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Beware of non-accredited universities in the US
MBA News Barbara Barkhausen / 08-11-2011
Unaccredited universities in the US often promote themselves as helping students getting a visa into the country. A group of schools—including San Jose’s ITU, Sunnyvale’s Herguan University and until recently Pleasanton’s now-closed Tri-Valley University – have attracted a student body that consists entirely of student-visa holders – most of them from India. But are they genuine universities and their MBA programmes proper courses?
The US based Mercury News has investigated and in their finding they are not. In the case of Tri-Valley the federal government shut down the school on visa fraud charges. Its 155 foreign students are now tagged with electronic tracking devices in the US until further decisions have been made.
"I thought it is good university," former Tri-Valley computer science student Harsha Sri, 25, said in an email with the newspaper. He paid $2,700 to attend less than a month's worth of classes. He has returned to India by now.
Questions have also been raised about ITU and Herguan, but so far no criminal conduct was found at these two Silicon Valley universities. Both schools claim that their credits are accepted by accredited schools, but none wanted to give proof when asked by the American newspaper. Herguan also appears on a list of potential “degree mills” on the internet (see link below) and students forums on the internet are full of complaints about both schools.
Mercury News found that the school promote themselves with fancy websites and advertising slogans such as ITU's "Global Development Through Silicon Valley Education", but that they are on the other hand situated in nondescript office buildings, do not ask for English tests like the TOEFL or any standardized test scores for admission and in the case of one of the schools employ a "quality control officer" in Hyderabad, India, to seek out potential students.
Sources:
Mercurynews and own research
Overview of potential "degree mills" - check this list before applying at an unaccredited school. Culprits are everywhere, not only in the US!
Office of Degree Authorization