University of Atlanta

Wow this school has sure come full circle. Right back to being the mill it was born to be lol.

"We are glad to announce that Holy Spirit University of Atlanta is fully accredited by International Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (IQAHE)."

http://uoa.education/aboutus/accreditation/

C'mon Georgia. This school needs to be shut down.

 

You mean "C'mon Florida. It's not in Georgia, despite its name. The site shows an address of 7532 Twelve Oaks Blvd
Tampa, FL 33634 USA.

It's one of the burgeoning crop of Florida unaccredited schools (By religious exemption).

The name of Dr. Steve Hermes sounds familiar to me, from the original University of Atlanta, which, IIRC was successor to Barrington University, unaccredited, of Mobile AL. Barrington was bought, rebranded as Atlanta and, in 2008, accredited by DEAC.
In 2013, it's 5-year period of accreditation was not renewed and it subsequently closed.

Whole story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Atlanta

 

Well, whatever UoA used to be, it isn't any more. Nowadays it's just another Axact clone, using the same verbiage and stock images. In addition to being accredited by the lovely INQAHE, aka QAHE, the Holy Spirit University of Atlanta is also blessed by AAHEA, the American Association for Higher Education and Accreditation. AAHEA was founded by "Doc" Brady (interesting story here https://www.chronicle.com/article/inquiry-into-higher-education-group-reveals-odd-connections-114560/) and has since featured an impressive number of people with interesting degrees. This includes a guy with a passion for international travel and a dislike for Johann and I, a bloke who may still be an academic consultant for ASIC UK, a gentleman who once was a St Regis University professor, not to mention the Egyptian fellow with the many schools who is also on the advisory council of Professor Dr Charles Idahosa's Board of Quality Standards.

QAHE is recognised by California University FCE. I'm uncertain as to what that actually means, considering that CUFCE is a, let's say open-minded credential evaluation agency, and QAHE an unrecognized accrediting agency, but I'm sure both parties will benefit from the arrangement.

Some quite interesting people at QAHE too, most notably Dr David Le Cornu of St Clements University, a school originally run from above the pub Earl's Tavern, Adelaide, within walking distance from the South Australian Department of Education.

 

Wow - the whole roster of "usual suspects." Axact clone - yes, but it does appear to have Florida licensing. So whatever else it is, it looks like one of the crop of Florida Unaccredited (religious exemption schools) like those offering "Ethereal MBA's" etc. That is, Provided the following statement is true:

The Holy Spirit University of Atlanta is Licensed by the Florida Department of Education, State of Florida , Commission for Independent Education, Complied with Section 1005.06 (1) (f) and Accredited by the Latin American and Iberoamerican Board of Higher Education and Accreditation. A Recognized and Approved Accrediting body by the State of Florida, Department of State, Organized under the laws of the State of Florida under the Number of N19000007258, Authorized by Section 15.16, Florida Statues, and Authenticated by the code 190716173134-000331165670-1

Below is another well-known school without US recognized accreditation that I've seen migrate to Florida. Breyer State U. of Idaho, Alabama, Panama, California and Idaho again, is now Breyer State Theology University, registered under Florida's religious-exempt provisions.

https://breyerstate.com/

 

I think the whole Florida thing is a ruse. There .edu is still registered in Georgia on Peachtree and that building has been used by University of Atlanta for many years. https://net.educause.edu/whois.htm?rca=1
School is still afoul of Florida rules because its offering secular degrees.

I emailed the DOE of Georgia and got a weird response back.

"Good afternoon,

Thank you for contacting the Georgia Department of Education. Our agency governs public schools in Georgia K-12; you may wish to contact the US Department of Education to share your concerns.

Thanks,

AskDOE"

There website says otherwise lol

 

Good grief.

 

There prices are insane! What market for this could there be?!?
http://uoa.education/admissions/tutionFees/

 

Indeed.

If so, it's an elaborate one - they've posted the registration numbers. I don't think they'd do that if they were false. People check.
The Peachtree address at one time - yes. Not sure, but I believe the U. of Atlanta was later sold to a new owner, when it foundered, after DEAC accreditation was not renewed. Possibly they kept it alive for mailing purposes but I doubt there's any current connection to that Peachtree address - but I could always be wrong. Maybe BOTH Ga. and Fl. addresses are correct.

Sure looks like it.
Suffice it to say - I'm not enrolling, whether it's in Florida, Georgia or Ethereal Cyberspace.

 

They'd need a Fl. address at least, for the licensing.

 

No end to how much money some people will pay. Here's an article on a man who claims he paid well over $60,000 for a degree from University of Atlanta. If I had that amount of vanity (I'm close) I'd have bought a bunch of snazzy Italian suits instead, Ferragamo shoes to go with 'em and maybe some more fancy Swiss watches. I have a couple of those already. I could really WORK that combo!!

https://gulfnews.com/uae/crime/man-spends-dh250000-on-fake-degree-1.1537884

 

Copy of 2017 post on the old U. of Atlanta. IIRC U. Atlanta was accredited for a short while by ASIC after DETC did not renew. then they pulled the plug.

"From Kizmet's Axact news roundup today:
FBI: Had he (Umair Hamid of Axact) heard of University of Atlanta?
Hamid: Yes, Akber Mithani rented the domain for that university to Axact.

I believe Akber Mithani is the father of the Mithani Brothers, Nick and Alex, who ran U. of Atlanta. IIRC, Akber or his corporation financed the purchase of the former Barrington U for his sons. It was re-branded as University of Atlanta and subsequently accredited by DETC. 5 years later, accreditation was not renewed. It was soon thereafter accredited by ASIC..."

It's here: https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/dept-of-ed-axes-acics.48966/page-3#post-483827

I've seen 3 Axact-linked schools, including the original Atlanta U. get ASIC accreditation and have it pulled when ASIC found out.
If this Holy Spirit University of Atlanta is linked to Axact or successors, (and I have only suspicions, not proof) then it will be the first of the close to 400 Axact "schools" to hold a US State License - if it has what it says it has.

 

And claimed fake accreditation up until the very day DEAC accredited them. Several schools did this with DEAC, even though engaging in deceptive business practices is a reason to deny accreditation according to DEAC's standards. They repeatedly turned a blind eye to it.

This was also when DEAC was accrediting foreign universities, even though those schools didn't meet the parameters of what kind of schools DEAC would accredit. (Because they are primarily brick-and-mortar.) Or not even the entire university, even though DEAC was an institutional, not programmatic, accreditor. (For example, they accredited the CLMS at Leicester.) Then there was the time when a school they accredited was creating a PhD program--clearly outside the scope of their accreditation. The school even claimed accreditation of the PhD by a professional society. They changed it to a professional doctorate after DEAC got called on it.

They've changed directors. That's a good thing.

 

I filed an official complaint with the group that manages the edu domains. That went no where. I was actually lied to which was surprising.

Was told uofa. Edu was exempt because the school was formed pre 2001. It wasn't.

Then was told there are no rules about them changing names and still using the edu domain... There are though!

I've had a few conversations with edu and it felt like they were running interference for university of Atlanta who is still renting the domain out.

The whole situation is weird. Florida said there is nothing that can be done about the issuing secular degrees? There is no enforcement???

 

They may be referring to them when they were under the name "Barrington University" which the outfit held pre-2001 (and also thereafter).

 

It was. LearningAddict has it right.

Back in the early days of the Web, there weren't any rule on the.edu extension--or, at least, no one was really enforcing them. So, quite a few "interesting" operations got the extension. Once real rules were enforced, these were grandfathered in.

 

I don't think some 'real" rules have been enforced at all. In the case of .edu domains, doesn't the prefix have to stay the same? Isn't Barrington.edu (or whatever Barrington had) different from UofA.edu and so - a different entity, not "grandfathered" because it didn't exist prior to 2001?

Similarly pcu.edu, pre-2001 originally belonged to an unaccredited school. That school became accredited and changed its name and domain. Pcu.edu was "picked up" by Pass Christian University - which was never located in Pass Christian MS. It was unaccredited and considered by some a mill. Pcu.edu "migrated" from there to Pacific Coronado University - which ended up in Axact's hands.

@Rich Douglas. I maintain this sort of "passing along" of .edu domains from school to school is NOT "grandfathering." It is done illegitimately while the watchdog is asleep. It has been done a bunch of times. There are other examples on DI.

 

Then again. UofA.edu was a legit domain for 5 years, 2008-2013, (and NOT before) when the school was accredited by DEAC. Afterwards, that no-longer-legit domain was "rented out" to Axact, by the man who, we are told, facilitated the purchase of Barrington, and subsequent name change to U of A, by his two sons. (Testimony of Axact VP Umair Hameed to the FBI).

This was certainly not a legit "grandfathering."

 

As you may have guessed, I'm totally with @b4cz28 on this. It has long had the appearance of zero oversight, zero enforcement. And the general nature of comments here on DI, by knowledgeable members, has supported that conclusion for years - decades, in fact.

 

Pass Christian University's received its degree granting authority as they put it from California University FCE. The school was accredited by AAHEA, the American Association for Higher Education and Accreditation. Later, the name was changed to Paramount California University, listed in ASIC's international directory for less than a month and by 2015, it was distinctly Axactian in appearance. But before it was sold to Axact along with Coronado Pacific University and Almeda (College and) University by Brett Loebl, it was run by people heavily involved with a school that sued some of us. And then there was a civil war in that neck of Mill Woods, but that's another story,

 

Thanks for the history lesson. I knew about the sale of Almeda to Axact. I thank you sincerely for the information (new to me) that:

(1) Almeda, Paramount California and Coronado Pacific were ALL under the same ownership until they became Axact property.
(2) California Paramount featured folks involved with the once-litigious school.

And I reiterate: There has, for decades, been a lack of oversight and enforcement re: .edu domains and misuse of them.