School of Business and Trade evaluation

That would also be misinformation. Recognized is the equivalent of accredited in many countries. Legally operating would be fine, as long as the school's unaccredited status was likewise made clear in the evaluation report.

 

It’s hard for me to understand why anyone would oppose the idea that a credential evaluator must objectively state the facts about the country-specific status of a higher education institution before proceeding with any kind of evaluation and that this factual information belongs in every evaluation report issued by any credible evaluation agency. In the case of the presence of inaccurate information about a foreign education system and its recognized institutions, the evaluator may be rightly accused of unethical practice or incompetence.

The information on SOBAT’s status in Switzerland is easily obtained. Whether one believes that it would be appropriate to provide RA equivalency to a school that does not have accreditation in the host country ( I don’t believe this is proper) is another matter. I suppose it can be debated, although the international standards are fairly consistent and preclude an evaluation agency from engaging in the work of an accrediting agency. But the failure to provide accurate information about the exact status of an institution in another country is the kind of omission that makes an evaluation agency an abject failure.

 

Some NACES evaluators will say “non-regionally accredited” instead of “non-accredited” which I think is the fairest evaluation because it leaves it open to other forms of recognition that makes the evaluation still acceptable in some aspects. Legally operated as you stated would also work.

 

The evaluation from Validential does say this ;
University: School of Business and Trade
Location: Lucerne , Switzerland
University Type; Private
Higher education
Founded: 2011

School of Business and Trade was formed in January 2011 to promote education without boundaries and regardless of background. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: ‘Everyone has the right to education and it shall be equally accessible.’ SoBaT currently offers several tuition-free programmes to suit anyone interested in higher education.
Nowadays, accredited and quality education is very costly. Universities charge thousands of dollars. Fundamentally, further education is very expensive for most people and, therefore, they cannot contemplate higher studies. SoBaT offers a ray of hope for struggling students who cannot spend thousands of dollars to gain the qualification they desire.
The documents listed herein have been reviewed and evaluated to U.S standards and we hereby certify that in our best judgment __ holds the U.S equivalent of a Master's degree in Social Sciences awarded by Regionally accredited Universities in the United States.

 

I would add the Swiss govt. statement on private universities

Recognition of SoBaT Qualifications
The following is the abstract of the statement of State Secretariat for Education and Research, Federal Department of Home Affairs, Switzerland on the validity of degrees issued by private institutions in Switzerland.

The original statement can be viewed on the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs website.

“private institutions were created mainly for the purpose of servicing international students and are not part of Switzerland’s public higher education sector”.

“As a general rule, in Switzerland no prior authorization is required in order to offer higher education courses, organize examinations or issue private degrees”.

“Private institutions that are not part of Switzerland’s public higher education sector, are not compatible with it, or are not entirely supervised by public authorities offer a different, but not necessarily lower, level of quality. There are several prestigious private institutions that are entirely independent from Switzerland’s public higher education sector”.

“For unregulated professions (e.g. managers, journalists, etc.), it is up to employers to decide whether to “recognize” the value of a degree”.

“Private institutions based in Switzerland that are not accredited as HEIs by the Swiss University Conference (SUK) may only issue private degrees”. Such degrees:

may be used by the holder to carry out an unregulated profession; appreciation of the value of private degrees is left up to employers”.

“Generally speaking, there are no international agreements protecting the value of private degrees; in all cases, it is up to the national authorities in the host country to decide whether to recognize foreign qualifications”.

“Private institutions are able to legitimately carry out their activities in Switzerland by virtue of the principle of economic freedom”.\

So in Switzerland employers can accept or not accept the degree in all unregulated jobs which basically means those where a license is not required . The majority of SOBAT's degrees are in the business field - which can be useful in the private sector of business.

In the USA Degree evaluation companies decide if a credential is to be recognized or not. States, schools, and businesses can then decide which foreign degree company to use. In Massachusetts where I live only NACES and AICE member evaluations will be accepted for a state job. But in the business world or non-state funded educational schools in Massachusetts a Validential evaluation might be fine and useful.

 

The evaluation report's reference to "accredited and quality education being costly" may be enough to cause university staff or a licensing board to look into this degree case further and discover that they're really dealing with qualifications coming from an unaccredited school. But the Validential report does not say that SOBAT is a private and unaccredited school, choosing to omit such superfluous information.

At some point, the Validential partners and evaluation report-accepting U.S. institutions may learn about their provision of accreditation equivalency to non-accredited schools. It will be interesting to see whether disaffiliation will be the next step. It is clearly a risk, especially with the increase in graduates of Validential-approved unaccredited institutions, who will most likely want to receive the benefits that a truly accredited education entails and attempt to get a license or admission into a degree program at a regionally accredited university, etc. I see Validential as the next CUFCE, a more sophisticated-looking doorway to the recognition of credentials coming from unaccredited institutions. The declaration on human rights or access to tuition-free education is kind of irrelevant when we're trying to find out about whether we're dealing with real-deal accreditation.

 

i don't dispute any thing said above. But the Swiss Govt only accredits schools run by the government. (public ) So making a requirement that a school be recognized by the government when they don't do it for any nonpublic school is a harsh requirement. As the govt says private schools offer a different, but not necessarily lower, level of quality. There are several prestigious private institutions that are entirely independent from Switzerland’s public higher education sector”. You can argue SOBAT is not one of these" prestigious" schools but are legal, can be accepted by employers. I think a more valid way of stating the accreditation issue would be to say “Private institutions based in Switzerland are not accredited as HEIs by the Swiss University Conference (SUK). Saying "unaccredited" alone does not indicate they can't be accredited due to law. It is up to the national authorities in the host country to decide whether to recognize foreign qualifications”. As I said above some states require NACES or AICE members only as acceptable evaluators. I hope Validential looked at the course content, the final exams , the ease of enrollment and the good customers service as positives. Would NACES or AICE give approval just because a program is accredited by their Ministry? Do they actually look at course content, test used ? Years ago I submitted a degree for review from WES -three months later they couldn't decide and refunded my money. The next day I submitted this same degree to two other NACES members and I received acceptable as equal to a RA USA degree by both within 3 days. So all these evaluators can be suspect.

 

Not exactly. Swiss Business School has received institutional accreditation and the status of a "University of Applied Sciences Institute" as a private business institution; https://www.sbs.edu/

Link: https://www.swissuniversities.ch/en/topics/studying/accredited-swiss-higher-education-institutions-1

Here's another private federally accredited institution within the Canton of Geneva: https://www.swiss-umef.ch/en

Except that they are accredited as "other institutions of the higher education sector"

Hope really isn't good enough when you want to know the ways in which Validential ascertained quality assurance in the absence of you know...quality assurance.

Not necessarily, but it surely would be taken into serious consideration once the ministry/accrediting authority of a country accredited a specific higher education institution/program. They would need some kind of reason to turn it down. Lack of confidence in the accreditation system of a country, perhaps? Lack of corresponding equivalent qualifications? Fraud commited by a specific accredited university?

Maybe as part of a course-by-course evaluation, but that does not require specifically looking at course content. Once you examine the grades received and how each course fits into an accreditation-based system of university and college higher education, you can approve it, provide grade equivalents and calculate credit equivalencies. But this would not apply to institutions that are unaccredited within the examined country/system. So evaluating SOBAT would require such extra effort.

Solid foreign credential evaluators make errors; bad calculations, recognizing a degree program at a level that seems inappropriate. It's a question of scale. A minor or even a slightly more serious error can be corrected. A major error (not providing an accurate description of the original accreditation status of an HEI/university) casts doubt on the reputation and research competency of an evaluator, so it should be immediately corrected.

 

I tried a course and took the exams. It is good for knowledge but I don’t think I will use their degrees to look for a job

 

Smart move. Right Answer. Accordingly, you are entitled to a free PhD from Die Alte und Freie Universität von Johann.

 

Any outfit that would write or copy sales propaganda for a school is doing a disservice - not an evaluation. This is totally unacceptable. Defies and destroys all credibility.