Central University of Nicaragua Degree Scheme

Congratulations Dr. Coleman. Having the scanned docs is a great leap forward.

 

Congratulations! I believe you mentioned validential and IEE as evaluation services that can give a positive evaluation of the degree. Please keep us posted about the evaluation outcome. I think you deserve that evaluation document with the PhD RA equivalent status so you can call yourself PhD without any reservation.

 

Paradigms are changing, how you get the PhD is become less relevant and what you do with it more relevant. I personally never been asked where I got my doctorate but more about publications, journals that I have published, professional roles, etc. We are the exception to the rule, we are the ones that investigate the accreditation status and start arguing about the accreditation status of a school when most people will just ask for an evaluation report and move on if the report says PhD. If you can get a positive foreign evaluation report, for most people you are a person that earned a PhD from a central american school, Not super impressive but you have a valid doctorate. The rest is performance and individual work.
20 years ago people in this forum we had endless threads about the first online PhD from NCU. Nowadays, most PhDs have an online component now so it is not scary to do an online PhD anymore.
Now we are scared about people doing online PhDs overseas from developing nations due to cost issues. Time will tell, but if these graduates perform and produce positive results, maybe this will tell that it is a valid way to go for some people.

 

Actually, the first school offering a non-residential doctorate to become regionally accredited was Touro University International. TUI, then a part of the already accredited Touro College, was a semi-autonomous operation in California. The Middle States Association approved its inclusion into Touro College's accreditation. Indications are they did this not knowing that TUI offered its PhD non-residentially; an official at Middle States reacted with surprise when confronted with that fact.

NCU (Northcentral University, now a part of National University), was the first US standalone school offering a non-residential doctorate to achieve regional accreditation.

Agreed. I've been making this point for years. Almost no one cares, especially outside of academia. Still, putting an illegitimate doctorate in one's resume (or vita) can be a ticking time bomb. Also, unless you're some kind of weirdo who does two of these things, the school from which you graduate will forever identify you. Choose well.

 

Thanks for correcting me. You are right, it was TUI.

I agree, if Dr. Coleman can get a positive foreign degree evaluation report from a NACEs member then he is good put in his CV "PhD". He earned the right and followed the rules.
I agree with others that putting unaccredited Doctorates in a CV for professional use is a time bomb. If someone wants a PhD in metaphysics, ministry, etc from an unaccredited religious school this is fine as long as it is not used to deceive others into thinking that one is a qualified psychologist, manager, etc.

UCN will not be the last of foreign private school offering online doctorates. In 20 years from now, it will be quite normal to hold a PhD from Nicaragua while living in the US. As we speak, many US and Canadian schools partner with foreign companies to offer their degrees and qualifications. Education is business like any other businesses with brands, marketing strategies, etc.

 

RFValve,

You may be right, but there are still some unresolved questions concerning the UCN validated degree and whether it represents the proper Nicaraguan degree;

Maybe one of our German-language speakers could look into this interesting yet confusing legal document that I've located:

https://openjur.de/u/2181452.html

On the question of eligibility to hold the degree of “Doctor of Philosophy”

"The applicant undisputedly did not complete the doctoral program ("Doctorado en Administración de Empresas") offered by the UCN as a face-to-face course in Managua.

On page 33 of the dissertation guidelines it is stated that the UCN awards the Spanish "Doktorado (e.g. en filosofia)" and the internationally common format "PhD" or "Doctor of Philosophy" within the framework of international programs."

"At the same time, it can be clearly seen from the statement that, according to the UCN's understanding, only the degree according to the original Spanish certificate is relevant, while the "PhD" is "not certified."

I wonder what all this means.

 

Sorry. That is not really "German". It's "Legalese", and few native German speakers even understand it...

 

Also - Germany has it's own standards, ones we may and may not agree with. One example is it's rejection of non-AACSB RA MBAs. I have also seen Anabin rejecting an RA BBA degree because it disapproved of a Swiss vocational school classes that the US college accepted through an articulation agreement. For me, in both cases, degrees are accredited, Anabin or no. If one needs to use them in Germany, that's another matter.

 

Stanislav,

But what if the degree that is awarded to international students by UCN (Doctor of Philosophy) isn't the degree that they have accreditation for here; https://www.ucn.edu.ni/?page_id=2418. This would make sense, because this Doctorado degree is clearly an on-campus degree in Managua that lasts for three years and includes specific coursework. The foreigner-offered PhD doesn't fit these criteria. That's one of the issues that the German court case raises. It's a very serious issue. It's as if we are dealing with two different degrees awarded by UCN.

 

I didn´t yet read the whole verdict, most of it is complicated juristical language which basically doesn´t get to the point.
My feeling is that the judge just didn´t feel like approving the usage of the UCN PhD in Germany.
The judge argues that the in this case not an official and state-recognized (in Nicaragua) Doctorado en Administración de Empresas has been awarded but rather a "PhD". The Austrian representative of UCN however argued that it is the same degree, it has just been translated into "PhD" to make it more understandable internationally. Judge didn´t follow that argument.

We don´t really know whether UCN awards fully state-recognized PhD´s in DL or propios.

 

Exactly.

 

That seems to be the problem.

There are--and have been--many pathways to the doctorate. It remains unclear if this one leads to an actual degree, or some being called a degree.

 

Years ago, US evaluators (at least some) said clearly it was an actual degree - RA equivalent. They didn't see many of them, back then. Now, there's a minor flood - and it's become a crapshoot at best. "New shooter coming out" every five minutes. Some are bound to get snake-eyes or seven-out.

I think UCN "tested the waters" and then went full-steam ahead, granting distance degrees that they weren't authorized to do. Authorities in Nicaragua likely turned a blind eye to the overseas operation, as UCN was doing a good job on-ground, educating Nicaraguans - in full compliance with its mandate. Then UCN got into a proliferation of partnerships engineered by an Austrian -- and the numbers of unauthorized offshore degrees swelled. Evaluators twigged to what was going on, hence the "uncertain" results of a US evaluation of a Universidad Central de Nicaragua distance-doctorate, today.

 

My evaluation from IEE just came in today and they did equate it to a regionally accredited PhD in Education. I only did the evaluation for employment purposes as there really is no point in doing it for education with no coursework and the breakdown of grades for the thesis couldn't be transferred to another degree regarding coursework anyway.

 

Congrats Doctor!

 

Great job, Dr. Coleman! Well done.

 

Congratulations Dr. Coleman. Nicely done. Another doctor for degreeinfo.

 

It is complex. In any case, the last word is the one given by the authority in your country of residence. In the US is a member of NACES and in Canada a member of ACESC
https://www.cicic.ca/1374/obtain_an_academic_credential_assessment_for_general_purposes.canada.

 

Besides IEE, what other evaluation service might give a positive evaluation to an UCN degree? I think you mentioned validential for propio degrees that although is not a member of NACES, it is a member of NAFSA and claims acceptance for immigration purposes.
Have you evaluated the Azteca degree? What degree might have more acceptance in the market, Azteca or UCN?

 

IEE is a NACES member. Does one need to apply anywhere else? (I'm not trying to be snippy, I'm really curious why you would apply to multiple evaluators after getting the desired answer from a sufficiently rigorous one.)