Jidher li l-Prim Ministru diġà beda japplika l-kodiċi
tal-etika l-ġdid u fl-‘interess nazzjonali’ reġa' beda jagħmel ix-xogħol ta'
ġurnalist part-time.
Allura llejla mar fil-Parlament u minflok għamilha ta’
Prim Ministru u ta risposti ċari dwar x'ġara u x’ma ġarax f'Dipartiment li
jaqa' direttament taħt ir-responsabbiltà diretta tiegħu, stqarr li hu wkoll,
bħala ġurnalist part-time għandu ħafna mistoqsijiet dwar il-każ.
Mill-oppożizzjoni pproponew il-‘Living Wage’, biex kulħadd
ikollu dħul li bih ikun jista’ jgħix tajjeb, u llum li ħadu l-Gvern iridu jsoddu ħalq dawk li
jaqilgħu l-inqas bl-imbarazz li s-supermarkets ma jirnexxielhomx ibiegħu u li
jkun wasal biex jiskadi.
Investigazzjoni tal-programm tal-BBC, Newsnight kixfet il-qerq ta' Università li ssejjaħ lilha nfisha 'Amerikana' u 'ta' Londra' billi akkwistat lawrija għall-kelb Pete.
L-istorja kollha u l-filmat hawn taħt:
American University of London sells study-free MBA
By Jim Reed and Mike Deri Smith
A so-called university sold an MBA degree for thousands
of pounds with no academic work required, a BBC Newsnight investigation has
revealed.
The American University of London (AUOL) awarded a
fictitious person created by the programme a Master's in Business in exchange
for a £4,500 fee.
AUOL has insisted it is "not a bogus
university" and defended the robustness of the qualifications it offers.
Newsnight has found hundreds of senior executives listing
AUOL qualifications. The programme contacted some of them, but they all
insisted that they had had to study for their degrees.
AUOL styles itself as a pioneer of distance learning,
offering degrees and post-graduate qualifications in business, IT, law,
education and liberal arts, humanities, and English to more than 100,000
students worldwide.
Its website claims that that all of their courses
"have been designed to the most exacting standards, in accordance with the
most stringent criteria, in order to provide outstanding education at an
affordable price".
However, Newsnight found that getting the university to
provide a qualification without any study at all was easy.
The programme drew up a one-page fake CV for a management
consultant Peter Smith, known as Pete, living in South London, which included
15 years of made-up work experience and a fictitious undergraduate degree from
a UK university.
The real Pete was actually a dog living in Battersea
Dogs' Home.
Newsnight sent "Pete's" CV to AUOL, along with
a completed application for the Master's in Business (MBA) and £50 application
fee.
AUOL also requires applicants to provide photocopies of
previous qualifications and a photograph of themselves. However, Newsnight was
unable to provide either since the qualifications did not exist and the
applicant was a dog.
No
courses required
Despite these omissions, just four days after sending in
the application, AUOL sent "Pete" an e-mail saying that his
application for a degree based on previous experience had been successful and
that once the university had received his £4,500 fee he would be registered as
an MBA graduate within about two weeks.
When Newsnight's reporter telephoned to check whether
"Pete" would be required to submit any work, a university
representative said:"No, no, apparently the APEL [Accreditation of Previous
Experiential Learning] board awarded him the full degree immediately based on
his qualification and his professional experience, so he doesn't have to do any
courses."
We showed our written application to Jan Bamford at
London Met University which runs properly accredited MBA courses. She was
incredulous that a degree could be awarded to someone "with such limited
work experience and such a poor application".
"I find it incredible that any organisation is
awarding an MBA on what essentially amounts to the evidence that is on a piece
of paper. That's appalling. Really appalling. And again it goes to the very
heart of the fact the government needs to regulate this behaviour," she
added.
In order to hand out a British degree an institution has
to be recognised by Parliament. However, it is perfectly legal to give the
impression that a university is run in the UK even when in reality it is
incorporated overseas.
AUOL is one such place - seemingly based in London, but
actually incorporated in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, as they state on
their website.
UK connection
Despite its name, AUOL does not seem to have any physical
presence in London. Newsnight found that the university's phone number is a
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, area code and that the bank that university fees
are paid to is in Beaconsfield.
According to public records, including the electoral
roll, Professor Michael Nimier, who was the founder of AUOL, and Sonia Grimes,
who is the registrar, live in the town.
On its website, AUOL boasts some well qualified
supervisors and says that "the university's academic staff are highly
qualified and experienced". But when we contacted five Western academics
on its list, all said they had never worked there and never agreed for their
name to be used.
George Gollin, an American academic with expertise in
unaccredited education, told Newsnight that AUOL "did not stand up to
scrutiny".
"It doesn't have authority to award degrees. 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."
The university says most of its graduates study at
independent colleges in countries overseas. Those affiliates are apparently
independent with their own staff subject to their own local laws. AUOL simply
takes a fee to help set the curricula and issue graduation certificates in its
own name.
Blacklisted
On professional social networking sites Newsnight found
hundreds of senior executives who said they had qualifications from AUOL.
The programme spoke to a number of them, all of whom
insisted that they did have to submit work to get their degrees.
Dr Robert Oakes, a psychologist from Birmingham, who
gives expert testimony in court cases, was awarded a PhD just five months after
first submitting work.
However, he told the programme that he had spent 18
months on his own background research prior to this and he was already a
registered psychologist based on a previous degree.
Dr Oakes said he believed AUOL was properly accredited,
but that he has now taken the qualification off his CV.
Dr Rita Bowser, a senior nuclear industry executive who
was in charge of selling a new generation of reactors in the UK, was awarded a
doctorate in business after submitting what she described as "significant
amounts of coursework".
Her employer, Westinghouse, said she is well qualified
for her job based on 30 years of experience and two previous degrees including
a master's from the respected Georgia Tech.
Since AUOL is not properly accredited it is not possible
to verify how much work they did, nor what standard was required.
The university has claimed to be recognised by three
different American institutions, but these institutions are themselves
unofficial and unrecognised.
The university is listed as "bogus" by the
agency that values degrees for the Italian government and it has been
blacklisted in five US states, including Texas where it is illegal to use any
of its qualifications to get a job.
In a statement AUOL told Newsnight: "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."
The university added that most of its study modules are
on a par with those used by top distance learning universities and that it only
issues degrees based on work experience in exceptional circumstances.
Jekk l-Università tal-ħabib Ġordaniż tal-Premier Muscat
tkun suċċess u jirnexxielha ġġib lejn iż-Żonqor erbat elef student, f’ħakka t’għajn
Wied il-Għajn se jsir l-iktar post f’Malta b’perċentwali għolja ta’ Musulmani,
madwar 25%.
Huwa ovvju li dawn se jkollhom bżonn post imdaqqas fejn jaqdu
l-bżonnijiet spiritwali tagħhom. Allura se jkollha tinbena Moskea ġdida.
Hemm min qed jgħid li din il-Moskea għandha ssir fil-bini
tal-Università stess.
Imbagħad hemm dawk li jriduha fil-qalba ta’ Wied il-Għajn,
biex huma d-deħlin u ħerġin minnha l-istudenti jonfqu xi ftit Ewro f’pastizzi,
te u kafè.
Imbagħad hemm min it-taħlit fil-kulturi u
fir-reliġjonijiet ma jogħġbu xejn u qed jippretendi li ladarba jiġu Malta dawn
l-istudenti jikkonvertu!
