Comes now Abet University, Miami

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by John Bear, Nov 5, 2002.

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  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    They have promoted themselves on the a.e.d. news group. Unaccredited on-line MBAs. Claim to have been hot stuff in Brasil for decades, now moved to Miami. The all-too-familiar blather about how accreditation is unnecessary and expensive and besides there are famous US universities that are unaccredited. (I've Emailed to ask which.)
    (http://mba-open-university.net)

    From their FAQ, where does the name come from? Their answer:

    "Abet represent to encourage, incite, aid, assist, countenance, foment, support, sustain, and the inverse of deter, disapprove, frustrate, forbid. This is our University."

    (Hmmm. I make it Eiaacfss University. Perhaps the acronym is different in Portuguese, however.)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 5, 2002
  2. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    As in "aid and abet", I guess.

    "Abet represent to encourage"? I wonder why they didn't take the time to get a native English speaker to write their promotional materials for them. Or for *him*, since the writing makes me think that it's one man's work. The website is so bad that it's almost funny.

    If it offered engineering degrees, it probably would have a lawsuit on its hands from the legitimate ABET. Perhaps it might anyway.

    And given that Florida has a state licensing procedure that is actually enforced (as MIGS found out), I wonder if this thing is even operating legally in FL. My guess is that it doesn't have any state approval.
     
  3. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    The name is reminiscent of Heed. BTW, anybody know whatever happened to Heed? Make a new thread if you do (a sojourn in Milwaukee kinda makes me curious).
     
  4. Gus Sainz

    Gus Sainz New Member

    The full name is Abet Open University of Miami, and according to my conversation with Florida officials a few days ago, they do not have permission to operate in the State of Florida. In fact, although they claim to be a nonprofit corporation, no corroborating records exist with the Florida Department of State. Moreover, Abet Open University of Miami isn't actually located in Miami. It is located about 300 miles away in Jacksonville.

    The name Abet is not a just coincidence, considering that they claim to have trained engineers in Brasil for 27 years as JCMelo Consultoria Técnica, and later JCMelo Open University, and are currently marketing themselves to IT professionals (offering an MBA with a Chief Information Officer specialization that can be completed in 4 months). Interestingly, I have not been able to locate any information about either organization in Brasil. They appear, however, to be marketing themselves quite aggressively, as I have located about a dozen mirror sites of Abet Open University of Miami hosted on free servers.
     
  5. defii

    defii New Member

    Florida and Unaccredited Degrees

    I seem to recall reading somewhere, perhaps in John Bear's book, that Florida had very strict laws regarding unaccredited degrees. I believe you could not even claim an unaccredited degree for doing business in the State. That said, how does this new "school" locate itself in Florida?
     
  6. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Abet to Bear:
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Dear Mr. Bear,

    Thank you, very much, for your e-mail.

    First of all, don't considere only the United States, please think in 229 countries and perhaps 100,000 or 200,000 universities (only in Brazil is more or less 5,000). We are an INTERNATIONAL virtual university, as you see in our site. Accreditation is an United States process only, to pay for a private organization to seal an university.

    Second, Accreditation is a non sense project. The real "Accreditation" depends of the quality of the classes, the quality of the university, both qualified ONLY in the market through the graduated students. Our Accreditation is our past, we sell experience, knowledge, etc. Please examine our matters and the matters of similar MBAs from other universities. We sell knowledge for people that are interested in knowledge, not a Diploma with a seal. This is very clear in our site.

    Third, I personally have more than 50 years of computer science experience (very famous in Brazil and in the World, several projects including for the United States government, 5,000 newspaper notices about my career, etc), and I don't accept to pay (to much...) to an U.S. "Accreditation" private company to say that my virtual university is good or not. It is 99.99% probably that the people that will examine my virtual university don't have even 1/1,000 of my experience.

    Fourth, perhaps we will return our virtual university to Brazil, even 1/100 of our students are not from United States, perhaps because the "Accreditation" process that is natural in United States only. This is a clear society mistake, and I don't have time to try to change. Perhaps in more 30 or 50 years your society himself will change.

    However, we are in process to change a little our site, and the mentioned phrase must be changed to "Accreditation is a voluntary United States process and we decided to avoid to pay to a private organization, etc...". Also, to exclude all references to Master Degree, to avoid misunderstanding in spite of the fact that in our site it is very clear that we don't asked for any "Accreditation", that is an OPEN (and virtual) university, etc; must be more clear, must be idiot proof, for example in our site is very clear but we receive e-mails asking if we have an "Accreditation"... Perhaps in more one or two weeks we will change. Thank you, very much, for your comments.

    Sorry for the language, I write perfectly in Portuguese, Spanish and French, but not in English.

    Best regard,
    J.C.Melo

    *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

    On 11/5/2002 at 3:36 PM John Bear wrote:

    >You say: "However the University "Accreditation" process is voluntary,
    >and even several regular and important Universities don't ask for."
    >
    >I write books on degrees and accreditation, and I don't know of any. Can
    >you name even one?
    >
    >John Bear
    >http://circledance.tripod.com
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Bear To Abet:
    Dear Mr. Melo

    Thank you for your letter. I totally agree that it is important to be "idiot-proof" in things one says and writes. With this in mind, I have these few questions now, for you.

    1. My understanding, from officials in Florida, is that you do not have permission to operate in the state of Florida. Can you comment.

    2. You say Abet Open University of Miami is a non-profit corporation. The Florida Department of State seems to have no evidence of a non-profit corporation of this sort. Can you comment.

    3. The school is called Abet Open University of Miami, but it appears to be operating from Jacksonville, 500 km away. Can you comment?

    Thank you very much for this information.

    John Bear
    My publisher's site: http://www.degree.net
     
  7. BlackBird

    BlackBird Member

    Sounds like a scam artist!

    Sounds like a scam artist operation.

    I'm sure that in Brazil there is greater ease for doing things under the table and in Kahootz with the government. That's probably why the country is in such dire straights... and constant stories of corruption and scandal.

    I presume that this school now looks to scam innocent folks in Miami... mainly immigrants with little understanding of the accreditation process. There is also a large and growing constituency of Brazileiros here in Miami and in Orlando, FL. Hmmm... maybe the founder is moving to Miami and I wonder why? That would be interesting to check out.

    The way this guy talks is a tip off by his arrogance and snubbing accrediting bodies. In other words... he disdains the law. Go figure.
    :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 7, 2002
  8. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Quote:
    ".... I personally have more than 50 years of computer science experience... It is 99.99% probably that the people that will examine my virtual university don't have even 1/1,000 of my experience...."


    Only one person in ten thousand who looks at his web site has more than 2.6 weeks of computer science experience!!!
     
  9. Bill Highsmith

    Bill Highsmith New Member

    Assuming his computing career didn't start from the womb, he's about 70 years old and he would've been around pioneers such as these:

    1951 John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly:
    UNIVAC Computer First commercial computer.

    1953 International Business Machines:
    IBM 701 EDPM Computer IBM
     
  10. 50 Years of Computer Science Experience..

    Wow this fellow has been around for quite some time. I am sure he must have visited University of Pennsylvania some time back in the early 50's to pick up the straight dope on the latest CS thinking. He was probably a visiting professor in Pittsburgh at what was just known as the Carneige Institute of Technology as well.

    I am impressed.. I bet I could buy a lot of knowledge from JCM. Now... where did I put my check book?????

    Regards,

    Dick :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 7, 2002
  11. gourry

    gourry New Member

    so

    it is a fake university?
     
  12. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    What do you think?
     
  13. Khan

    Khan New Member

    Address?

    Anyone find an address for this place? Miami or JAX?
     

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