Information about La Jolla University

I was studing Business Administration in a college in Greece that was colloborating via validation or franchising with La Jolla University San Diego California. When I graduated from that college after four years in 1995 I was awarded the diploma Bachelor of Science in Business Administrator from La Jolla University. I recently learned that the University closed years ago. So I started internet searching and found in California's Secretary of State database that La Jolla University San Diego California was FTB Suspended. I also found in Louisiana's Secretary of State database that was another La Jolla University in Louisiana and also another one in Switzerland. Does anybody know if there is any connection between these three Universities? Does anybody have any clue about what happended at La Jolla University after it was FTB Suspended in California and where to find my student records?

 

Dunno. I spent a few minutes searching the internet for it and can't find any mention of it. And I do mean NOTHING. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say it was a degree mill that was shut down years ago.

 

In 2007, the Fraud Discovery Institute investigated a corporate officer who claimed a PhD from La Jolla University. They contacted the California BPPSVE, which was the predecessor of the present-day California BPPE, and found no records for La Jolla University:

If there were no records of the school at the California BPPSVE, then this suggests that La Jolla University may have never been licensed in California as a university. As noted in Post #1 above, La Jolla University is listed in the California Secretary of State's records, which indicates that it formerly held a business license. But a license to operate a business is different from a license to operate a university. A business license does not normally confer legal authority to issue degrees.

FTB = Franchise Tax Board, the California state equivalent of the IRS. The "FTB Suspended" status basically means that La Jolla University failed to pay state taxes or file state tax information, and therefore had its business license suspended.

 

I found a bit -- and part of it was right here on the forum, with an entry from Dr. Bear on its 20-year listing in Bear's Guide
and a bit of the history of the school (California Louisiana and Switzerland) - part contributed by Dr. Rich Douglas. Apparently, the popular motivational speaker/writer Denis Waitley earned a Ph.D. (1970) from this school. It was legal/authorized, but not accredited, at the time.

It's all here:

http://www.degreeinfo.com/off-topic-discussions/22467-where-did-denis-waitley-get-his-phd.html

Johann

 

Back in the day, there were two statuses for legal, unaccredited schools in California - "authorized" and "State-approved." From reading, I'm not sure which of these two categories La Jolla U. was in (probably State-Approved, but I'm not positive) at the time Dr. Waitley earned his degree (1970), but the California school was definitely both legal and unaccredited.

This is just to clarify my statement. It is not intended to slight Dr. Waitley or his degree.

Johann

 

Correction: the BPPSVE was not established until 1997. So if a La Jolla University degree was granted before that date, then BPPSVE (or the present-day BPPE) would not necessarily have records, even if LJU was operating legally at the time.

But the bottom line is unchanged: don't count on finding any BPPSVE or BPPE records for this school.

 

Thank all for your information. I contacted California Commission for Private Postsecondary Education, and they told me that all the records of La Jolla University are available through the San Diego University for Integrative Studies. Then I contacted SDUIS but they replied that no transcript found in there records. I graduated in 1995 and according the records of California Secretary of State LJU was FTB Suspended and Agent for Service of Process: DISCLAIMER FILED ON 10/14/1993, so I am assuming that La Jolla was closed in California before 10/14/1993. Can the University after loosing it's license in state of California, even if moving the license to another state, award diplomas using the University seal and use the name La Jolla University California? If not the college I graduated in Greece commited a fraud giving me a fake diploma.

 

http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/68447/nacional-jos-1999-razotkrio-bernasconija

In translation: Fraudster and rapist Bernasconi "pushed" a fake doctorate to Tudjman

That was a diploma mill owned by a colourful scam-artist that operated in Switzerland, Italy. Croatia, Bulgaria etc.

There is a biography: Who is Prof. W. Bernasconi?

 

Does anyone have any information about what happended to La Jolla University after being suspended by the Franchise Tax Board in March of 1993?
Does the corporation moved the license to another state or continued conducting business with a new license in another state?

 

La Jolla University - I fell for it!

Back in god-knows-what year, I enrolled at LJU. The founder was a cool, older British gent with a much younger wife. His PhD was from some unaccredited place. Denis Waitley had obtained his PhD at LJU, so that gave it some pizzazz. Looking back, the whole thing was a hilarious sham, and I finally said goodbye and got my doctorate at a real school. They eventually crashed and burned in probably the late 80s or early 90s.

 

He's right, I know the individual that was involved in this school his name is Dr. Kamal Ranasinghe. He was the president back in the day. The school apparently was legally registered in the State of California but never accredited (to my knowledge). I know nothing about Denis Waitley but can tell you all about Kamal...don't believe anything he says. He claims to have a PhD. from La Jolla University on his resume (his PhD is not recognized by the US Dept of Ed as it's not accredited and therefore technically useless in the US). He's quick to point out on his resume that La Jolla U. was registered with the State of California and another state licensing agency. His DBA is from the United States International University (USIU) in Africa. Although that school is legit (accredited by WASC and the legal education board in Nigeria) it's hardly a prestigious school. The tuition for a full program now is $15k I could only imagine what it cost back then. With that said, I do understand that price and name does not equate to prestige. Anyhow Kamal also claims on his resume that USIU is accredited WASC which gives an indication that his degree is also recognized under WASC. This also isn't true as his degree was conferred in 1990 (according to his resume) as USIU gained WASC accreditation in 2008.

Kamal has been sued numerous times (for La Jolla University) and other things, check the San Diego County court system for further information. It's all been civil cases, not criminal. It also appears that he's not the person he says that he is. He is Kamal Ranasinghe but he's not as wealthy as he puts on. His wife works a regular job with the city or county government, he lives in an average house in an average San Diego neighborhood and is always up to his next scam or onto the next job.

His latest adventure is peddling the Global Executive Training and Development Association which is an "association" entirely made up of him and his cronies. It's really unfortunate that he seems to only focus on making money any way he can, he's really brilliant and if he would just do one thing the right way instead of trying to scam he'd be incredibly rich and famous.

 

Interesting article about "Dr." Kamal Ranasinghe
Dr. Kamal Ranasinghe | Cheater Report

 

Rich,

It actually is not an overstatement. Ranasinghe claims to have a PhD. from La Jolla University. The school was never licensed to operate and never went through the accreditation process. If a school has not gone through the accreditation process, it is not recognized by the state in which it operates, the US Dept of Education will not allow it to grant degrees. Accreditation and state approval (as an educational institution, not just a business) allows the conferring of degrees. La Jolla University did not meet the US Dept of Education's standard on being accredited. Therefore the "degree" is useless as it is not recognized because the institution was never grated the authority to confer degrees.

In regards to the United States International University in Nigeria. The institution was accredited but not at the time he received his DBA. USIU claims to have been accredited since 1978 by WASC but that's a bit misleading. USIS was established in San Diego in 1969, it was accredited (in 1978) by WASC. They set up a satellite campus in Kenya. The institution later merged with another San Diego school to form Alliant University. At that point USIS ceased to exist in the US and the campus in Kenya split into it's own entity. At that point it started the process to gain accreditation through WASC (in 2005). Ranasinghe graduated in 1990.

I'm not going to go into detail but summarily it was Ranasinghe's situation that caused a fallout with him an Argosy University when he was the Business Program Chair at the San Diego campus.

Students with international degrees are required to go through a credential evaluation service (such as WES or NACES) if they are going to use their international degrees to apply to continue their education in the US or if they are going to use their international degrees to apply for jobs that require an educational credential.

As someone who has worked in higher education for 20 years, I will unequivocally tell you that if you walk into a legitimate university with an unaccredited degree with the intent of using that degree to get into a “level up” program (e.g. Bachelors to Masters) you are going to be sorely disappointed. There is no legitimate university in the US that is going to matriculate you with an unaccredited degree.

There are plenty international accrediting bodies that are recognized by the US Dept of Ed., but there are plenty of bogus ones (e.g. American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Association for Online Academic Accreditation, Global Accreditation Bureau, etc.) that are not. So when you refer to your degree not being accredited are you referring to it being accredited by an international accrediting body or not being accredited by any legitimate education body? La Jolla was the later not the former.

I would invite you to search for an article entitled, “Usana Director and Official Spokesman Has a “Secret” as it mentions La Jolla university being a “diploma mill.”

 

Yes the states do (grant that right) but they (the states) cannot grant it without the school being accredited and the US Dept of Education approves accrediting bodies. ACICS is on the verge of getting their ability to accredit schools revoked by the US Dept of Education and the schools accredited by ACICS have 18 months to find accreditation under another accrediting body. If they don't they will no longer have the ability to grant degrees because state authorization to do so will be revoked the minute ACICS is dissolved.

 

Horse shit! State licensure comes before accreditation.

 

Well put, Ted! Spot on! :smile:

Sure they can. That's exactly why the BPPE exists in California. To ensure reasonably honest operation of unaccredited schools in the State. Yes, they now have an accredit-or-die rule within a time frame (5 years?) but they didn't always. And looky here - a school, neither RA nor NA , legally operating in Minnesota. I believe that state may now have instituted an accredit-or-die rule; if so, I guess the school will have to comply by whatever deadline is given.

Colleges, Online Degrees
Registered Colleges and Approved Degrees

A school with no recognized accreditation can often legally award degrees - depending on its location, in the US or elsewhere. A US school cannot, however, access Title IV funding (Federal Student Aid) without recognized accreditation. That's the real difference.

J.

 

Well put???