Saint Regis University

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by atlas1212, Jun 25, 2003.

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  1. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Let's back up a bit.

    The premise of the defender of SRU is that anyone who despises SRU is like a hypothetical Stanford grad laughing at someone's degree from Touro, and that the real purpose of a degree is to make more money. Therefore, anyone who criticizes SRU is just a tall poppy sneering at our brave battler trying to make his way in a cold cruel world, an effete snob belittling Joe Sixpack. In my world, such as it is (rural hardscrabble plus degreeinfo), people don't go around laughing at other people's respectable degrees because "their" school is, or is thought to be, more prestigious. What's to laugh at? Only this rather feeble appeal to the age-old populist terror of being laughed at by those whom the populist fears are his "betters".

    Holding SRU in contempt as a scam hiding behind overseas thugs and warlords is not snobbery, sarcasm, or name-calling. It is profound loathing based upon copious evidence. Why loathing instead of mere dismissal and exposure? This particular scam comes soaked in blood and covered in national dishonor.

    One day, when the Lone Star has risen again, a degree from Liberia will no longer be a laughing matter covering an ocean of tears, but a thing of honor. One day: not now, not soon.
     
  2. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    How did Slippery Rock University get missed in the worst names thread?
     
  3. oxpecker

    oxpecker New Member

    Especially since Regis University in Colorado is actually named after a Jesuit saint: John Francis Regis. Though perhaps the Liberian St. Regis is named after that other well known saint, Regis Philbin.
     
  4. roysavia

    roysavia New Member

    If Bellevue DOES accept SRU transcripts then perhaps its time for the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools to conduct a surprise audit on their facilities.
     
  5. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I will check him out. If I'm wrong, I'll sincerely apologize.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2003
  6. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    The reason I want to know who you talked to is because I want to avoid you claiming that you talked to someone else after I return with the information that I expect.

    Here's what I plan on verifying.

    "Every single registrar told me that they would accept a degree from SRU for further graduate study. In fact, Bellevue and UIU told me specifically that this topic has been reviewed and that SRU has been found to meet the standards and equivalence of a US RA degree."

    Kelly is the person at Bellevue? What is Kelly's last name or her email address?
     
  7. atlas1212

    atlas1212 New Member

  8. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I'd be willing to guess that Bellevue would never knowingly accept credits or degrees from degree-mills and that it thinks that it has robust procedures in place to screen that stuff out.

    Assuming that what "Atlas" writes is true (he tells us that he admires successful liars), the qestions to ask seem to be: 1. does Bellevue "evaluate" foreign universities and if so how, 2. whether or not those procedures were followed in this St. Regis case, and 3. whether or not they are strong enough to weed out the newest thing in "degree-mill science", the purchase of "flag of convenience" approvals from corrupt foreign officials.

    Given that the "GAAP" criteria are based on the procedures commonly followed by university registrars and admissions officers, and given the fact that resourceful degree-mills can beat those procedures fairly easily, I suspect that this kind of abuse may be possible numerous places, at least at those that haven't wised up yet.

    It's a growing problem. It was pioneered by Berne, experimented with by Columbia Commonwealth, MIGS and Greenwich, and currently is being used by St. Regis. International University of Fundamental Studies is waving incomprehensible Russian documents as we speak. Academically insubstantial off-shore approvals for universities that many times aren't even physically located in the jurisdiction that approves them are clearly the soft-underbelly of the accreditation process.

    It's something that university admissions officers and registrars, to say nothing of credential evaluators and private employers, are going to have to come up to speed on very quickly.

    While "Atlas'" ethics are obviously appalling in trying to promote this kind of abuse, he does perform a perverse service by shining a spotlight on the (allegedly) weak admissions offices that make it all possible.
     
  9. BobC

    BobC New Member

    Aren't we essentially splitting hairs here ultimately? Does anyone REALLY BELIEVE University of <Insert 3rd World Country Here> corrupt or not is really equivalent to a U.S Education? Come on get real.
     
  10. atlas1212

    atlas1212 New Member

    My ethics aren't appalling. I'm simply saying that most people get a degree so they can make money. I can see why people would take a degree from SRU if it gets them more money in their job, and if it has some sort of universal acceptance on some level. Which my cursory survey showed it did.
     
  11. triggersoft

    triggersoft New Member

    Does anyone REALLY BELIEVE University of <Insert 3rd World Country Here> corrupt or not is really equivalent to a U.S Education? Come on get real.

    Ahm,
    actually,
    yes, I do.

    There are certainly quite a few respactable and highly academical institutions in 3rd world or emerging countries, also in Africa, that have at least the same standards as the minor bottom US American RA schools - that is pretty much for sure...

    Does anyone here really NOT believe this?

    Greets,
    Trigger
     
  12. BobC

    BobC New Member

    I certainly don't.
     
  13. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I don't want to denounce all universities in the "third world". I'm not even sure what that phrase includes.

    I'm interested in religious studies. If I wanted to study the Hindu religious tradition or Indian philosophy (a very subtle intellectual tradition that doesn't get nearly enough attention by Western scholars), I might look to a university in India, because it might be better than any American university in those particular things.

    I'm sure that Africans are doing leading-edge work in African religions, natural history, local land-use issues, wildlife management, languages, geology, anthropology and much else that would interest some people.

    If you wanted to study pre-Columbian art and archaeology, a good Mexican university might be one of your strongest choices.

    Anyway, you get my point. Some "third world" universities are world leaders, at least in their specific areas of strength. Even if a poor country or non-Western university isn't a world leader, it still might be providing a totally decent education, just as "lower tier" American schools do.

    I don't want to exclude foreigners that get good educations in these places, but I don't want to accept every university with an approval from some foreign government either. That's even more dangerous than accepting all American state-approvals. For all its inadaquacy, Wyoming has stronger standards than Liberia. So why should Liberian "accreditation" receive automatic credibility just because Liberia is a nation-state? That's ridiculous.

    Besides, it isn't always the "third world" that offers hollow approvals. Norfolk Island was briefly exploited, with the precise intention of claiming "full Australian accreditation". The International University of Fundamental Studies is waving Russian documents signed by all sorts of "academicians" whose precise significance is incomprehensible to mortal minds. Russians win Nobel Prizes, but that doesn't mean that all Russian approvals mean something or that officials in the new Russia can't be bought.

    I don't mean to get too smug about that either, since many iffy American schools (like Kennedy Western or Preston) wave their state approvals in the face of Asian students for whom, culturally, state approvals are everything.

    I'm just saying that (unlike the Australians) the Russians (and many others) probably aren't above doing what we do ourselves, and we had damn well better be able to recognize it when it's being done to us.

    So rather than dismissing all universities outside the West, and short of accepting everything uncritically, we need some more reliable way to separate the wheat from the chaff.
     
  14. Gus Sainz

    Gus Sainz New Member

    These ethnocentric views are baseless, and we don’t have to look at specialized local programs to disprove them. For example, we have “Third World” universities whose business schools have AACSB accreditation (which has proven to be a daunting and unattainable task for many an American school). :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2003
  15. triggersoft

    triggersoft New Member

    I totally agree with you guys that Liberian accreditation is not really worth anything, and my views on St. Regis & Co. are pretty close to yours, I just didn´t agree with BobC´s GENERAL statement against any "3rd world" university which is certainly and provably wrong.

    Anyway, I´d also be very interested in the results of the new "survey", since loopholes are always interesting to discover (and maybe also to close, like in case of this special "university").

    Greets,
    Trigger
     
  16. BobC

    BobC New Member

    Bleh. What I'm saying is this. If you were to round up all of the US RA schools, rate them qualitatively and quantitatively as you see fit, gather an average, let's say "50". Do the same thing with 3rd World country schools, do you honestly think their score is going to be "50" ? or less than "50" ? If it's less than "50", their not equal. I don't care what you guys say, I will never think someone with a degree from the University of Bangladesh has a US equivalent education. Find all the minute examples you want but on the whole no freakn way.
     
  17. oxpecker

    oxpecker New Member

    People like BobC are really quite frightening to someone like myself, born and raised in a third world country.

    I have academic credentials from 4 different universities on 4 different continents. So I am in a good position to comment. But BobC's remarks are not worthy of comment.
     
  18. BobC

    BobC New Member

    Sorry a lack of an argument isn't an argument. Tell me why when Im in country XYZ and I have the option for a natively educated Doctor and US educated one why I'd be wrong for atleast initially wanting to go with the US doctor. There's nothing wrong with that, Im not going to apologize for that nor am I gonna look up an UNSECO book to see if the school he went to is listed nor a search on degreeinfo to see if his school came from a mill.

    bleh.
     
  19. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Hi Oxpecker: Don't stop now; two more degrees from the other two continents and you will have a complete set. (No university in Antarctica.)
     
  20. Jeff Hampton

    Jeff Hampton New Member

    Perhaps you could earn a degree from a fifth continent via DL while living in Antarctica. Kill two birds with one stone.
     

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