Dot Education . . . a new tool for degree mills

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by John Bear, Oct 2, 2019.

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  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    I was asked to look into a new wonder called the University of Orville, the pride of Logan, West Virginia (population 1,600). The scary revelation, for me, is that these people are using the suffix, "dot education." Clearly there is no regulation anywhere for its use, and therefore it will probably fool a lot of people. We've written here before about how "dot e d u" has been misused, and thus not a sure marker for legitimacy, but I don't think a new phony could get a 'dot e d u" while they can surely use the "dot education." Incidentally, the University of Orville doesn't have the look and feel of an Exact school to me, but I can't be sure.
     
  2. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    I think the site is modelled on the website of Creek Weston University, an Axact school. It’s hosted on a Dutch server, Leaseweb, and the website of Queen Rhode University (parked at the moment) is in the same IP range. Most, but not all, recently hatched Axact schools, are using the .education TLD. The Orville website was registered 87 days ago, same registrar as other recent Axact sites.
     
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  3. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I've seen lots of dot.education schools over the last couple of years or more and right now I can't remember any that didn't turn out to be Axact-generated. I agree it could fool people - that's why they use it. Good schools don't need another domain - dot e d u will do fine for them. Maybe the internet regulators could just quietly abolish this one and make it unavailable. It'd be nice if they could do that with Axact itself -- but that's proven to be harder. Those guys have money. They can bribe judges -- in a country where bribes are a way of life.

    A business man once said = you have to pay bribes to get anything done in either South America or India. The difference:

    In South America, you pay a bribe, the wheels turn and you get whatever you paid the bribe for. In India, you pay the bribe and nothing happens. Axact proved him wrong. I guess it's only true for foreigners.
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I've noticed over time that Axact websites have improved in quality dramatically. They're now multi-page affairs, work smoothly and are done with much more mastery of web technology than before. They've even cleaned up the irregular English to a fairly high degree. They still like to poach text from well-respected universities. Just pick out a really good sentence and run it through Google and you'll likely find it's cribbed from some quite high source.

    Their recipe for Internet success - quality websites from a high=production shop. Works all the time -even when it shouldn't.
     
  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Axact is in Pakistan, not India. And neither is one of the twelve countries in South America, which I expect vary considerably from one another.
     
  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Point taken, Steve. Thanks. I have long had what I now realize is a terrible tendency: to lump Pakistan and India together, ONLY when speaking of fraud in South Asia. Perhaps it's because of the too-frequent "phishing" calls from nonexistent "Computer Departments" and bogus "Tax Offices" I get that I believe are about 103% from Indian boiler-shops. Then I get on the Internet and read about Axact in Pakistan. Thanks to you I've finally woken up to how wrong this habit of mine is.

    Yes - South America is twelve countries. The businessman quoted was not specific - and I should not have fallen for it and repeated it. No more, I assure you.

    I have managed to malign a whole Continent and a Sub Continent and my only specific evidence is Axact - one company. Very shameful and I apologize - to somewhere around 3 billion + people who live in those areas (Shoaib Shaikh of Axact and his cronies excluded) plus anybody over here who read it.

    Shame on me - really. I'll do better from now on.
     
  7. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Well, yes and no, I'd say. They're still both lazy and sloppy. Here's the Educational Credentials Investigation Agency's (yes, Axact is now into what I guess can be labelled "Credential Forensics" but please feel free to correct me, I'm not a native speaker of English) information about "credit equivalency":

    I'm not sure there will ever be a "no flaw find" as far as Axact credentials are concerned.
     
  8. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Johann: In South America, you pay a bribe, the wheels turn and you get whatever you paid the bribe for.

    John: during the ten years we were dealing with the Edinburgh Business School, the biggest course order we ever got was from the Banco de Mexico, which was putting 12 employees through the program. We shipped them about $50,000 worth of courses, which never arrived. Our contact at the bank said not to worry, insurance would cover it . . . but in the future, please send courses by DHL, not UPS. Why, we asked. Because, he replied, UPS has a corporate policy of not bribing, while DHL bribes. I can't vouch for this, but our subsequent shipments, by DHL, all arrived promptly.
     
  9. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    There are more: .education .college .institute . university .academy

    Not sure if this school is legit: mcdaniel (dot) university . McDaniel University locates in Orlando
     
  10. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    IAO, the International Accreditation Organization is an unrecognized agency, with strong connections to Axact. Possibly created by Axact, at least accrediting Axact schools like Kinsale University. But IAO will accredit pretty much anything with the ability to pay the fees.

    AAHEA, the American Association for Higher Education and Accreditation is not recognized either. The AAHEA directors are an interesting group of people associated with a number of unrecognized schools and even right-out mills.
     
  11. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    I've given up on shipping anything to Central America. Never had one single package or card arrive. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it takes a carrier willing to place bribes.
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I'd have thought Mexico would be the ideal place for logistics and distribution. Perhaps some professors from the Sinaloa Cartel could teach it, at "La Universidad de Empresas Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán." Maybe the lectures could form a series of narcocorridos. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinaloa_Cartel
     
  13. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I note also that McDaniel U? is "recognized by USDLA." USDLA is a legit organization, (US Distance Learning Association) that does not accredit. It seems that membership is low-cost and available without qualification. Too many unscrupulous schools and outright mills have bought in and claimed their membership as "recognition" or even outright "accreditation." I wish USDLA would put some filters on their membership process.
     
  14. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    That may or may not be necessary, I’m not familiar with USDLA, and I think you know more about them than I do. The thing is, both IAO and AAHEA will approach schools that are honest but clueless, so to speak. And McDaniel U may be just that.
     
  15. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    They seem to be operating on the basis of a 2018 electronic business registration

    http://www.mcdaniel.university/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ConvertTiffToPDF.pdf

    In Florida (with some limited exceptions, most notably religious) degree granting higher education institutions operating in the state appear to need a license from the Florida Department of Education, Commission for Independent Education.

    http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=1000-1099/1005/1005.html

    I couldn't find McDaniel on FLDOE-CIE search page.

    https://web02.fldoe.org/CIE/SearchSchools/SchoolSearch.aspx

    I'm not sure how to interpret this, but the McDaniel business registration is labeled as inactive and the business may or may not have been administratively dissolved around the end of last month for failure to file an annual report and pay the annual fee.

    http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=EntityName&directionType=Initial&searchNameOrder=MCDANIELUNIVERSITY N180000007850&aggregateId=domnp-n18000000785-1f557390-95e3-498f-a2ec-27a5d5b622ac&searchTerm=Mcdaniel university&listNameOrder=MCDANIELUNIVERSITY N180000007850

    They don't appear on the USDLA organizational membership list. (And USDLA makes clear that membership isn't an endorsement.)

    https://usdla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/USDLA-Members-Current-050719.pdf
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2019
  16. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Thank you, heirophant, very interesting. And, as of one of my old Kenyan friends would have put it: very educational. And useful, especially the links to leg.state.fl.us and web02.fldoe.org. Thanks again
     

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