral) and the MBA/LLM programmes are fully accepted as the complementary post gradual and professional programmes. The title obtained (abbreviation “MBA”) is fully recognized by the Ministry of the Interior and it is possible for our graduates to request the registration of this title in their ID cards/passports. Our study programmes received very good feedback abroad. The labor market shows that enterprises, or employers in general, mostly look at the institution which issued the diploma, the study records or the final thesis of a student. Our credibility is built by the lecturers delivering the quality, with experiences from the highly ranked universities in UK. All offered programmes, both slovak and english, are evaluated by the internal quality validation so we can guarantee the quality assurance. Instead of the expensive licenses we offer the quality study programme for affordable price (ca 1/3 of the regular British price).

 

WES Canada evaluate ENEB equal to Canada master degree as discussed in sister forum.

 

Everybody makes mistakes. And EVERYONE has evaluated these degrees as EVERYTHING. They
have been evaluated as glorified bachelor's, master's (very seldom) unaccredited degrees, grad certificates - everything but a driver's license. And there is NO guarantee that an agency who evaluated one a year or 18 months ago will still give the same equivalency now. Word has gotten around.

Telling me how one degree was evaluated - a while ago - proves nothing. I'll stick with what I said, thanks.

 

Plus - my remarks in the rest of the post, about $2,500 referred to the DBA degrees that had murkiness - no such degree in their own country etc. Not ENEB - they don't cost nearly that much. If I wanted a degree I could be sure of here in Canada - it would neither be an ENEB-sourced degree NOR a Polish so-called "DBA."

There are fine universities in both Spain and in Poland. But the Spanish 'propios' get VERY mixed results abroad, as they are 100% legal, but without Ministry approval. And the Polish system, which also has an excellent reputation, does not have the DBA in its framework. A University in Poland that awards such a degree is risking trouble with the authorities. And, depending how the degree is used, the holder is risking lack of utility, or perhaps something worse, in their own country.

 

And here's what was said on the other board - recounted here at DI - it was with US WES,

So - virtually useless.

@Steven Nguyen - if someone actually got an evaluation of an accredited Master's, by WES Canada - please give me a link. It's an extremely long thread over there and I think it's useless labour - but go ahead if you wish to prove it's there. It won't, however change my opinion of ENEB degrees. But it will, of it proves actually to be there, boost your credibility. It's all yours.

 

"Equal to an unaccredited degree in Canada" means equal to nothing, because unaccredited degrees are not recognized. At all, here. In US, they can, sometimes, be worth 'something.' A religious-exempt degree might get you somewhere with a certain church, etc. We Canucks don't have those. Religious schools here, if they wish to award ANY academic degrees, must do so to the same standards as all other degree-granting institutions. And they do.

 

Here it is. Lots of wes evidence for your reference
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-WES-Canada-recognizes-ENEB-Isabel

 

My apologies. You got me - completely, as far as WES Canada goes. Congrats - I'm looking pretty silly, about now.

So - lots of examples - WES Canada WILL give a positive evaluation - WES U.S. won't.
No good news for US ENEB / Isabel 1 scholars here.... just Canadians. Americans needing evaluation have to use an American evaluator.

Thanks, Stephen - again I apologize. Good job by you.

 

There are legit (sometimes state) US schools that will accept unaccredited Master's degrees towards an entrance requirement for other graduate programs - including into a doctorate program. Not easy to find, but they do exist. That's hardly "useless".

 

No, I guess that can't be called "useless." But as you say, it's rare. Do you know of anyone who's done this on the merits of an ENEB degree? I only know of one, claimed instance. I'll get to that. In fact, I can only think, right now, of two other instances of in all my degree-digging days, of people getting into grad school with an unaccredited degree. One was a person who earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Admin. IIRC, from Frederick Taylor University - unaccredited in California, BPPVE (later BPPE) authorized. He went on to complete a Master's at a fully accredited school. I'm pretty sure it was RA. The name escapes me, right now.

He was (and is) one smart dude. I get the sense that it was largely his own merits that got him into the Master's program. The degree, by the rules, was clearly insufficient - but he wasn't. Another applicant presenting the same degree might not have had the same result.

The only other instance I can think of right now was a religious program at Lipscomb University, a private Christian University in Nashville TN, Regionally accredited (SACSCOC). Lipscomb had an agreement with Nations University - which was unaccredited at the time. A Nations Bachelor's would get a grad into one Lipscomb Master's degree program. There was some probation involved and that was lifted if the student attained the required marks in his first few courses. Of course, that program went away, once Nations was accredited. Lipscomb is a religious school - so I doubt they do anything with ENEB.

There may be a very few programs out there, and some spotty one-off situations, but yes - rare - and applicants admitted more despite their unaccredited degrees than because of them. Personal suitability is a key ingredient.Applicants must outshine their unaccredited degrees. The only ENEB instance I ever noted was our member in Belgium, who bought a few ENEB . Isabel I programs, and who had an Isabel 1 degree evaluated there as an "advanced Bachelor's" They claimed subsequent entry into more than one fully accredited US-based distance Master's - and a doctoral program IIRC. We have not heard from this member in a long time. I have no idea what ensued...

One last thing here: ENEB / Isabel 1 degrees are Master's - and require a valid Bachelor's for entry. A person with a Bachelor's degree with good standing and an ENEB degree? Which do you think would carry more weight for an admission? Right. And again, personal suitability is key -- the school has to think the applicant is likely to succeed.

So all things considered, I'll change that "useless" to "not very useful at all, in and of itself." Are you OK with this?

PS - Propio degrees are not admissible for further education in their native Spain. I don't think they develop this ability in transit. But (sigh) I guess some disagree....

 

On the other forum, at least a couple of students have used ENEB degrees to get out of extern requirements for a VUL doctorate. I think that was using Validential, though, and not WES.

It also sounded like students could get admitted to the VUL doctorate with just a Bachelor's degree and take a couple ENEB degrees to avoid the externship.

 

Good for them. That's a clear advantage. VUL is a TRACS-accredited Christian HBCU with a 130-year history that goes far back beyond its present name, which it acquired in 1996. TRACS is HBCU-friendly, having brought several such schools (not including VUL) back from virtual extinction, when they lost other recognized accreditation, mostly due to being unable to meet financial standing requirements of the major accreditors.

I'm sure this is a good advantage for VUL applicants and I'm all for it. OK - ENEB wins this one, hands down. ...And Go, Dragons!

 

From Poland to Lynchburg VA -- via Spain. It's been a long journey in one thread. Not surprising. We do that at DI.