Berne University loses US government certification

The Ross University veterinary medicine program is in St. Kitts. Also several med schools.

 

After my last post on this issue, I got a call from Dr. Hassad about Bern University and Walden University. He said he does not teach at Walden and about Bern University he had the following statements to say in one of his several emails to me:

" My PhD degree from Berne University (accredited by the Ministry of Education, Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis) has been evaluated by two charter members of NACES (www.naces.org) and deemed equivalent to a PhD degree from a regionally accredited university in the USA. Copies of the credential evaluation reports are on file with TUI and other universities.

Also, Berne University is listed and detailed in the following major reference works, which are used by credential evaluation agencies and academic institutions to confirm the validity and recognition of foreign schools and programs.

1. The International Handbook of Universities (UNESCO-International Association of Universities Publication, 16th and 17th editions)
2. World Higher Education Database (UNESCO)
3. World List of Universities and other Institutions of Higher Education (will be listed in the forthcoming 24th edition.)”

After several email exhanges on this issue, I decided to post parts of one his emails to me above verbatim.


oko

 

There was a time when being listed in the UNESCO handbook was a sure sign of being an accredited university. Now it appears in some quarters that this is not the case; maybe due to the inclusion, in this case, of one particular university they don't like!

I have no brief for Berne; I am merely fascinated (amused!). Here is a university that has recognition by the DOE of a sovereign country that has a written accreditation process similar to a British based education system, and the university is now listed in the UNESCO handbook. How does one then judge its academic standards?

Shifting nations, I am very familar with the Indian system of education, especially the distance learning system used by many hundreds of thosands of Indian students each year to obtain their bachelor or master's degrees.

In the area of commerce and economics, many of the notes have not been rewritten or revised for over 20 to 30 years. Combined with this fact is the standard of these degrees. The content of a Master's degree is barely that of a Western bachelor's degree

Yet I know from the many, many hours I have spent in university libraries in the West, reading the title pages to doctoral thesis, many leading Western universities accept a bachelor and masters degree from these very same universities to gain entrance into a doctoral program. And these students, obviously due to their ability, pass!

 

Re: Berne exists! (So?)

Of course, Berne could also take a really radical step and get licensed in the state (New Hampshire) in which it operates. Or how about obtaining recognized accreditation? I guess those steps are just too wild to consider.

 

The IHU is "pulling Berne in the next edition and are considering putting a warning note on their web site." http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9536

If listing is "used [...] to confirm the validity", de-listing can be used to refute the validity, yes?

 

On 7/22/02 I posted the reply from Educational International on their evaluation of Berne and I sent some questions to them via e-mail. Thought I would post it again in light of this discussion: (note that the final paragraph is somewhat of a disclaimer)

...............................
Yes, we have evaluated Berne University's Ph.D. as the equivalent of a Ph.D. degree from an accredited institution in the U.S. This was based on several considerations. First, as a general rule, in countries with a centralized educational system and a Ministry of Education, and no separate system of accreditation as in the U.S., it is customary in the credential evaluation field to take governmental recognition of an institution by the Ministry of Education as comparable (not equivalent) to accreditation in the U.S. In the case of Berne University, I spoke with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Osmond Petty. From what he said, although he did not go into lengthy detail, their accreditation process, as they call it, is rigorous and not just a rubber stamp procedure.

In one of the two cases I have evaluated of Berne Ph.D. graduates, an external assessment of the thesis (this is standard practice for them) was done by a professor from the University of Essex in the UK who commented that the thesis would meet the standard of UK universities. In the other case, I spoke with the U.S. professor who served as the external examiner. She said that the thesis compared favorable with U.S. Ph.D. theses.

In view of the above, I thought it not unreasonable to consider the Berne Ph.D.in these cases the equivalent of Ph.D.'s from an accredited institution in the U.S. That is, of course, what I call an "advisory interpretation" that is not binding on anyone. For a summary of my qualifications in this field, please see our website, www.educationinternational.org.

Joel Slocum
Director
Education International


...................................

What I can tell is that the evaluation was of two specialized cases and does not pertain to Berne as a whole. Essentially, the dissertations were deemed credible but does not mean that it would be applied to all of Berne's graduates.


At least the step was taken to provide an outside review of the work done which in these two cases was deemed acceptable doctoral work. Consequently, this approach worked for a couple of unaccredited graduates but it seems like a long shot to me in getting your work recognized.

John

 

I see at least two issues in what John Wetsch posted.

Unless I am mistaken, the published accreditation standards were created by the island legislature after Berne had already been accredited, and the legislation has a clause grandfathering Berne.

The words "for them" are significant. The "external examiners" were supplied by Berne, not Slocum.

In the Knightsbridge threads, we saw 'Dr. Marianus' arguing that KU's adjunct faculty, some of whom had day-jobs elsewhere, represented 'external examiners'. We were assured that was the standard British QA practice.

But the Dearing Report recommended that external examiners in the UK be senior academics, formally seconded by their own institutions for the purpose, approved by the QAA, trained for their roles and operating in teams. Conflicts of interest were specifically addressed.

I'd like to know whether the 'examiner' from Essex was officially representing the University of Essex or acting independently. I'd also like to know what his own relationship with Berne was.

 

Bill makes many goods points about the evaluation. I wonder if there are any more current evals of Berne degrees? Graduates holding up the older evals as a sign of acceptance of the Berne credential may be fooling themselves.

John

 

Or others.

 

Have any of you critics actually attended Berne – Bernelli U. I don’t think so. I have and it was the most rigorist program I have ever experienced. I have Master Degrees from other institutions so I can comment on the curriculum. All of the professions are from very prestigious US Universities. The curriculum is designed for very serious and ambitious self-reliant student practitioners. You most be employed in the field in order to enroll in a program. Many of my colleagues that were enrolled in the program were unable to finishes. At most Universities it takes somewhere between 4 to 6 years to complete a dissertation at Bern it was expected to be completed in two. I written contract be between the student and the university is written that only that dissertation under contract was to be submitted and only that was to be accepted.

The purpose of a 30 day residence in a foreign country is two fold, 1) a large number of the students are from outside the country, 2) is to create a global university. In most counties there is no accreditation. Oxford is not accredited by any agency, University of Bologna is not accredited nor do they care to be. They were operating long before accrediting agencies became a business. Also if you did the research on accreditation you would know that you must have a library and a dormitory as part of the requirement.

The experience that I had at Bern was far superior to any of the so – called accredited here in the states. It was mismanagement of the administrative office that caused a problem at St. Kitts not the curriculum or the instruction. It is difficult to start a business let alone a University, even Mr. Harvard when starting his University had problems and it was a mom and pop back than.

 

So yet again a first time poster dredges up an old (6 years old) thread in order to promote a clearly unwonderful "school."

 

It also appears to be translated from a different language. Lots of grammatical errors.

How do these escape moderation?

 

Congratulations on your choice of Columbia College! It's very hard to decide, isn't it? I had a devil of a time.

 

Should anyone wish to know more, here is Dr. Raimondo's bio:

Dr. Anthony Raimondo

And here he is on YouTube talking about his book:

YouTube - A chat with author of Return to Eden.

As he says at the top of his web site, "Without knowledge on one's theme we plant seeds of an uncertain harvest or we plants seeds that bear no fuirt." (Proofreading is not his long suit, I think.)

"A true renaissance man . . . Dr. Raimondo currently lives in Newark, N.J., where he is involved in Tres Dias of Northern New Jersey, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people achieve a personal relationship with Christ."