Senior figures – including a psychologist and a nuclear industry executive – were found to have bolstered their CVs with awards from the American University of London.
The move came despite claims that the institution is handing out qualifications with no academic work required.
A probe by the BBC’s Newsnight programme found that the university was willing to award a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree to a fictitious student in exchange for a £4,500 fee based on his prior work experience.
But the student – Pete – had submitted a fake CV and actually turned out to be a dog from Battersea Dog’s Home.
The institution, which offers online degrees and postgraduate qualifications in a range of disciplines, such as business, law, IT, arts and humanities, insisted it was “not a bogus university”.
But the disclosure will raise fresh concerns over the market in online degrees and the extent to which institutions that are not formally regulated by the British higher education system such as AUOL can market themselves in this country.
The Newsnight investigation found that hundreds of senior executives boasted on social networking websites that they had qualifications from the university.
This included Dr Rita Bowser, a senior nuclear industry executive who was in charge of selling a new generation of reactors in the UK. The programme said she was awarded a doctorate in business after submitting what she described as "significant amounts of coursework".
Her employer, Westinghouse, the US power company, told the Telegraph she was well qualified for her job based on 30 years’ experience and two previous degrees, including a master's from the respected Georgia Institute of Technology.
Newsnight named another figure, Dr Robert Oakes, a psychologist from Birmingham, who gives expert testimony in court cases. He was awarded a PhD five months after first submitting work, it was claimed.
He told the programme that he had spent 18 months on his own background research and was already a registered psychologist based on a previous degree.
The university, which has more than 100,000 students worldwide, is registered in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean and falls outside the jurisdiction of the British higher education system.
George Gollin, from the University of Illinois, said that AUOL’s degrees "did not stand up to scrutiny".
"It doesn't have authority to award degrees,” he said. “They are not degrees. They are pieces of paper and I'm guessing they are not able to sell very many degrees into countries where English is the first language."
But the university insisted most of its study modules were on par with those from other distance universities and only awarded degrees based on work experience in exceptional circumstances.
In a statement, it added: "We are not a bogus university… and have always been upfront about our status. We have not applied for accreditation with any American, British or other official agency. Many graduates go on to higher education or hold important positions on the strength of our degrees."
Taken from HERE
In other news...
MBA AWARDED TO DOG POSING AS A CAT
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| Looking so much like a cat, this dog-in-disguise should never have been able to get an MBA. It's totally stupid to think of cats getting MBAs. What is the world coming to? |
I don't know if the article is supposed to be a joke or if the main problem is that the University is willing to give out degrees in exchange for payment and not actual work or studies done, but I'm willing to bet that with the amount of evidence there is about both the Senior Nuclear Industry Executive and the psychologist is not enough to completely disregard them when they say that they have received qualifications for submitting their work. I don't think people are actually being angry about this as much as their worrying that these type of thing can be missed by the University. There is not enough evidence collected by Newsnight that the qualifications that they received from the university were not in fact authentic for their work. In other news I can't believe that there are still discrimination against cats getting an MBA in the 21st century. Shame on you people. (Joke)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the article above, I don’t believe that animal such as dog and cats can achieve the master's degree, firsts of all they’re animals not a human being, they don’t have the ability that human being has thus human spent a lot of money to go to college. Ordinary people have to spend up to 5 years just to get the undergraduate program, and they have to genuine do their college to get the degree. Especially when human aiming for a master degree, they have to study 2 years to get the master degree. I know, dogs such as Chester Ludlow(Pug) has been awarded an online MBA (master's in business administration) by Rochville University—an online college that offers life and work experience degrees. Chester is believed to be the first dog to be awarded an online master's degree based on work and life experience credentials, but still, I disagree if animals earn the master degree just for that thing.
ReplyDeleteIt’s obvious that the article is a fiction. I don’t believe that those animals can go to college, and this article even showed at a Master degree level. They’re not like us humans, we went to college paying full price of the labor that we deserve, we have the brains to think, memorize, and solving equations, questions, everything that people are trying to answer even until now we’re the one that is capable of doing so although the need of a lot amount of time. While animals, doesn’t have the capabilities of doing so. Although a certain animal does have almost the same capabilities of a human being such as chimpanzees. Chimpanzees and humans are remarkably similar, sharing about 99 percent of our DNA. Chimps are our closest living relatives, and like humans, live in social communities and can adapt to different environments. They can also learn sign language. And it doesn’t even yet consider dolphins, which are one of the smartest mammals on earth.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I disagree with the fact that a dog and a cat could get a MBA degree. First, because they could not talk, they could not write, they could not read. And for me and everyone in the education world, it is a compulsory skill needed to be able to get a degree. When they don’t have the basic skill to do education, how could they finish the degree? I could guess that the university tasks that is compulsory to do is done by someone else and not the dog and the cat. If that is the case, they surely do not deserve the degree. Second reason is because dog and cats could not think the same as how human thinks. Well if you can not think, how could you able to get the degree? To think is one of the main component in order to finish a degree.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I think this article show how weak are the government law when it comes to internet of things, in this case online university. The idea of online university is actually not bad idea at all, it helps a lot of people that don’t have many time or cant go to a collage physically since its only require connection to internet means we can do it practically anywhere. The problem in the online university it may be not register by the government as a school means they can set their own standard with out any government monitor. This can create a lot of problem and wrong conduct in the learning process, in this article is an animal actually get a degree. Can you imagine other species then human that barely understand our language actually can have a degree that only meant for human, there certainly something wrong with the system and government really need to start passing law about online university before a lot of problem.
ReplyDeleteThe article poses a very interesting question, how much is a degree truly worth? Its clear from the article that there are online university degrees that are just printed and passed out. What makes this all the more interesting is that it is acknowledged by institutions and corporations, thus indicating that these potentially bogus degrees may have value in established organizations. It is more perplexing that a pet could earn a degree. This highlights the incompetency of the online university, but could also be an indication that the university does not take the process of attaining the degree of any importance. This is a dangerous case to face. This means that degrees can be bought and therefore a person of minimal to nil experience can enter high barrier communities and pose as an expert, when in fact this person does not have the expertise required to perform on the level of their peers.
ReplyDeleteThis isn’t the first time that I have heard news about online universities, but this is definitely my first time hearing a dog getting a Master of Business Administration degree from an online university that claimed their university isn’t bogus. Sure~ I’ll believe that that university isn’t bogus at all, totally a hundred percent legitimate…not. I mean if they really aren’t a bogus university, how could they have been scammed by a student’s fake CV of his/her own dog? I mean come on that’s just pathetic and idiotic. Also, if students can easily get degrees with less amount of time than real physical universities, isn’t that also questionable? Personally, I prefer having gotten my degree from a well-known physically-existing university like UGM because I don’t really trust online universities that much. Then again, I don’t know the name of this so called “university” and have not done research about them, so I could be wrong about them. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteI would actually agree with the way online universities conduct their operations if all of them follow the same basis as to what the American University of London follows. The reason being is that I think many years spent on working for a company can be equivalent to the academic years one had spent studying in a university. It may sound unfair, as it is somewhat unfair to the people who had already gone through university and going to work afterwards after getting employed for the achievements which they had earned during their academic years in the universities. Therefore, I would pretty much support the idea of online university even further if these online universities would put a minimum requirement as to confine or limit the kinds of people allowed to enrol there. Such minimum requirement would be something like how they, the online universities, only accept students who have earned a bachelor degree beforehand. That alone should be enough to lessen the envy from the people who feel they have been treated unfairly due to the emergence of online universities whose influence has perhaps been seen by some people to be quite pervasive.
ReplyDeleteAs for a dog who’s able to earn a degree, it is nothing more than a warning for online universities to strengthen the way they conduct their operations and the way they selectively hand degrees. It is something that strict confirmations should be implemented for an online university to be able to affirm the credibility of its academic degrees. If online universities failed even in this matter, I doubt proponents of such innovative idea would forever remain supportive towards the cause.
I’m actually kind of overwhelmed with the fact that there is an online university who gave a degree to a dog. Honestly, that’s just pure stupidity. I mean, how easily can it be to get a degree in that particular online university if even a dog is able to get the degree. Even as a joke which might be funny for some people, I think that this actions taken by the university are a major disgrace for the university itself. I can’t even imagine how people who spent their money and their time into getting a degree by joining these online universities would feel hearing a news about the institution that they get their degree from just awarded a degree to a dog which didn’t even put any effort to get it. I personally didn’t trust the legitimacy of online universities, at least not yet, but I do believe that it has potential in the future. Sadly, this kind of events further influences people’s bad stereotype against online universities.
ReplyDeleteEducation should be reached by anyone. Everyone has the right to get a proper education. Even so, in reality the door to education is not open to everyone. There are still many children and adults who have difficulty accessing education. Financial barriers are a major factor. In other parts of the world animals can get the right to taste school benches. Like animals with this degree. Maybe they really did not really take classes and take the graduation exam. But the fact that an animal can be rewarded with a college degree should be enough to show the ironic face of education today. Maybe humans are indeed considered the most perfect creature in the world, but that does not mean that other beings are considered more foolish than ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAn example I want to take is Samson. Samson is a dog that is empowered to help humans professionally. He did not study exact science or education in general. But this dog actually studied at the University of Oklahoma. Samson underwent training to become a professional dog therapist. He was educated by a lecturer there. The field of concentration he was engaged in was Rehabilitation Science. After two years of training, Samson received an honorary degree in 2011. Reported by Oddee, Samson underwent a graduation with 300 other scholars. He even wore a graduation hat and robe like other graduates. At its peak, Samson shook hands with the lecturers and received a roll of diploma pinned in his mouth. Nobody objected to the bachelor's degree given to Samson. Because the dog really really works hard to get it.
ReplyDeleteNow about articles in context. It is true that in general, dogs have not been able to get the same treatment as humans, more precisely in aspects of the field of education. It sounds ridiculous that a university can give a bachelor's degree to a dog who can't communicate with humans verbally. Accreditation from the university must also face obstacles, because humans generally cannot accept something ridiculous at first. But in my opinion, dogs should be able to get the same treatment as humans, if not now then in the future. Why can I say something like that that might sound naive to some of you? Because in my opinion, as members of living things in this world, they should also be able to get the same rights as other creatures (humans specifically).
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time i've heard about the fact that an animal is able to have a degree and even able to proceed to a higher level which is a master degree. This is sad being able to accept the fact that an animal have the chance to get good education while we still have the fact that there are still many humans that doesn't have the chance to get good education and even continuing education to a higher level. In my opinion based on the article i still dont really get the point of a dog having a master degree and even just an ordinary degree. What are the benefits for the dog and what are the benefits for the social environment. What i think about dogs is that they are just pets for humans and not much more. In my conclusion, for animals having a degree is just nonsense and a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteI paused a bit when I first saw the article, it just seems so bogus to me that an actual living breathing dog was able to get a degree. Firstly, I thought this was clearly an intended joke; the stuff you do to publicize your institution, a university in this case, like some sort of wacky advertisement to promote the university, surely there’s no actual universities giving out degrees to animals. but as I read the article, It’s real. A genuine online university gave a degree to a dog.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think things like this should be allowed in the world of education. If a guy can get his dog a degree, there should be major investigations on the institution. The checking of the CV given must be very sluggish and not done very well. I suspect that the university is a very commercialize one, the type that gives out a degree to anyone that can pay a sum of money.
Either the news itself is some kind of an April joke for the readers or it’s just some stupid thing that we would read first in a newspaper. Either way, if it is true, how could they let a dog got a master degree? I mean it’s a pure stupidity if the university just let that kind of thing happen. To start off, as an undergraduate student, we have to study for at least four years until we could get our bachelor degree. After that, some of us would continue to pursue their master degree, while there are others who wanted to get a job first and then continue to pursue their master degree. Now my only problem is that how could a dog get a master degree if he has never been to a school before. I know it is kind of a silly statement but hear me out. We actually study from when we were a kid in a school until we’re a college student. And now there is this dog who came into an existence and says that he could get a master degree without a normal procedure, which is a bag of absurdity. And if I want to be cynical, I think the reason as to why the writer wanted to tell this story is because they could get the punchline they wanted.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the title of this article, I found this rather funny and it led me to get curious of this article. I eventually read this article and it is stated that the ‘American University of London’ has been giving away degrees to random people and animals, including dogs. So I did a little search on the ‘American University of London’. It turned out that the ‘American University of London’ is an unaccredited educational institution that is mainly based on profit and provide online or distance learning, so it is not actually an American-based university in London. This explained why a dog is able to get a degree. It is probably not that difficult to get a degree in the ‘American University of London’ because even fictitious students are able to get one for a fee. I agree by the statement that the degree wouldn’t sell very well in countries where English is the first language. In countries where English isn’t the first language, especially in developing countries, the degree received by the ‘American University of London’ might be accepted when put into a CV as it sounds like a proper name for an educational institution and people might not know if it is actually unaccredited.
ReplyDeleteThe sophistication of technology is always been a crucial thing that happening right now since it affects many factors of life, including learning method. One of the example is by the numbers of online education that start to establish in order to provide learning services and to give a degree for the students. Since it is an online school, everyone is accepted to register through online method. The online method can surely ease the applicant in order to register; however, there is also disadvantage of having such method which can lead to a fictitious data of the student. Therefore can resulting a different person of a student like what just happened to the article. This issue is just unacceptable because its odd and why should even a dog has a degree in education? But then, from this issue, we as a human can learn how to choose a reliable and qualified online school next time; make sure no dogs being the alumni of such online school.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting news yet a sad one. Interesting because well we do not expect a pet could get a degree, a formal degree, from a legit university. And it is sad for me because in my opinion, the university’s quality is low since they could be tricked with a pet. Despite that this news is interesting, this is a news that should be concerned about. University should not allowed a pet getting a degree. There are a lot of reasons for it. First is because pet could not think like how human does, and that is a very important thing for a university student. Second is because a dog could not read or write, and that is a basic need for a student right? And last is because pet could not speak a language like how human does. And when they could not speak, how could they express their ideas and all?
ReplyDelete