Devry's acquisition of Ross University (St. Kitts)

From my Usenet flame war days, someone using all caps (or all lower case) was frequently someone trying to hide the fact that they were using multiple aliases. I guess that it sometimes gives people the feeling that their posts are somehow disguised. I know that the multiple aliases tactic is policed very closely on this board though.

 

This is precisely the "flag of convenience" problem that I referred to on the other thread.

Schools located in jurisdictions with rather strict regulations go shopping overseas for nation-states that will license and/or accredit them. There are several places out there that offer what amount to flags of educational convenience. So the school sets up a mail forwarding address, claims to be a bona fide foreign university and demands entrance into the UNESCO listing.

Here's some things on the subject that Alan Contreras wrote for Boston College's Center for International Higher Education online newsletter:

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/News24/text003.htm

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/News29/text005.htm

 

Great articles. After a brief e-mail from the owner of my company we are doing further research, though I tend to agree with the concensus here that its not an RA school. Berne was not on the last few years of the above mentioned databae, but is on the 2002-2003 database. Makes me wonder how they get away charging $400 for it.

 

Ross has a full time residential campus. Berne does what Capella does and rents a campus for the summer. Both are accredited by St. Kitts. Ross has WHO recognition while Berne apparently can get a couple of recognized foreign credential evaluations..... so both have external validation.

But look folks (especially those of you who are Berne fans). It is one thing to get a degree and third party evaluation and quite another to make the degree work for you in terms of perception. Ross is probably better off because most Vets I know start their own clinics However, I once posted a forum site here where Foreign Medical School grads discussed their problems finding residencies and the perceptions of their degrees. A Vet may have an easier time of it (I do not know). You pay big bucks at Ross but maybe that gets you where you want (in private practice as a vet).

So, for those of you complaining that 'but they are accredited and listed", you need to get your head out of the West Indian sand. You pump 20,000 bucks into a Berne degree and $$$$$$$ into a foreign medical school you had better be realistic about your situation. Having a degree and qualifying for a license of some kind (teaching, medical) does not mean everyone has to have a good perception of your degree, employee you and that you will get your money out of it.

St. Kitts has no public higher education system and that was one of the reasons a foreign credential evaluator gave me for why they would not consider them equivalent to RA. In other words on what basis does St. Kitts accredit anything?? Apparently they do not even want to share that with Alan Contreras & frankly why would you not want yourself off that list.

North

 

All I am wondering is why UNESCO thinks its ok to put the school in the database when the general educational public feels it shouldn't be an RA school. I never said that my company would do equivelancy evaluations for the school, we have never had to. Just kinda wondering why its in a IAU/UNESCO database. Maybe I should be asking them that question. Then again, they let SRU be listed......

 

I know that it's sort of like following the magic bouncing ball, but who owns Berne these days. Berne is gone, isn't he?



Tom Nixon

 

This is exactly why listing in the UNESCO handbook is no longer a part of Generally Accepted Accreditation Principles. There are too many tiny countries with no quality control standards and questionable governments that will confer "accreditation" or "government approval" in exchange for some consideration... which could be as little as taking the Minister of Education to a nice dinner, or, as has been alleged of Liberia, $10,000 in cash.

Most of the registrars I know of only recognize Nevis or St. Kitts degrees that come from schools recognized by the University of the West Indies. As with many small countries, governmental approval or accreditation is nearly meaningless... ergo, the Bernes and other schools that "domicile" there are still, in the eyes of many, unaccredited schools that happen to have some sort of end-run that manages to fool a few people.

 

Oh... and one other thing about our Berne apologist...

It's a standard millspeak that as soon as someone starts making points that are difficult for a mill apologist to refute, the appropriate response is to start personally attacking the person making the points.

We've clearly seen that here, so if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

 

And that is the answer I was looking for, though I had already come to most of that conclusion after talking to a few others offline.

 

Oh please, Chip, no one would sell accreditation for a mer $10,000. I believe Liberian accreditation for 50,000 big ones.




Tom Nixon

 

Well, you know, the current defense minister of Liberia is Daniel CHEA. Hmmm...