This profile is a reproduction, with links added, of the feature article VIRTUAL UNIVERSITIES by Brian Donaghy, which appeared in the March 1-7, 2000 issue of the Australian higher education newspaper, CAMPUS REVIEW.
"I just want to ensure that people get a Îlegitâ education.ä
George Brown already works for an institution providing ãlegitä education ? he is the coordinator of a group of accredited degrees at a highly regarded Australian tertiary institution.
But in his spare time he surfs the web and the worldâs newsgroups, identifying the fraudulent or dubious distance education universities which have proliferated with the internet, and he e-mails Australian politicians and public servants, providing information on the latest scams and finding out what has been done about them.
ãThere needs to be a fair and equitable system out there that can provide people with legitimate education and currently there is a huge batch of accrediting agencies around the world that no-one understands,ä Brown says.
He has set up a web-site (http://www.virtualuniversities.net) where he posts news of the latest developments in dubious distance education, lists a number of worthless ãaccreditingä agencies, and provides hints on how to spot a degree mill.
The site also provides links to relevant articles and publications including Campus Review, to the newsgroup alt.education.distance and to websites around the world run by similar cyber sleuths in pursuit of cybershonks. The site lists eight virtual universities currently based in Australasia ? the University of Asia, Greenwich University, St Clements Pacific International, St George University International, Marlborough University, IOND University & International Hypnotism College, and the Global Virtual University.
They range, Brown says, from the fraudulent to legitimate educational institutions. He names names and makes it quite clear which ones he thinks are conmen. He has already had some menacing phone calls, and asked that his workplace not be identified in this story.
ãWhat I want (my) web pages to do is create an awareness of the market and what is out there, so that students can make an informed decision. Physical location means nothing in this world of virtual education, itâs a global market ... and the bottom line is that anyone can publish anything on the internet.ä
Brown believes that what is needed now is some form of recognised global accreditation. The system that is now being developed by the government will be excellent, he says, but it will only cover one country.
Many of the fraudulent operations used all the right words and all the right symbols and there was no obvious place for a potential student to check them out. ãYou can look into the domain name registration and do background checks from there, but the average person looking for a qualification takes it at face value.ä
So for a start he would like to see a centralised website listing, by country, the accreditation status of providers of virtual courses. ãThis listing should be of only those institutions which have degree-granting authority in their own countries.ä
However, the American system for accrediting universities is a perfect example, he says, of the chaos out there. ãIf students are considering an American degree and want to know what it will be worth, they are faced with a regional accreditation system, with state licensing, and with unaccredited universities. Which one do they choose? All three are legal and legitimate, and as far as acceptability of the qualifications are concerned, there may be no difference.ä
So even compiling a global accreditation registry would require an enormous amount of work and, therefore, money. He hasnât quite worked out where that might come from, but in the meantime he is getting his website listed on the search engines and finishing a masters degree on cyber unis at Flinders University.
Introducing the Coordinating Ring - John Spiers
This issue's Member's Profile is the first of a series of short pieces introducing the members of the Coordinating Ring, particularly the more newly appointed ones. I've asked each member to provide just a brief description of background, especially experience in online education, including links to any course sites or other sites of relevance, plus reflections along the lines of why you joined WAOE, and what you hope to give to - and what you hope to get out of - the organisation. Web Editor
We'll kick off with John Spiers, whom many of you will have met already online as the owner/manager of Learn Online!, the site where you enrolled for the WAOE Orientation Course and thereby paid dues or obtained waiver from dues for 1999/2000.
John Spiers is an international trader by profession who has taught his expertise since 1984. In 94 he began teaching online, and now leads some 60 instructors at www.NonCreditEd.Net in providing noncredit course online by instructors around the world to schools around the world. John's goal is to promote free trade in education worldwide, and WAOE is the right organization to promote that end.
See http://members.aol.com/wileyccc for a photo and more information about John's work and achievements.