Time bomb explodes at Cheyney University

Re: 4th Category

I agree that if we were going to exhaustively classify higher education, we would have to include good non-accredited schools. That group in turn would probably have to be subdivided among schools that are good in different ways, for different reasons, to different eyes.

But if we are classifying time bombs, then I'm not sure that a good non-accredited degree is very explosive. It may start sputtering if you hold it over a flame, but it should be pretty inert if you don't make false and misleading claims about it.

 

Re: Re: 4th Category

If we restrict ourselves to DL, it's hard to think of very many.

A school that has a crude webpage but a suprising amount of street credibility is the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. These guys actually do research. You find them writing books, publishing articles and making presentations at conferences. Their staff lectures at UC San Francisco. Public health officials seek them out about underground sex practices. One of their graduates is the director of the Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology at Humboldt University in Berlin. 'Psychology Today' interviews them when they need experts on sado-masochism. And they own what is said to be the largest collection of pornography on earth, including 150,000 films. (Harvard can't say that.)

These guys address an unusual subject that everyone is interested in, but which is still too 'out there' for more established schools to touch (literally). Not only is IASHS good, one could argue that they are up there among the world leaders. They offer a short-residency doctorate. (And they sure aren't Bob Jones.)

If you look at non-accredited schools that aren't DL, you will find a school that offers what is perhaps the best program in the world in its subject. It offers probably the most expensive program on earth ($225,000 a *semester*), yet it attracts students from all over the world, many of whom are paid by their governments to attend. World-class and CA-approved. (Can anyone name it?)

The latter school shows that if you have a rep in your field, accreditation doesn't really matter very much. This degree program of theirs is new (their programs were all non-degree until just a few years ago) and it will probably be RA before long. They certainly have the clout in Washington and internationally.

 

Re: Re: Re: 4th Category

Seeing that this is a distance learning board, I would hope for distance learning examples. Neither BJU nor VIU offers anything significant via DL.

 

I tried to find dirt on community colleges but couldn't find anything significant. There dosn't seem to be anything out there.

I will be more careful next time. I could have people mad at me. I guess it's fortunate that most community college graduates can't read.

 

I'm sure you'll find equally persuasive "evidence" of this, too.

 

Rich - I tailored the post for your reaction. You disappoint.

 

sexology at Humboldt U

Whats the homework like? Do they offer Detention? What about corporal punishment?

 

Yeah, like I'm here to meet your expectations. Well, you made several assertions regarding accredited schools and failed to back them up at all.

The only reason why you fail to "disappoint" is that the expectation level is so low. I didn't think you could back up what you asserted.

BTW, I don't need you to address your message to me. Sticking to the facts (as if you had any) will do.

Still looking forward to finding out about the "questionable" RA schools, including half of the community colleges....

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: 4th Category

Rich,

You may want to check out BJU as they do actually offer a reasonable amount of DL. They have some sort of satelite learning system which offers a number of courses at several levels. They also offer a Doctor of Pastoral Theology that uses a mix of DL and short residential courses held in the summer. Not very inexpensive.

North

 

Re: Teta V. Banks

Of course my favorite would have to be this fellow from the computer games news groups. His special claim to fame is that to this day he refuses to name his alma mater. He was uncovered as a PhD fraud in August 1997. He claimed an accredited PhD until September 1999 when he finally admitted that it wasn't accredited and that it was listed in the degree mill of the twelve edition of Bear's Guide. However, he still claims his degree is a bona fide PhD. Here's far more details than any sane person could possibly be interested in.

http://follies.werewolves.org/PhDFraud/

 

Hi Rich:

I don’t want to start a thread about questionable “RA” schools, I can mention quite few based on their academic curriculum and quality of education, but at the minute I do this we will have two or three graduates from these schools defending them and telling us how hard was to get the degree on an endless discussion. Just to give you an example, you have the schools where you need a GMAT of 600 points and two years of intensive work full-time to get an MBA and other ones with no GMAT and one year part-time to get the same degree, I don’t want to mention specific examples but it is obvious that there is a difference of education between RA schools.

When I did my MBA, I have to spent two years of full-time (about 60 hours/week of study) without mentioning the two months preparing for the GMAT, the courses were hard and even with my engineering background I found some of the math difficult to cope with. Now, when I see people in this forum defending a 10 course based MBA with no GMAT and almost free admission and then telling us that they are working very hard and getting top quality education, it makes me wonder about the whole value of an MBA and almost regret of having gone the hard way.

 

It was hyperbole. Wound a bit tight or what?

 

I’d to like to add that in any way I meant that having a degree from a “questionable” RA school was a fraud, on the contrary, what I meant is that even if you hold an unacreditted degree it shouldn’t be considered fraud as long as the person doesn’t lie about it. It should be the responsibility of the employer to verify the accreditation or validity of degree.

 

RFValve

After a BA, I obtained a very Canadian degree called a Bachelor of Commerce. It had essentially the same content as an MBA except the MBA was designed for academics and was probably more difficult. It had 20 courses after another degree, including five math or stats courses. A person starting in the 4 year BCom. program may have had 30 plus courses in business.

What are these 10 - 12 course MBAs all about? Students have trouble with technical aspects of math or accounting? Remove the courses, not the students.

An instant business expert with a 10 course MBA earned by writing feel good papers isn't much of an expert.

 

Re: RFValve

I totally agree with you on this one. Some of the new DL MBAs have a two course specialization track and a total of nine courses with virtually no math, accounting and finance. Two Courses! Would you hire a finance MBA with two courses in the area? Of course it’s RA and it has written on it “Finance specialization” so we should take for granted that the person is a “Master” of finance.

 

Again with the ad hominem. And thanks for admitting your hype.

 

This position causes me some concern. A person claiming a fraudulent degree cannot be absolved of responsibility for their fraud just because they have another entity that is handy and can blame them.

 

There is a difference between fraudenlent and unaccredited. I'm talking about the legal state approved degrees like KW or CPU. If I put in my resume a degree from KW and my employer accepts it, I don't see why two years later he can fire me because my degree. It is the responsibility of the employer at the very least to ask the origin of the degree. If false information is provided then it is fraund and the responsibility of the employee.

 

Sorry for the very very necro-post, but I stumbled on this post while looking for something else, and interestingly even though this was 20 years ago the person in question has not stopped being misleading.

She earned a legit EdD from Capella (I can only assume), but instead of relying on their genuine educational achievements still claim a degree from Wellesley after earning their EdD at Capella (as of 2009 - PDF auto-downloads from this link: https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/teta.banks/@@download/curriculum_vitae/vita-Teta_Banks_ed_2019_formal_final.pdf), and just last year on a speaker bio noted that she "attended Wellesley College, Howard University, Wayne State University and Oxford University." She calls herself Dr Banks while concealing the true source of her doctorate.

She also claims to be a former "Consular General" for Liberia (sometimes using Honorary and sometimes not), and uses the prefix Hon. meaning "The Honorable", but she was an Honorary Consulate General which is a major distinction. The Department of State is clear that "use of other titles to describe an honorary consular officer is strictly prohibited" (https://www.state.gov/honorary-consular-officers-posts/) It's not clear that honorary Consul Generals are entitled to the honorific "Hon." while serving, much less 2 decades later. It appears she was appointed in 1994 and served at least one 3-year term.

People, I tell ya.

 

I don't like it when people go to lengths to hide the source of their doctorates. It's suspicious.

I spent a long time trying to source the doctorate claimed by a prominent figure in my field of talent development. She didn't list it anywhere! But I kept digging of and on, and years later I stumbled across it: Alliant International University. Nothing wrong with the school; it is the result of US International U. and California School of Professional Psychology merging. To this day I don't know what she keeps it (largely) hidden.

NB: USIU used to be known as California Western University. When it abandoned that name in favor of USIU, the California Western School of law kept it and soon separated from USIU. The name was soon picked up by an unaccredited school operating in Santa Ana. After a few years that school got told to knock it off, so it changed its name to...wait for it...California Coast University. I have always suspected the change was connected to their subsequent (very soon after) gain of California Approval for all their programs. But maybe it was all a coincidence.