Ireland's Chief Science Advisor has bogus degree

Good post Rich. I agree with everything except this:

California approval is still programmatic, not institutional.

Here's the California PWU's writeup, showing the programs that it's approved to offer (for some reason the BPPVE software prints each program twice):

http://app1.dca.ca.gov/bppve/school-search/view-school.asp?schlcode=1927881

I don't know of any reason to believe that today's CA-approval has been watered down compared to what it was in the 80's. But given the periodic bureaucratic upheavals at the CPPVE/BPPVE, enforcement might vary in real-life practice, depending of funding, staffing and management conditions.

Nor, for that matter, do I think that today's CA-approved schools are any worse (or better) than those of the past. But there does seem to be a perceptable slowing in the creation of interesting new ones, while the best ones continue to move on to accreditation. My old list of CA-approved favorites is about half gone. Keck and Soka went direct to WASC accreditation without stopping for candidacy, U.West is a WASC candidate, Expression College is accredited by ACCSCT, NTPS has a WASC site visit scheduled.)

 

Yeah, except that if Mr. McSweeney obtained a Ph.D. in biotechnology and biochemistry from PWU in 1994, most likely he didn't get it from the California approved school. He probably got it from a school operating in Hawaii using the same name.

San Francisco Law School is the oldest law nightschool in California, founded in 1909. It says:

Over the years, graduates of San Francisco Law School have repeatedly achieved impressive success. Outstanding alumni include former California State Governor, the late Edmund (Pat) Brown, former Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy, former Undersecretary of the United States Department of Energy, Joseph Salgado, past President of the California State Bar and current President of the SFLS Board of Directors, P. Terry Anderlini, past President of the National Bar Association, Thomas Broome and former State Senator Milton Marks.

San Francisco Law School's is also proud of its graduates in the judiciary including the Hon. Victor Campilango, Merle Eaton, Eugene Krum, Betty Lamoreaux, Philip Moscone, Lynn O'Malley Taylor and Marilyn Pestarino Zecher.

In addition, San Francisco Law School's graduates have distinguished themselves in public service as district attorneys, public defenders and have become renowned as California attorneys.

http://www.sfls.edu/sfls_history.htm

Technically SFLS isn't on the BPPVE list any longer, since the California Bar Association regulates Calbar-accredited lawschools, not the BPPVE, but it used to be.

 

Long one for Rich but, a drop in the bucket compared to DesElms.


(Thanks for the history!)

 

"Fake" or not withstanding, you are mistaken. Please read my post on California Approval above. Under no circumstances did the subject of this thread earn a degree in that field from an Approved PWU. The only element of PWU that has ever been approved is their business programs. Everything else they've awarded has come from either the Authorized PWU programs (before California deleted that category) or the Hawaiian PWU, which never went through anything approaching "approval."

 

In a sense, it's both. Yes, institutions are listed with their approved programs, but they cannot conduct any non-approved programs, so all programs at a school are approved. In the old 3-tier days, a school might have some programs approved while the rest were under the authorized category. Now, those programs would either be (a) eliminated or (b) conducted under some other jurisdiction.

Institutional or programmatic? Moot, really, since all programs in a school have to be approved. And that was the salient difference from the old days.

 

Bill:

Because they approve (and formerly authorized) all of this rubbish. And they give educational credit for licensing exams.Doesn't this give credibility to these idiotic DL universities?

People don't earn degrees from these schools because they are easy mill they earn them decause they are deemed credible by the state. And when they are lumped in with credible B&M approved schools in listings why should they think otherwise. California IS the problem IMHO when it comes to unaccr. DL schools in that state. No question it is better but problem still seems to linger.



Dan

 

Rich:

This is what passes for approval? What are the standards? It seems the authorized category lives on in spirit.



Rich:

Thanks for history lesson! It is better but a few bad DL schools remain.


Dan

 

Rich,

Thank you for the excellent post about California old system. It was very thorough and very informative. I learnt something new today. Again, thank you.

 

Gosh! What a nice thing to say! Thanks to all who posted similar.

I've posted these things before, but it helps sometimes to catch folks up who've not had a chance to understand the history of all of this stuff. And while I've been along for the ride these 26 years, I would encourage everyone to read a Bear's (or Bears') guide. It's all in there.

 

So far this article and a couple of blogs hasn't stirred much of a controversy but time will tell. Most of the articles available on the net describe McSweeney's current activities in his role as advisor. Even though a doctoral degree from PWU may be minimal, it could be the Irish people and the administration there are more interested in what he can do, looking instead to his other qualifications as described in this news release from UCC http://www.ucc.ie/opa/pr/PRAlumni04.html .

It's hard to say how such revelations as described by the media will be received. I found a professor and vice-chair at SUNY Dept of Anesthesiology who proudly lists his PhD from PWU along with his M.D. from Dartmouth.

 

I suppose that this is a different Dr. Barry McSweeney. After all, it's not an especially uncommon name in those parts.
http://engl.jrc.it/docs/presscoverage/Irish%20Times_02.01.03.pdf
Jack

 

Same one.

 

So he has a doc from TCD and a "doc" from PWU? Or what?

 

A good question! And if he has a Ph.D. from TCD, why the need of a PWU qualification?

 

Yes, well, maybe rather than using the information to generate new questions, we can use the information to answer existing questions. Perhaps the Trinty PhD is the reason that no one seems to care about the PWU degree.
Just an idea.
Jack

 

Well, yes. At least it's not from Bilgewater.

 

Sorry, my bad.

Right now we have a Supreme Court nominee taking some heat because she does not come from the Harvard, Yale, etc... Just imagine what would happen if she came from an unaccredited school?

Does anyone knows the answer to this question?

 

Justice Marilyn Skoglund, one of five current members of the Vermont Supreme Court, never attended law school at all. In Vermont (and some other states), it is possible to qualify for the state bar by work experience, rather than by a law degree.

If it is possible to occupy a high judicial position with no law degree, then it should be possible to do the same with an unaccredited law degree.

On the other hand, some people would argue that it's more prestigious for a licensed professional to have no degree at all than to have an unaccredited degree. If a professional has an unaccredited degree, then others will think: "Well, he wasn't smart enough to get into a real school. My accredited school was much better". But if a professional has no degree at all, then the reaction is: "Wow, he was so smart that he didn't need to go to school. I don't know if I could have done it that way".

 

Kirkland

Well the BPPVE has given him the right to do so. It may be a junk degree but it is Cal. approved for whatever that's worth.

 

What the BPPVE "gives" is institutional approval, not rights. This is based on an evaluation of the entire school including all departments and curricula along with onsite inspections per standards established in the California Education Code. Approval in California means the State through the BPPVE certifies the school's legitimacy, viability of its programs, and the legality of its degrees.

But we digress... there is some confusion whether the subject of this thread attended a CA approved school or a similarly named one in Hawaii and whether either school offered a biotechnology doctorate.