A member of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which accredits approximately 600 private career-training institutions, claims a doctorate from a distance-learning institution based in Liberia that one state official called “a notorious diploma mill.”
Michael Davis, who was appointed to the council in June, holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Saint Regis University, which is based in Monrovia, Liberia. The council says it is investigating the degree.
Mr. Davis, 56, is president and owner of Gwinnett College of Business, an accredited, for-profit institution in Georgia. He received a doctorate in October after about 10 months of work, he said in an interview last week.
“They’ve got a pretty good Web site,” Mr. Davis said. “I wrote up about 26 pages of my experiences in the business world, and they gave me a lot of credit for that.” He said he also wrote four 10- to 20-page papers and a thesis that was more than 60 pages long.
‘Why Would I Question It?’
At first, Mr. Davis said, he was suspicious of Saint Regis, especially when he learned that he could receive a doctoral degree in so little time. That’s why he “researched the crap out of it,” he said, sending e-mail messages to the Liberian Embassy in Washington to verify that the institution had government approval in Liberia.
Mr. Davis said he had heard through an acquaintance that Saint Regis was accepted by the State of Georgia as legitimate. “I thought, if the State of Georgia is going to approve it, why would I question it?” he said.
Recently, however, after a state investigation in Georgia determined that Saint Regis was not a legitimate institution, the state cut the salaries of six public-school teachers with graduate degrees from Saint Regis. The teachers must pay back money they had received in raises as a result of claiming the degrees. Like many states, Georgia pays teachers with graduate degrees more than it does their counterparts.
Alan Contreras, administrator of the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, said there was no doubt that Saint Regis is bogus. In fact, Mr. Contreras refused to use the word “university” to describe it.
“The entity called Saint Regis University is a notorious diploma mill that pretends to have approval from the government of Liberia but appears to be operated by people in the United States,” he said.
Even a quick search of the Internet raises a number of red flags about Saint Regis. Its Web site says students can earn degrees “with no further courses or classes -- based on what you already know!” A search also brings up a number of discussion groups that refer to Saint Regis as a diploma mill.
Multiple-Choice Master’s
An official at the Liberian Embassy said that, indeed, Saint Regis was accredited in that country. Paul Smith, who identified himself as an “officer” with the embassy, said he could offer no further details about what such accreditation entails. Mr. Smith said he had been working at the embassy for only a few weeks.
A telephone call to Saint Regis’s headquarters, in Monrovia, was answered by Jallah Faciann, who said he was the dean of studies. He said Saint Regis was fully accredited and was not a diploma mill. Mr. Faciann, who had to speak loudly because, he said, a party was going on in the office, said Saint Regis has been unfairly maligned and does not sell degrees.
But an investigation by a reporter for the Gwinnett Daily Post, in Georgia, seems to contradict that assertion. The reporter, Jaime Sarrio, who was looking into claims made by the six public-school teachers with Saint Regis degrees, purchased a master’s degree from Saint Regis for $995 after completing a multiple-choice test online.
It remains unclear what action, if any, will be taken by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. Steven A. Eggland, executive director of the council, said he only recently had become aware that Mr. Davis received a Ph.D. from Saint Regis.
Mr. Davis was appointed to the 14-member council last June and received his degree from Saint Regis in October. The degree was listed in his brief biography in the council’s winter newsletter.
“At the moment we are taking no position on the degree,” Mr. Eggland said. “There will be a continuing inquiry.”
Mr. Davis, who said he paid about $3,000 for the degree, acknowledged that he was not sure now whether Saint Regis is legitimate, and said he planned to look into the matter more thoroughly. When asked if he might have been fooled by Saint Regis, he responded, “I could have. I certainly could have.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 50, Issue 30, Page A29