Marco Polo International University

Has anyone had experience with them?
Is this legit or a mill?

http://www.marcopolo-u-edu.org/index.php

 

The following is most certainly a red flag about the legitimacy of the post-secondary institution.

- quote from the website FAQ section

 

..not to mention the domain name in and by itself "www.marcopolo-u-edu.org" is a hint; it was created in April of 2008... hands off.

 

Website registered to Lizka Villalobos, mailing address in Doral, Florida; telephone and fax in Minnesota. (FWIW, the Dean expected a PhD from Capella University, Minnesota, in Feb. 2009)

No specific accreditation claim, but say they offer "accreditation compliant learning programs"

Academic model is based on the work of "Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, University of California, Stanford"

Degrees available in over 100 subjects, but only five faculty are listed.

Hoyer has been involved with more than one dubious institution.

 

I couldn't get the website to load, so I can't read the context of the statement challenging general equivocation of accreditation and legitimacy... However, it sure seems suspicious to start a discussion about legitimacy, if you are truly legitimate. Just say this, if true, "This institution is not accredited by any recognized accrediting organization; however, our degrees are designed to meet quality standards in their respective disciplines and appropriate accreditation is our goal."

 

There are several pages on the Marco Polo website that attack accreditation in general and American regional accreditation in particular. Richard Hoyer is quoted several times.

Here's a colorful essay entitled "Revealed: The True History of Accreditation!"

http://www.marcopolo-u-edu.org/MPIU-Story/professional-affiliations.php

Their comparison chart between themselves and regionally accredited schools is interesting too.

http://www.marcopolo-u-edu.org/about-MPIU/university-comparison.php

It's odd that an ostensibly Panamanian university would take such passionate interest in and be so hostile towards accreditation up in the United States.

Marco Polo University tells us that it's physically based in Suite 2008 on the 20'th floor of the Century Tower, an impressive office building in Panama City Panama.

But it seems that a number of different businesses are operating out of that same suite. In particular, suite 2008 is home to something called Soverign Management and Legal

http://www.the-business-list.com/detail/6772.htm

which sells asset protection, privacy and tax reduction services and assists setting up and doing business in Panama, both physically and virtually.

So my guess is that Marco Polo University's grand Panamanian domicile might just be an offshore business registration.

On its accreditation revelation page, Marco Polo tells us

As for evidence of performance, Google Scholar has never heard of Marco Polo International University, so no scholarly authors are using it as their institutional affiliation.

MPIU only generated four .edu hits on Google. None of them were of an academic nature. Two were lists of registered Moodle users.

The other two hits were a bit more worrying. It seems that a Texas executive search firm has delivered a short-list of nine candidates to the Florida Board of Governors for the position of Chancellor of the Florida state higher education system. One of those candidates is listed as acting President of Marco Polo International University.

http://www.flbog.edu/pressroom/newsclips_detail.php?id=5350

 

Marco.....

 

Polo.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

>>

LOL thanks for playing

 

Looks like their website is full of classic millspeak to me. And anything associated with Richard Hoyer should be about as immediate a red flag as anything associated with Ronald Pellar, Les Snell, Maxine Asher or any of the other dozens of unwonderful school proprietors.