Warnborough: Accreditation Update

No matter what the requirements are?

 

Neil Hynd used to act as a Century University apologist, and would cite ISO9001 certification as a seal of quality that was "better than accreditation."

John Bear then pointed out that, based on a discussion he'd had with someone involved with ISO9001 standards, the standards would allow a company to manufacture life vests that were made of cement and sunk like a rock... and said vests would qualify for ISO9001 certification as long as the standards for making said concrete life vests was clearly defined, and those standards were met during manufacture.

In short, the standards are pretty meaningless when applied to education when the organization providing the services is also setting the standards for the quality of said service.

 

Thank you, that was a most excellent article. It is true. The articles most likely to contain errors are the articles on the non-notable topics or barely notable topics that see little traffic. I would estimate that there's maybe about 100-150 articles on various unaccredited institutions in Wikipedia. When a vandal tries to white wash an article the edits seem to be reverted within minutes to within a day. The more frequent the vandalism the more likely that future vandalism attempts will be caught quickly because more people will start watching for vandalism on the article.

Looking at Warnborough directly, here's the history http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Warnborough_College&action=history It actually doesn't look like there is a whole lot of vandalism. Note that there are edits by someone that is apparently from the school that uses the handle Warnborough. This supports Warnborough's assertion in this thread that any nutcase can edit Wikipedia. His/her edits don't seem to stick very well because they violate Wikipedia policies and guidelines and there's enough editors on the article that they don't let it happen. An important tool for Wikipedians is the talk page to communicate with other editors on the article regarding the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Warnborough_College Wikipedia does have ways to deal with editors that violate Wikipedia policies and guidelines. Here's a peek at how that worked in this case. The talk page for user:Warnborough, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Warnborough notice the blocks, that means that s/he was blocked from editting.

 

To me it appears that all contentious assertions are properly sourced. Although I admit that I haven't clicked on all the referenced sources.

 

Wikipedia: A Nightmare of Libel and Slander

This is worth reading:

http://www.israelnewsagency.com/wikipedialibelslandersexwoolencyclopedia48330508.html

 

ISO 9001: Implementation in a University System

This is a good article of ISO in action:

http://www.dacie.tuiasi.ro/docs/docdacie/articole/QM_Design_Control.pdf

 

"Degrees issued by Warnborough College (Ireland) are in this category and these degrees are legal. They have no relation to HETAC or its accreditation at this time, although Warnborough College (Ireland) is in the accreditation process with HETAC."

http://www.warnborough.ie
http://www.warnborough.edu/degree_courses_programs.htm


How is the accreditation process moving along?

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

"A COLLEGE run by foreign businessmen has been accused of offering effectively "worthless" degrees and doctorates from the grounds of a prestigious third-level institution."

The self-styled Warnborough College is charging up to €18,000 in fees for unrecognised qualifications after renting offices at All Hallows College in Drumcondra, Dublin.

However, the Irish Independent has established that the courses offered by Warnborough College are not recognised by the Department of Education.

The courses are also not recognised by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) and the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI), which described the qualifications on offer as effectively "worthless".

Neither is Warnborough College, which also has offices in Canterbury in Kent, recognised by the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills as an institution with the power to award its own degrees.


Education chiefs are furious Warnborough College has linked itself to All Hallows, whose degrees are validated by Dublin City University.

Dr Gabriel Byrne, a member of the adjunct faculty at the Smurfit Business School in UCD who has been acting in a personal capacity as a consultant for Warnborough in Ireland, denied that the college was a "degree mill" or engaged in "selling" degrees.

Warnborough has applied for recognition from HETAC, which has first to agree its quality assurance procedures before programmes can be considered.

The Council will set up an independent external panel in accordance with procedures to consider the situation.

The college was originally founded in Oxford in 1973 by Australian national Brenden Tempest-Mogg (62) and continued to operate from rented premises until it collapsed in acrimony in the mid-1990s.

It hit the headlines in 1995 for recruiting overseas students who thought they were going to Oxford University.

Amid threats of legal actions from disgruntled American students, it closed down the following year."

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/college-charges-836418000-fees-for-useless-degrees-1290087.html

What are you thoughts in regards to the content of this article?

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Institutions Whose Degrees are Illegal to Use in Texas

"The Texas Penal Code (Section 32.52) prohibits the use of fraudulent or substandard degrees "in a written or oral advertisement or other promotion of a business;"

Warnborough University: Canyon, Texas; United Kingdom; Ireland


"See Adjunct College. No degree-granting authority from the CB & no accreditation from a CB recognized accreditor. Also has operated in Washington, the United Kingdom, Ireland, & Washington DC. Claims to be a consortium of institutions with authority derived from those institutions, though the member institutions have no degree authority & claim theirs from Warnborough.

http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/aar/privateinstitutions/notx.cfm

Should you perhaps contact the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board in regards to these claims?

 

ASIC is not recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Care to elaborate as why you stated that ASIC is recognized when it is clearly not.

http://www.chea.org/pdf/CHEA_USDE_AllAccred.pdf

"This directory is provided as a public service without warranty of any kind. The directory does not constitute an endorsement by CHEA of the agencies or organizations contained here."

http://www.chea.org/intdb/display1.asp?ID=c164
http://www.chea.org/intdb/disclaimer.asp

"Accreditation through ASIC will help the student and parent make a more informed choice and will also help a college/university demonstrate to the marketplace that they are a high quality institution. Accredited Colleges are entitled to use the ASIC logo and any promotional materials produced by ASIC as long as they retain their accreditation."

http://www.asic.org.uk/

 

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES NOT ACCREDITED BY CHEA

- Warnborough College – Texas, Washington, Washington, D.C., United Kingdom, Ireland
- Warnborough University – Ireland, Great Britain

Revised 2/9/2009

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Non-accreditedSchools_78090_7.pdf

"This is a partial listing of colleges and universities from which degrees will not be accepted by the Michigan Civil Service Commission to satisfy educational requirements indicated on job specifications."

"Please note that individual degree programs that have not been accredited by the recognized, programmatic accrediting body may not be accepted."

http://www.chea.org/pdf/CHEA_USDE_AllAccred.pdf

 

"Britain and Ireland house genuine universities second to none in the world and shelter a wide variety of foreign entities—including medical schools—with only the barest layer of paper authority from small governments on tropical islands all over the world. The two countries also play host to, in the parasitic sense of the term, something that calls itself Warnborough College, a diploma mill that has managed to move back and forth between Britain and Ireland for decades without either government's being able to put an end to it. Warnborough is owned by an Australian expatriate named Brenden D. Tempest-Mogg. He is widely known as Fog-Tempest, owing to his ability to keep his operation out of sight of education authorities.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number54/p7_Contreras.htm

This is a very recent article. What is your response to the contents of this article? Perhaps you should the record straight and work to improve your image in the US.

 

CHEA listing for UK

Accrediting Organizations, Quality Assurance Agencies and
Ministries of Education by Country​

United Kingdom

Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC)
Laburnum House
Drovers Lane, Redmarshall
Stockton-on-tees, TS21 1EL, United Kingdom
ph: 44 (0) 1740 630 956
fax: 44 (0) 1740 630 956
web: www.asic.org.uk

British Accreditation Council
44 Bedford Row
London WC1R 4LL, United Kingdom
ph: 020 7447 2584
fax: 020 7447 3585
web: www.the-bac.org

Open & Distance Learning Quality Council
16 Park Crescent
London W1B 1AH, United Kingdom
ph: 020 7612 7090
fax: 020 7612 7092
web: www.odlqc.org.uk/

Open University Validation Services
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA, United Kingdom
ph: 44 0 1908 274066
fax: 44 0 1908 653744
web: www.open.ac.uk/validate

Quality Management and Enhancement Unit
The University of Leeds
Room 2281, E.C. Stoner Bldg.
Leeds LS2 9JT , United Kingdom
ph: 44 0 113 243 1751
fax: 44 0 113 244 3923
web: www.leeds.ac.uk/qmeu

Secretary of State for Education and Employment
Department for Education and Skills
Sanctuary Bldg., Great Smith St.
London SW1P 3BT, England
ph: 0870 000 2288
web: www.dfes.gov.uk

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)
Southgate House
Southgate Street
Gloucester GL1 1UB, United Kingdom
ph: 44 0 145 255 7000
fax: 44 0 145 255 7070
web: www.qaa.ac.uk



________________________________________

One Dupont Circle NW • Suite 510
Washington DC 20036-1135
(tel) 202-955-6126
(fax) 202-955-6129
[email protected]

©2009 Council for Higher Education Accreditation. All rights reserved.

 

CHEA listing of ASIC

(http://www.chea.org/intdb/display1.asp?ID=c164).

The bottom line is - despite all the mud slinging - Warnborough College (UK) is accredited by ASIC in the UK as a Premier College.

 

ASIC is not recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Care to elaborate why you stated that ASIC is recognized when it is clearly not.
http://www.chea.org/pdf/CHEA_USDE_AllAccred.pdf

"This directory is provided as a public service without warranty of any kind. The directory does not constitute an endorsement by CHEA of the agencies or organizations contained here."

http://www.chea.org/intdb/display1.asp?ID=c164
http://www.chea.org/intdb/disclaimer.asp

"Accreditation through ASIC will help the student and parent make a more informed choice and will also help a college/university demonstrate to the marketplace that they are a high quality institution. Accredited Colleges are entitled to use the ASIC logo and any promotional materials produced by ASIC as long as they retain their accreditation."

http://www.asic.org.uk/


Why do you state that Chea recognizes ASIC when they do not? Why do you avoid my question?

 

What you have quoted in a previous post is simply a directory listing that Chea does not endorse. Perhaps I should contact Chea and ask them to respond? Perhaps I should contact ASIC informing them of Warnborough's false claims of Chea recognition and direct them to this site?

Why do you state that Chea recognizes ASIC when they do not? Why do you avoid my question? The question is not ASIC.

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

ASIC is not recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Care to elaborate why you stated that ASIC is recognized when it is clearly not.
http://www.chea.org/pdf/CHEA_USDE_AllAccred.pdf

"This directory is provided as a public service without warranty of any kind. The directory does not constitute an endorsement by CHEA of the agencies or organizations contained here."

http://www.chea.org/intdb/display1.asp?ID=c164
http://www.chea.org/intdb/disclaimer.asp

 

At the beginning of this thread, I was willing to be a little openminded and just see if there was something legitimate here.

But what we're seeing is the typlcal descent into millspeak and circular logic that all mill operators eventually fall into.

I love it when operators of unwonderful programs fall into the trap of trying to justify themselves. It's cases like this where the old saying "It's better to shut one's mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt" apply best.

 

Thank you for the link to the article, but I didn't see any mention of Warnborough College in the article? I note that you have ignored the requests to point out a specific item in the Wikipedia article on Warnborough College that is incorrect. I guess this means that the fair conclusion is that the history of Warnborough College is as sad as is depicted by the Wikipedia article?

 

Philip

I would be interested in Warnborourgh's reply to Bills question

 

Well, well, well.

We received the following fine message. At first, I didn't even know what the guy (a Mr. Josef-Peter Cooper ) was babbling about, but I finally found a link to this thread and made the connection.

 

That was quite entertaining. On the contrary, rather than minding our own business, these "letters to the editor" encourage members of this forum to post.

 

Not only that, I think this Mr. Josef-Peter Cooper guy needs to take his own advice and mind his own business.