SCUPS

Hello,

Can anyone help me with this College? Southern University for Professional Studies. I am interested in their Distance Learning MBA. Thks.

Rgds,
STRM2000

 

Unaccredited, California-approved school; there are better options, falling roughly into these three categories:

- MBAs offered through schools that are accredited through one of the six U.S. regional accrediting agencies. In terms of versatility in the U.S. market, this is probably the most reliable option; inexpensive options include the MBA program offered by my alma mater, California State University, Dominguez Hills.

- MBAs offered through a school accredited through the recognized Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). While DETC accreditation is not up there with regional accreditation, it is far, far more marketable than California approval; what's more, many DETC-accredited programs are extremely inexpensive, such as the MBA offered by Andrew Jackson University.

- MBAs offered through a credible foreign school, including (but by no means limited to) the following: The University of London, Heriot-Watt University, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (my likely third alma mater), The University of Southern Queensland, and dozens of others.

- Excellent resource for $17.95: Bears' Guide to the Best MBAs by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press). Covers 100 accredited or equivalent distance learning MBA programs offered by schools worldwide, detailing various ways of evaluating programs, relevant vocational accreditation standards, etc.

- Excellent free resource: Jonnie's Distance Learning Page, which links to 191 accredited or equivalent schools offering MBA programs by distance learning (among other things -- I notice Jonnie now lists 95 schools offering research doctorates, for instance). Where the heck is this guy, anyway?


Peace,

------------------

Tom Head
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)

 

In my experience (lots), the great majority of people cannot benefit from an unaccredited MBA, although clearly some people do. There are some extremely useful (if I do say so myself) guidelines for choosing an MBA program in our book, mentioned below, and that section appears free at http://www.degree.net as well.

John Bear
Co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best
MBAs by Distance Learning

 

Thks all for the invaluable info and guidance

Rgds,
STRM2000

 

The Potchefstroom University MBA, which Tom spoke of, costs 33,000 RAND. This is around $4,300.00 for the US student, plus, one has an accredited degree (GAAP).

Russell

 

Anyone - Does SCUPS have a good reputation? thanks!

 

While I cannot comment directly on SCUPS reputation, I think on of the most enlightening events in distance education over the past two years has been the creation of Northcentral University from SCUPS. I say this because it has been interesting to see what "hoops" a California Approved school must jump through to receive RA status.

Ted

is the breakaway from S
'm not sure what SCUPS reputation actually is

 

Northcentral was not actually created from SCUPS, nor is NCU CA state approved. Both SCUPS and NCU are owned by the same parent
company. SCUPS is not seeking regional accreditation, however, NCU has begun the process of seeking RA.

Russell

 

Allow me to clarify my last statement. I did not mean to insinuate that NCU was a California Approved institution or that SCUPS and NCU are one and the same. What I am saying is that when NCU opened up in Arizona they started with practically identical policies and procedures as those in place as SCUPS. This included the DBA and the PsyD degrees. It was not until their first site visit by NCA last year did any real separation between the programs of the two schools emerge. If it is true that "Northcentral was not created from SCUPS," then they should be sued for plagerism for the amount of information that they had copied from SCUPS' catalog.


As an aside: my first email to and from NCU … had a SCUPS address.

Ted

 

Point well taken! My post was to note that SCUPS and NCU are two separate institutions operating under the same parent corporation. CA state approved SCUPS will probably never (of course, never say never) seek RA, and would probably not attain it even if they tried, i.e., without major modifications to their programs. NCU, however, is actively pursuing RA. Will they attain it? We shall see in due course!

As to plagiarism, if I wrote two different books, using portions of book A in the text of book B, I don't know that it would be considered plagiarism, since I was the author of both volumes.

Russell

 

I'll be happy to answer any questions you have on obtaining an MBA from Northcentral University. You may contact me at [email protected].
Hope to hear from you.
Sue Johnson
Admissions, Northcentral University

 

A very useful information indeed. Now please help me choose between: Andrew Jackson University, Herriot Watt, Bellevue University, North Central, Frederick Taylor University....Please comment.

------------------
www.amitkalia.com

 

AJU: DETC-accredited (which has its good and not-so-good points). Pre-accreditation behavior (included accreditation by a spurious agency) is disturbing.

H-W: Good international reputation. Could meet with some resisitance in individual situations here in the U.S. Not an easy degree; exams are tough and given only twice yearly. Inexpensive.

Bellvue: RA. Good people who know what they're doing. I have a colleague taking one of their degree programs.

NCU: Sounds like their bid for RA candidacy will come through. Not accredited, but well on the way. Lots of interaction required with faculty. Not very expensive.

FTU: Typical California-approved unaccredited school. Has a "branch" office in Hawaii so they can award degrees that California won't approve them for. Unaccredited schools, while legal, are not recognized as part of U.S. academe. Caveat emptor.

Consider National University, Jones International, Capella, and about 200 others as well.

Rich Douglas

 

Southern California University for Professional Studies (SCUPS) offers its MBA at Guangzhou, China. New classes were started in November. The course fee is RMB44,800 (equivalent to US$5,500). The related advertising link is:
http://classad.gd.sina.com.cn/education/edumba/1999.shtml

 

According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a few years ago, SCUPS was banned by the government of Thailand, which identified them as a diploma mill. I would never call a California approved school a diploma mill, but I've described my problems with SCUPS in the past. The founder of SCUPS is also the founder of Northcentral University, now a candidate for regional accreditation.

 

John,

There are several other issues that NCU appears to need to focus on prior to being eligible for RA status. NCA expects NCU to be a distinct and separate entity from SCUPS in terms of its board of directors, that it demonstrates financial stability based on its own generated income, not from earnings emanating from SCUPS and that it hires sufficient qualified faculty.

From what I have heard, NCA is observing the situation closely with this school due to the above issues and the fact that doctorate degrees are being offered without residency requirements of any kind. It appears that NCA views residency periods as enhancing the validity of distance education degrees.

Although I too agree that this school appears to be moving in the direction of accreditation, don't be surprised if the process is longer than NCU has set for itself at the current time.

 

I will tell you a little story and you figure the rest out!

I have a friend who completed his SCUPS DBA in 9 months flat (mainly open book multiple choice exams) and NO dissertation. Now he is proudly calling himself "Dr." so and so...

On the other hand, I have been working my B@#! off (full load) for nearly 18 months to reach Ph.D. candidacy at Touro (RA institution) and God knows how long to get the proposal and ultimately toxic dissertation sorted out with the oral defences etc.

You can go the easy way (option 1) and receive an "unaccredited" degree that most probably you will find yourself defending for the rest of your life or resort to (option 2) and pay your dues in order to obtain a credible and regionally accredited degree.

Personally, I think the least a person should aim for is an accredited degree (GAAP, RA or whatever the naming is) otherwise why waste your money. I can give you the name of 8 books that should cover the MBA core courses, read it at your leisure and it will serve you just as good as any non-accredited (open book, straight forward multi choice based) degree.

Good luck with your choice.

Eli

 

If you're comfortable with exams, don't require much (or any) interaction, and want/need a degree that will be acceptable to more than 90% of registrars: Heriot-Watt.

If you aren't comfortable with exams, prefer and enjoy interaction, and want/need a degree that will be acceptable to more than 90% of registrars: Bellevue.

If money is a major issue, and you don't mind a degree that is not acceptable to about 60% of registrars: Andrew Jackson.

If money is a major issue, and you're a gambler, willing to take the chance that your school will become accredited before you earn the degree, Northcentral.

If you're willing to settle for a degree that would not be acceptable to well over 90% of registrars, and the degree in question is a doctorate, Frederick Taylor (unless Hawaii has closed them down before your check clears). If it isn't a doctorate, same odds, then Frederick Taylor (the other one, run from the same address, that is California approved).

John Bear www.degree.net