Is Textila American University an accredited University?

1) "own titles" are actually quite popular in Europe, the reason is mainly price. I have an "own" degree from a Spanish University. WES Canada did not recognize it as a Masters but as a post graduate diploma and recognized the credits so they are not useless. Basically they are recognized by Industry but they are not officially recognized by the government. Industry normally does not care if it is official or not, but it matters if you want to convert the degree to another degree in the European Union.
2) This was for a degree in Psychology, technically the degree is useless to be a psychologist as it is not APA recognized but it could be used to work as a counselor or other non-regulated profession. There is no restriction for UCN, they could grant accredited degrees in any area. WES wouldn't recognize a PhD from UCN because it is from Nicaragua but there are others that might consider it.
3) Simple, it starts raising questions about its Quality, most schools grant few PhDs a year and not hundreds. This happened to Empresarial, at the beginning they were recognized by many NACES accredited evaluators but they became greedy and started selling the degrees with partners all over the world, they are black listed now with WES for a reason. UCN is not black listed yet but it can follow the same path, if WES notices that they are granting degrees to graduates of "University of America", it will not take long before they are black listed too.

Textila, University of America, etc are realizing that is cheaper to get validations from third world country Universities with weak education systems rather than getting accreditation in their local jurisdictions. UCN is in my opinion abusing the model so it might be black listed in the future.

 

Great feedback! Thank you all.


It appears that if doctoral degrees from Nicaragua based univerdities, and related geographic areas, are highly suspect, and are most probably not on par with US RA doctorates, than a doctorate from a Dominica based school, which is also highly suspect, would most probably be perceived similarly?

 

Now you've done it.

 

Doctoral degrees from Nicaragua based universities demonstrated utility in US context. So did Dominica-based ones. OTOH, doctoral degrees from Nicaragua based universities carry some perception issues that may make them wrong choice for some students. Same is true (actually a bit more true, given old negative publicity) for the Dominican entity. At the end, a potential student must carefully consider his or hers present and foreseeable future needs (I believe John Bear came up with this generic advice).
Can we skip the next 6 pages of debate please? Or not: I personally enjoy the banter.

 

No debate necessary. Merely stating a perception.

 

Is that a combination of 'universities' and 'absurdities'? If so, it's a little extreme. (Yes, I know that 's' and 'd' are next to each other on the keyboard. I'm being snarky.)

I don't think that geographical area is the relevant variable. Neither is accreditation for that matter. Especially in the case of doctorates - We should be looking at the academic reputation of particular degree programs. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm willing to bet that there are some Nicaraguan doctoral programs that are highly respected by other academics in the same fields. I don't want to make a flat denunciation of doctorates from that country, nor do I want to accept them all credulously.

The problem with Nicaragua is that (until recently?) there was no accreditation (academic quality assurance) system. Many new universities appeared after 1990 and while I'm sure that some were sincere efforts, others were pretty bad. They may or may not be trying to clean that up now.

Some programs may well be. (I don't want to rule that possibility out just because it's Nicaragua.) One would have to look at programs' syllabi, faculty, research productivity and recognition by the wider professional communities.

If you're trying to pick a fight with Steve F., be careful. He looks like Bruce Willis.

It's a similar situation I guess. Ross' medical school on Dominica is accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine. That isn't an easy accreditation to earn. I take their MD program seriously, even if my sense is it falls towards the low end of US medical-accredited (RA isn't all that relevant) MD programs. Other doctoral granting schools on that island (I can only think of one, we've argued about it in the past) don't impress me as much. I don't think of that one as RA equivalent. It looks more equivalent to the old long-time California approved schools prior to California's 'up or out' law change.

 

The foreign route from schools in Costa Rica, Dominica, Mexico, Nicaragua, etc from low ranked Universities can work for some but might not work for others. If you need a degree to switch careers, become licensed in a profession or to become a full time faculty member, these degree won't work for the majority. Most people taking these degrees are not interested in a new career but just want the PhD title from a school that is legit to boost their profile. I can see a counselor with a MS degree getting a PhD from UCN in order to be able to put in a business card PhD as a way to attract more customers or a self employed consultant that wants the PhD title for the same reason or a professional adjunct that just want to teach a class here and there. For adjunct work, most schools will not question much the school and employers might go as far as asking you to submit a foreign equivalency report but it looks like few have gotten one for a PhD from UCN. WES (foreign credential evaluator) does not recognize a PhD from UCN but there are many credential report services out there and some might give you the report that you need.

This type of PhDs are mainly just to protect yourself from be calling a fraud. In Toronto, an adjunct professor was working with his fake degree mill for many years as adjunct until it was exposed by the media. Getting a PhD from UCN just ensures that nobody can expose you from being a fraud, the degree comes from a legit school and you worked for it period. Good enough to become an adjunct in my opinion.

People in this board they go too technical and they start arguing that a PhD from a legit school (e.g. Azteca) is not accredited because technicalities such as lack of program accreditation by the minister, etc. Most people will not go that far when checking a school for latin america for an adjunct or consulting assignment, most will just verify that the school exist and that it is a legit school and most will put all the Mexican, Costa Rican, Nicaraguan, etc low ranked schools in one basket. Most people would understand that you got it distance and it is just an effort to improve yourself with a low budget but they would not take seriously the degree to give you a tenure track or top executive or administration position.
Walden U. has few adjuncts with Empresarial degrees, nobody questioned them, they have been working with these degrees for years. I noticed few other adjuncts with PhDs from UCN too not at Walden but other schools so the degrees seem to work for some.

In few words, you get what you pay for, if you want a serious PhD you would need to invest the money and the energies in a more serious program. If you want just the PhD tag to get few more extra gigs as a adjunct or consultant, UCN is good enough.

 

Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua follow the Spanish education system. In Spain, it is the first degree that gives you the right to practice a regulated profession. Unlike the US, there is no need to do CPA exams in order practice as a public accountant or pass medical board exams to practice medicine, it is your degree that gives you the right to practice. For this reason, the government keeps a close eye on the professional programs that require licensing.
However, for the market of graduate degrees that are mainly used to enhance your profession, there is no license. For this reason many private Universities with market penetration have decided to market non accredited degrees that are not officially recognized and there is a market for these degrees as the price is normally lower as they don't need to be taught by PhDs and do no need to be reviewed by the government. If a University already holds market penetration in a particular field, the market normally would not care if the degree is officially recognized or not as this is not required to practice the profession but only to enhance it. These degrees are legal and not considered mills but they cannot be used in places where an official degree is required such as admission into doctoral programs (in case of a masters) or government research positions.
As Spanish schools are doing this, some Mexican and Costa Rican schools are copying the model. The main examples are Azteca, Empresarial and San Juan de la Cruz. I don't know if there is any other school doing this but Azteca seems to be working with UCN with dual degree options so one might enroll in Azteca and end with two PhDs.

Some people seem to benefit from these programs, if you use Google, you will find several people around the globe with degrees from these institutions and some working as faculty mainly in Africa, Middle East or some places in Asia.

 

Do you still have either the email of said rep, the list of organizations, or ideally both?

 

I saw the news story by CBC exposing Fraudulent degrees from Almeda. An accredited international degree is the way to go. I know many of these countries are poor but the students and professors are fairly smart. I know of many students that came out of Saint Vincent that can rival students from any rich countries in the world. Many students from the UWI have went on to do some impressive things in life. An institution is not inherently better just because it has a North America address.

 

Agreed. And a foreign address doesn't make a school bad, either. There are plenty of known good, recognized schools in countries that are not very affluent, including, of course, the well-recognized UWI. My beef is with low-end "poser," or outright illegitimate schools, no matter where they are. They tend to set up in countries that have easy private licensing laws and limited oversight - often countries that offer very good public universities and have some surprisingly good private ones, two or seven cuts above the "legal-but-low-low-end" ones taking advantage of very liberal licensing laws.

The wheat is usually there - but it sometimes needs a thorough sorting from the chaff. BTW - it's good to remember there is no such thing, really as international accreditation. Always look at the standing the degree has in it own country - and what your local authorities / evaluators think of it.

Re: "I saw the news story on CBC exposing fraudulent degrees from Almeda." I know you're aware of this, Phdtobe, but in case anyone gets the wrong idea, Almeda isn't an island next to Grenada! It's an outright, long--standing degree mill, located mainly in cyberspace, not the Caribbean, that Axact arranged to purchase from the owner for $1 million, payable over 30 months.

 

I am still conflicted about institutions from the Caribbean. With the same accreditation, medical students can become physicians, Vets, Psychologists/ Psychiatrist in North America but for other programs like accounting, MBAs etc, the degrees are not recognized. It just seems upside down to be.


I do hate places like Almeda and Breyer State etc. I hate diploma mills. I have no respect for anyone frauding the system with a diploma mill degree


But the University of Northern Nicaragua is valid University, so is the Prague School of Economic, University of Lusaka etc. They should not be compared on the same level of the Walden, Phoenix etc. it is just not fair. I get very frustrated when posters try to put Leicester /Lancaster/or H&W in the same grouping as the US for-profit universities.

 

I'll bet the good folks at Leicester, Lancaster and Heriot-Watt probably feel the same way. Particularly since all three are clearly shown as public universities.

 

The search engine below is useful to check the accreditation status of the school. If you check UCN, the accreditation is shown:
http://www.univcheck.org


The foreign route is fine for adjunct work. The two foreign credential evaluators that are recognized by the department of education are NACES and AICE. Some credential evaluators might be picky and not give you the UCN PhD RA equivalency status but if you try few, one will give it you.

If my goal is to get the PhD for personal satisfaction, legal right to use a PhD in a business card or adjunct work, the cheap foreign option is the way to go. Many times an online PhD from an online school works for the same thing but it costs you 50K or more.

However, one has to be careful, the University Azteca will not pass most of the time the credential evaluation test due to the fact that the school has no right to grant PhDs in Mexico but they work with UCN so the final degree is legal.
You have others with ambiguous status but if they appear in the univheck.org site, they are most likely legit.

I have also seem some people working as adjuncts with Costa Rican PhDs but some people in this forum are not so keen about Costa Rican schools.

 

It isn't always the same accreditation.

For years foreign entrepeneurs (typically Americans) would locate off-shore medical schools in these small jurisdictions on the basis of the local authorities' promises to forward their school's name to the WHO in Geneva, which added schools to its list based solely on political (as opposed to academic) recommendations by local authorities.

The multiplying off-shore medical mills gradually became a bit of a scandal and in 2004, the Caricom countries established a Caribbean regional medical accreditor called the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP). Its range extends from Belize in Central America, through Jamaica, through Barbados and the small Windward and Leeward island countries, to Guyana in South America.

http://www.caam-hp.org/about.html

It conducts detailed assessments, site visits and so on. Here's a list of all the Caribbean medical schools that they have assessed. Interestingly, all of the schools that they have accredited have been accredited with conditions. (Including the big names like St. Georges and Ross along with the UWI as well.) Several have been refused accreditation (including at least one name that will be familiar to Degreeinfo readers) and others have had provisional accreditations revoked.

http://www.caam-hp.org/assessedprogrammes.html

I didn't see Texila American University on this accreditor's list. (The U. of Guyana is there.)

What makes a particular "university" a "diploma mill"? Lack of accreditation? Lack of academic credibility?

Personally, I'm most moved by perceived academic credibility. My assessment of that is a function of things like program syllabi, faculty lists, publications and research productivity, grants and awards won, general word-of-mouth in the relevant professional communities, and stuff like that.

Accreditation is helpful when considering unknown mystery-schools, but accreditation ceases to be helpful when the accreditation is just as opaque, mysterious and unreliable as the school itself. (And unfortunately, that seems to be the case in Nicaragua.)

 

Accreditation is helpful when considering unknown mystery-schools, but accreditation ceases to be helpful when the accreditation is just as opaque, mysterious and unreliable as the school itself. (And unfortunately, that seems to be the case in Nicaragua.)[/QUOTE]

Except that the UCN is a solid institution in Nicaragua with all the rights and privileges as the other institutions.. We are making a judgement from afar, and we know that could be very dangerous.

==
Your knowledge of Caricom is splendid. At Liberty, I tried to localize my experience with Caricom (Caribbean Common Market) in an International Trade Course. I had to wait for my final mark to pass the course. It was the easier post-secondary course I have ever taken, but I almost failed. There was nothing I could have done to impress the marker. I never once complained to him.
==

 

It appears to be one of Nicaragua's 'new universities', private universities established since laws in that country were relaxed around 1990. About 40 new universities appeared very rapidly, seemingly overnight. Some of them were quite good, probably better than the creaky, politicized and over-bureaucratic state universities. And others were pretty bad. They all had the same formal legal approval to operate, but reportedly received no ongoing oversight after that.

To its credit, Nicaragua saw the defects in that situation and were working to create a new domestic university accreditor. I've heard (but never verified) that it's now up and running.

So... is UCN accredited by this new accreditor? And more to the point, would this accreditation be institutional accreditation of the entire university and all of its programs (like we see here in the United States) or Latin-American style program-by-program accreditation? (In Latin America it's common for universities to only have some of their programs accredited while others remain unexamined and unassessed.) It's legally permissible for legally-established universities to offer the unaccredited programs, but the degrees awarded might not qualify for professional licenses and more selective employment in-country. (I think of them as somewhat equivalent to American state-approved but unaccredited schools.)

The relevance of that question to a university that 'validates' and/or offers joint degree programs with other universities outside Nicaragua should be obvious. Have the Nicaraguan education authorities ever looked at these off-shore arrangements? Have these arrangements been accredited by whoever is currently doing the accrediting in Nicaragua?

Of course. We don't seem to have any other choice. It's inevitable when we are confronted with degree-programs offered by universities in unfamiliar locations where educational standards. policies, procedures and oversight are opaque.