University of Azteca

I guess one can say they went to "M.I.T" if they go to Monterrey Institute of Technology.

Good theory!

 

On the doctoral level, I don't think that the DL/non-DL or the US/foreign issues are nearly as important as the fundamental issue of a program's academic credibility. If a doctoral program is perceived as being academically and intellectually strong, then employers aand professional peers won't be particularly concerned with its nationality or whether it's DL or not. They will be impressed by the reputation. (Nobody worries about Oxford, despite its being foreign.)

The problems that you refer to arises when a program is unknown. It's doubly true with DL, since the great majority of DL doctoral programs are degree-mills and the whole subject lives under a dark cloud of suspicion to begin with. If a program has no reputation and nothing to boast except claims of accreditation from some place where accreditation standards are equally unknown, then we're getting nowhere. If that accreditation is unusual and unique, unlike what conventional universities in the same location have, then it's even worse and we're going backwards. (How many Indian universities claim Mexican accreditation? How many Mexican-accredited universities operate doctoral programs from India?) If academic reputation (criterion #1) and accreditation (only second-best) aren't convincing, then what's left? (Ouiji boards!)

 

It's remarkable how closely ITESM (sorry, nobody calls it "MIT") has adhered to the US system. Not only does ITESM have US accreditation, it also has American-style admissions requirements. Applicants take a standardized test, known as the "Prueba de Aptitud Académica" (PAA), just as college-bound American students take the SAT.

And where does the PAA come from? From the College Board -- the same US organization that administers the SAT to Americans. The College Board offers the PAA as a Spanish-language alternative.

Again, this approach seems likely to build trust and credibility in a country where corruption is common.

 

Miagra, where do you find all these borderline, may-be-legitimate schools? Seriously, is there a reverse Ivy League for those somewhere?

Thanks for great infotainment. Something needs to fill the void MIGS and Berne discussions used to fill. I admit I like the topic, and somehow EUCLID is not substantial enough to sparkle real debate

 

where else other than from www.greenvalley.edu.in and there is a list of list of fake universities in India http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/fakealerts.html and some useful info.

cheers
Migara

 

I would take an ITT graduate over any graduate from an online American school.

 

Are you serious?

Double post deleted.

 

Are you serious?

Nonsense school? Exactly what do you know about it, other than it is from outside the United States? Are you of the mindset that education can't happen from anywhere else? That people of less prosperous countries are incapable of learning?

This thread was about asking for information about the institution. As far as anything anyone has contributed to it, I have not seen anything suspicious nor any proof that the education is inferior. We all know that there are people whose ignorance would not allow them to accept nor respect a degree from a country such as Mexico or India. Unless you have anything to substantiate your condescension, I have no choice but to conclude that you are simply one of them- making you are either a troll, a racist, or, to be fair, an extreme ethnocentrist. I would like you to either enlighten us about your knowledge of this institution, or admit to which one you are.

EDIT: I am not saying that I have seen enough evidence to convince me that this school is trustworthy either. I am simply saying that I haven't seen any evidence that it isn't. Even if it turns out to be illegitimate, your claims about foreign education in general are wrong minus one: it IS true that such a degree would find trouble in its acceptability in the United States. My previous comments refer to the condescending and ethnocentric tone of the totality of all of your comments. "Nonsense school" is uncalled for until you can prove it.

 

Unfortunately, a lot people use the same logic to evaluate education credentials. We don't like when people trash our education credentials because they were earned online but it seems to be ok to trash schools only because they are from developing nations.

 

Condesceding yes, ethnocentric maybe, more of a stir the pot get under your skin type for the heck of it.

 

Like I said earlier, you are certainly entitled to your opinion but now I've formed my own opinion about you.

 

So what! Readers should not give too much creedence to what is said on this forum in the first place!

 

That's weird... I thought the forum was here to not only discuss higher education, but also to be a resource where people could come seeking the advice and opinions of people who have experience with the enviroment.

Granted, my number one rule of the Internet (not just this or other forums) is to get what you can in writing from the source if there's any question about it.

If you think what the people around here say is all BS, why are you here then? Why waste anyone's time?

 

The issue is that many people think like Delta. Many employers would automatically trash any resume with degrees from India, Mexico, South Africa, etc only because the stigma of third world corruption. I'm sure that many graduates from ITESM don't get a chance to explain that their credentials are at the same level of American graduates from good schools.

Delta's opinion is actually very common among employers. The logic is that is better to have an American degree from a mediocre school than a degree from a developing country from a possible better school only because the credibility issue.

 

Well, this is refreshing. I requested that you admit that you are a troll, and here you did.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill forum. Real people come here to seek real information and real opinions.

 

The optimum attitude is probably somewhere in between flat dismissiveness and total credulity.

My own position is that all mystery schools need to be approached with a bit of initial skepticism. There's no need to justify that skepticism because it's simply a-priori, based on the principle that it's foolish to believe things without some convincing reason why. The burden of proof is always going to be on the mystery-school's proponents to make a case and provide those reasons.

That applies to mystery schools in the United States as well.

Apart from some claims made on a website, there's there's not much evidence of any education at all, is there? In these kind of cases, lack of evidence is reasonably good (though perhaps not totally conclusive) evidence in its own right. It's certainly a significant data point.

If your politically-correct knee jerks this violently, you're in danger of kicking your own teeth out.

India and Mexico don't need our condescension. They can stand up to our critical scrutiny just as easily as we can ourselves. They aren't going to collapse into piles of dust at the first sign of skepticism. We need to be critical and discerning about unknown programs whatever their nationality.

That's especially true when institutional organization is unfamiliar and accreditation oversight is totally opaque.

I have considerable respect for the Indian UGC and its accreditor NAAC. But this thing doesn't technically award Indian degrees and it doesn't seem to have any Indian accreditation. It's offering what are ostensibly Mexican doctoral degrees, though they are apparently taught by Indian faculty from India.

The parent school, Universidad Azteca, does appear to have some kind of government recognition in Mexico and is listed in the UNESCO Handbook. But the wording on the Indian website raises questions.

http://www.greenvalley.edu.in/azteca.php

"In collaboration with the eminent University of Azteca, Green Valley Research Foundation is offering Ph.D Programs in all domains..."

Eminent? Can anyone point to any scholarly activity at Universidad Azteca or at any of its foreign franchises? PhD programs "in all domains"?

"Universidad Azteca de Chalco (Centro de Estudios Superiores Azteca) is accredited by the Federal Secretary of Public Education (SEP) of the United States of Mexico, is a private, non-profit institution independent of and not related to any political party or religious group.

Universidad Azteca is officially recognized with Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios (RVOE) to award graduate and postgraduate degrees in some of the following study areas:"

"Some of the following study areas"?

"According the Mexican Higher Education laws Universidad Azteca de Chalco is authorized to award degrees with RVOE and own academic and professional higher degrees of the university (grados propios)."

Is that saying that some of Universidad Azteca's programs have the Mexican equivalent of accreditation and that some don't? Is U.A. offering additional unaccredited programs on its own initiative alongside its accredited ones? (Which might be an entirely legal thing to do in Mexico.)

"An International University System
Today, Universidad Azteca is a multi-campus university system with academic centers in different regions of the country and Branch Campuses and representatives in other countries."

Does Mexican higher education oversight and quality assurance even extend to Mexican universities' foreign franchise operations? We saw in the MIGS case that they likely didn't.

This thing is apparently operating without Indian charters and UGC/NAAC accreditation, probably because its degrees are ostensibly Mexican. And I'm guessing that it's also operating without substantial Mexican oversight because the doctoral programs are originating in far-away India. Again, reminiscent of what MIGS was doing.

 

"Reminiscent," indeed.

I'm troubled when an arrangement like this produces degree programs the (accredited) home campus does not offer. When I was working with MIGS, we reallly thought we'd be able to help the home campus offer the things we were creating. But "we" didn't include the Danzigs, which we didn't count on. So....

I have trouble with this one because it looks like the home campus is renting out its degree-granting authority, which turned out to be the situation at MIGS, too.

BTW, that was also true of Empresarial. IMHO, Touro University International (now TUI University) fell into this category as well, at least until it got its own RA.

 

Sorry, I don't know what you mean when you say "troll". However, I am glad you are refreshed.

As far as real information and real opinions are concerned, people need to do their own homework before trusting the advice given on this forum! Just because someone posts a response with a PhD next to their name doesn't mean jack! DL learning has the potential to do great things but on the other hand it can be used by many unscrupulous organizations especially foreign institutions that have no credibility. Don't take my word or anyones word for it is the point!

 

Actually, it does, if it is related to the topic at hand. You, individually, may opt to reject authority, but that doesn't negate it. It just means you choose not to benefit from it.

For example, I have a Ph.D. It's from Union, which has a long history of person-centered, alternatively delivered graduate education. Anyone going through the Union process develops expertise in many of the subjects under discussion on this board. Further, I concentrated in Higher Education, relevant even more to this board. Further still, I specialized in Nontraditional Higher Education, which is at the very heart of this discussion board.

Does that make everything I write correct and unassailable? Of course not. But I do speak with verifiable authority. If you (or someone else) choose to reject that authority, cool. But I still get to use it.