IUGS

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Apparently, Berne was dropped from St. Kitts accreditation demonstrating that St. Kitts government has some sort of oversight.

I also want to make it clear that I can appreciate the fact that the state of Oregon wants to proctect itself and its people from diploma mills. However, I am not convinced that their ability to determine the validity of an institution is absolute. In addition, my ability to use a degree in my state is not affected by another states policy.

This is a list of the following schools currently accredited by St. Kitts.

Official list of accredited institutions in St. Kitts and Nevis as at 15 February 2006:

Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (the National College)
Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine
Medical University of the Americas (located in Nevis)
International University of Graduate Studies (IUGS)
Medical International Learning Institute at St.Kitts (MILIK)
International University of Health Sciences (IUHS)
Windsor University School of Medicine
Robert Ross International University of Nursing
St. Theresa's Medical University


website found at: http://www.gov.kn/default.asp?PageIdentifier=81

I saw that IUHS is a medical school with delivery of basic sciences through online learning. Another interesting concept.

 

Faculty

Another determing factor for me is the faculty an institution has.

IUGS has faculty with Ph.D.'s and M.D.'s from prestigous universities such as

New York University
Temple University
Columbia University
Boston University
Seton Hall
and so on.

It doesn't strike me as a mickey mouse staff that would front a diploma mill.

 

Delta,

Unfortunately I do not have sufficient time today to respond in depth to the issues you raised above. However, in the interim keep in mind that although your state may accept a degree from IUGS a number of other states do not and this may have negative ramifications for you in the future. For instance, if your degree is in a mental health specialization and if you are ever sued by a client, his/her attorney will review every iota of your professional competencies including your degrees and credentials. If one is found to have a non RA graduate degree from a questionable accreditation agency/government it can potentially open up a can of worms including questions regarding whether the possessor of such a degree in any way misled the client as to their level of skill and educational background. This scenario can potentially occur even if the state accepts the degree within their borders. Just some "food" for thought. I will respond to your other issues/questions later this week.

 

Re: Faculty

Do not be misled by the faculty's credentials to imply that the school is therefore credible. There are a number of faculty with impeccable credentials working for diploma mills.

 

In addition to a number of states not recognizing degrees from IUGS other St. Kitts' accredited schools such as the Medical University of the America's noted through their representative that they rely on external recognitions to establish its credibility due to St Kitt's accreditation not being highly regarded.

What is most relevant is that St. Kitts does not meet Generally Accepted Accreditation Principles (GAAP) that requires a foreign school to meet specific standards that places its accredited schools on par with US regionally accredited universities. UK schools that have a Royal Charter meet this criteria as does chartered schools from Australia and South Africa.

Although a synopsis of the criteria for a GAAP school, the link below serves as good overview of these standards.

http://www.degree.net/guides/accreditation_guide.html

 

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Delta: Apparently, Berne was dropped from St. Kitts accreditation demonstrating that St. Kitts government has some sort of oversight.

SIMON: An excellent discussion regarding this matter can be found on another forum, Degree Discussion.com under the title "St. Kitts and Nevis Board withdraws accreditation of Berne University", January 13, 06. The consensus of the majority of participants, including some highly regarded and knowledgeable posters was that St. Kitts was not perceived as a credible and viable accrediting entity. I suggest that you review this thread very carefully and if you wish register on this forum so that you can ask any questions you wish to being closure to this matter.

DELTA: I also want to make it clear that I can appreciate the fact that the state of Oregon wants to proctect itself and its people from diploma mills. However, I am not convinced that their ability to determine the validity of an institution is absolute. In addition, my ability to use a degree in my state is not affected by another states policy.

SIMON: As I mentioned in several preceding posts if the degree from IUGS meets your needs then go for it! There is then no need to prove your case. However, caveat emptor. By dismissing the fact that there are a sizable number of states such as Oregon, Maine, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey and others that don't accept such degrees, in my opinion is taking a significant risk due to the lack of state consensus regarding the acceptance of such a degree. This is due to the fact that there is a trend in many states requiring higher standards for accreditation of advanced degrees that are constantly under review and subsequently being incorporated into updated state statutes and laws. For instance, a number of states in years past did not require APA accreditation of doctoral degrees in Clinical and Counseling Psychology in order for applicants to obtain licensure to practice their profession. However, gradually more and more states are requiring such accreditation and even though an applicant may have a RA doctorate in Psychology if their doctorate is not APA accredited they will be ineligible for licensure.

In addition there is the matter of perceptions of employers, peers and colleagues. Let us not fool ourselves. Graduates from mainstream universities are not dolts and are very aware of questionable credentials of their colleagues that can result in professional isolation and potentially raising a red flag regarding one's level of competence.

 

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Actually, I was looking at their Ph.D. in Liberal Arts, no licensure, no liability issues I am aware of. I don't work in an area where colleagues give a hoot about my credentials, ie: academics, government. Just thought it would make a fine feather in the cap for personal satisfaction since they take so many of my graduate credits.

 

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I can understand the attraction of such a degree due to the fact that this school is very generous in terms of acceptance of significant numbers of previously completed university credits towards the completion of the doctorate. So if one wishes to obtain such a degree for their personal satisfaction that is fine. However, if one wishes to use a doctorate to enhance their professional portfolio or to seek future employment one needs to consider how well will a doctorate from this school be perceived amongst employers present and future, colleagues and others? In my opinion, even though the degree is in liberal arts, it appears to be a risky venture both in terms of its potential utilization as well as the perception of it not being on par with RA doctorates.

 

Thanks

Thanks Steve and Simon for taking the time out to discuss the "word on IUGS". I appreciate your time and interest and apologize for getting debative.

 

"Liberal arts" is a pretty broad area. Does IUGS have any strengths in any particular liberal arts subject that interests you? Do they have somebody cool on their faculty? Do they offer interesting course titles? Have they produced work that caught your attention?

I just did a Google search for "international university for graduate studies" site:.edu and got 8 hits. A search for "international university of graduate studies" site:.edu generated one more. Of these nine, two referred to a controversy at the U. of Alaska over whether to recognize an IUGS degree. (The decision was 'no'.) None of the remaining seven hits were of a scholarly nature.

A similar search on .ac.uk sites produced no hits at all. A search on .gov sites produced two hits. One was a Michigan non-accredited degree page, but the other was an actual published paper on PubMed:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16680947&dopt=Citation

"Transforming trauma into tragedy: Oedipus/Israel and the psychoanalyst as messenger", published in the Psychoanalytical Review.

That's kind of a thin result from a university with multiple doctoral programs. Would an IUGS degree really be worth $15,000 dollars to you?

I'm not trying to be rude. I've felt the doctoral-lust myself, and pretty strongly too. But eventually I decided that if I didn't need a doctorate, and if my only reason for earning one would be my own private ego gratification, then I could get a lot more bang for my buck at local libraries. Free education that still provides the joy of discovery and that peculiar scholarly satisfaction that I get when ideas come together into a bigger whole.

Seriously, when you get into conversations with highly educated people, their response to you won't be a function of the degrees that you claim. They probably won't even know. Their response will depend on whether your remarks come across to them as intelligent, cogent and well informed.

 

$$

Thanks fo saving me 15000 dollars. Your arguments are convincing enough to me to avoid questionable universities.

Cheers!
Delta

BTW, I put the ODA weblink on my favorites for future reference.