Quote:Mass killer tells of US diploma racket
Jan Petter Myklebust
17 January 2012

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist who confessed to killing 77 people last year in a bombing and shooting spree, has claimed during police questioning that he earned a net income of more than US$1 million from the falsification of diplomas from élite American universities.

The diplomas were sold over the internet, mainly to customers in the US, he claimed.

Police believe that he used the income to finance his bomb-making and international travel prior to the bomb attack in the centre of Oslo and the massacre on the island of Utøya last July.

Breivik said that the diplomas were made so that everybody could see that they were not real. The purpose was to make something that friends could give to each other for fun, he reportedly told the police.

A young data expert who did not give his full name confirmed in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper VG that he had assisted Breivik in this undertaking during 2004-05, from his home in Asia, and that he was paid promptly for his work. He said he made up to 200 false documents a month for Breivik, VG reported.

The police investigator in Oslo told the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK that he did not want to go into details on how Breivik had made his money, but confirmed that "he had earned millions" of kroner.

This had enabled him to travel to many countries for long periods of time and to buy the chemicals and other materials he needed to produce the bomb that destroyed a large government building in a housing complex in the middle of Oslo.

Norwegians are now preparing themselves for the court proceedings of the mass murder, which is due to start at Oslo district court on 16 April.

Two psychiatrists have written a 234-page report, based on 13 interviews with Breivik. They have concluded that he is a paranoid schizophrenic. Under Norwegian law, he will therefore not be subject to serving his punishment in prison, but in a closed psychiatric ward.

This diagnosis has angered other psychiatrists and other experts and many people in Norway, and a wealth of newspaper articles have been published asking how a sick person could have planned such a major logistical operation over such a long time.

The court has now appointed two other psychiatrists to re-examine Breivik, and give a new expert opinion on his mental state.

Mitt Romney hails ACCSC-accredited for-profit Full Sail University as a paradigm of American higher ed. Leftist higher ed clones squeal like fat little pigs!

Quote:January 18th, 2012
Romney’s support for Full Sail University raises eyebrows in higher ed
Republican presidential frontrunner holds up for-profit college as a model for what higher education should be

By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor

Adrian Davila Saenz, a recent graduate of Full Sail University in Orlando, did a double take when he read this week that Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has touted Full Sail as a paradigm for American higher education.

Saenz, who took seven online classes on his way to a film degree from Full Sail in October, wasn’t alone in scratching his head after Romney mentioned the 15,000-student for-profit university by name several times on the campaign trail during the fall and winter, saying Full Sail was able to “hold down the cost of education” and serve as an example of how competition can improve higher education.

Romney’s praise for Full Sail—sometimes without being prompted by Republican primary voters or reporters on the campaign trail—comes as for-profit schools face scrutiny from the Obama administration, which pushed through “gainful employment” rules in 2011 to enforce basic graduation and student debt standards as a condition for for-profit colleges to receive federally-backed student loans.

Romney’s high esteem for Full Sail also coincides with campaign contributions from the university’s CEO, Bill Heavener, who gave the maximum $2,500 to Romney’s campaign and another $45,000 to a so-called “super PAC” that supports Romney for president and is run by aides to the former governor, as first reported by the New York Times.

“It was very surprising, because you’d never think a school like Full Sail … would be labeled like that by someone running for president,” said Saenz, 24, who was hired shortly after graduating from Full Sail. “I think this is a huge issue and something that students will definitely look at before [they vote].”

Romney, however, wouldn’t be the first presidential hopeful to rake in donations from the Orlando-based technical school. Ed Haddock, Full Sail’s founder and co-chair, served on the Obama for America National Finance Committee and helped raise more than $200,000 for Obama’s 2008 presidential bid, according to public records.

Haddock made news last year when an internal White House memo was leaked showing concern among Obama officials that Haddock could support the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 after Haddock expressed dissatisfaction about his access to White House decision makers.

Activists who track the political involvement of colleges and universities said the White House should worry about for-profit schools throwing their considerable financial resources behind whoever wins the Republican nomination.

“My assumption is that it has become Republican orthodoxy that [for-profit colleges] deserve all the favors they could ever want,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), adding that Romney’s support for Full Sail could prove a political liability in the fall. “If that’s his remedy, I think he’s going to have a very hard time explaining his idea of what higher education should be.”

As tuition and student fees at U.S. colleges and universities have risen sharply over the past decade, Nassirian said it would be difficult to use Full Sail as an example of schools can provide affordable, high-quality education in a down economy.

Full Sail’s video game arts program, for instance, saw 14 percent of its students graduate last year. A degree in video game arts would cost $81,000. While other Full Sail programs have higher completion rates, all of its programs are many times more expensive than nonprofit and public universities.

“Full Sail is a cure worse than the disease, because it vastly outstrips costs in every way,” Nassirian said. “And the issue is not necessarily that it’s expensive—sometimes paying a little extra is well worth it. It’s that [Full Sail] is extremely expensive and has a fairly miserable track record when it comes to outcomes.”

Saenz said he knew a film degree from Full Sail—a school specializing in film, video game development, sports management, and a laundry list of related fields—would cost $75,000. His post-graduation loan payments, however, leave little leeway in his monthly expenses.

“My student loan payments are surprisingly high. It is very stressful thinking about the fact that I will have to make high payments every month for a long period of time, but at the end of the day, it was my decision to get a degree,” Saenz said.

Dissatisfaction with Full Sail sparked a website called Full Sail Review, which seeks to advise prospective students before they commit to attending the for-profit university. The site rails against the school for deceptive recruitment practices and the poor quality of Full Sail’s online course selection, among other complaints.

The site appears to be run by a disillusioned former Full Sail student, although no one from Full Sail Review responded to interview requests from eCampus News.

Saenz said the immaculate facilities at Full Sail make it difficult to ignore for prospective students, even if they are skeptical about costs and quality of the school’s various programs.

“Full Sail was so convincing because of the brand-new equipment, and [its] facilities are awesome,” he said. “They always keep the school looking brand new. … I wouldn’t say I wish I’d gone somewhere else, because I’m not sure what else is out there. The only thing I’m not happy about is the amount of money I owe.”

The item has been mentioned here often. Are traditional universities just a haven for politicking leftists? Hungry contractors eager to build the fifth indoor swimming pool? Sleazy coaches paid fortunes to teach Jethro and Rufus how to chase a ball?
What concerns me most, though, is the mediocrity of teaching imparted...and i am not referring here to any political bias.
Since itunes university, academicearth and other venues have made many courses from many traditional universities available for free, everybody can freely judge the quality of such courses.
I personally have followed many over the years.
As one who has been involved with learning over a long period, i can say that none was excellent; most were mediocre; quite a few were weird, sub-par or both.
The toss of coins that determined whether your course was to be just mediocre or even sub-par was the same whether Yale or Wallawalla community college was concerned.
The luck of the draw may be less important if all that's at stake are a few dollars to buy a copy -maybe used- of THE GREAT COURSES or THE TEACHING COMPANY products, whose average quality is much higher than the average at Yale or the like, as far as I could say.
It becomes paramount when one is paying a fortune and getting in debt for life to attend supposed platinum universities.
It's like the teenager who buys a pair of shoes to brag about...they are made in Vietnam, are crummy and uncomfortable but he paid them 299$ only to be hispals' envy.

As of the end of December 2011 it was 133. In just two weeks it's now up to 137---and counting!

And they just got sued by the feds for fraud too. They paid $5.2 million to settle.

Avoid Grand Canyon University--it is a scam and a ripoff! Not just a degree mill.....it's a disgrace mill!!!

Quote:Submitted: Thursday, December 29, 2011
Posted: Thursday, December 29, 2011
Reported By: Justina -- Grand Canyon Arizona United States of America

Grand Canyon "University" Hall of Shame Fraud, Internet

Check out the Better Business Bureau website. Grand Canyon "University" has had 133 BBB complaints lodged against it during the past three years.

I am a former GCU professor, fired for awarding legitimate grades to students.

I now teach for the "Big Guys" online and I have had no problems. Curious, I checked to see how many BBB complaints the "Big Guys" have had during the last three years: THREE

Big Guys: Three (3) BBB complaints during the last three years

Grand Canyon University: 133 (ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE) BBB complaints during the last three years

Quote:Submitted: Sunday, August 21, 2011
Last Posting: Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Reported By: Justina -- Gainesville Florida United States of America

Grand Canyon University Grand Canyon University Online Grand Canyon University was Sued for Fraud by the United States Department of Education Phoenix, Arizona

Are you job searching after receive a "degree" from Grand Canyon University?

How would you like to inform potential employers that you graduated from a "university" that was sued by the United States Department of Education for fraud? Think that will enhance your chances of getting a job in a tight job market?

In August 11, 2008, the U.S. Department of Education filed a qui tam action under the False Claims Act for GCU's receiving millions of dollars from the U.S. DOE while paying incentives and bonuses to enrollment counselors for any warm body who applies to get a degree at GCU (such incentives and bonuses are illegal and out of compliance with federal mandates).

It was alleged in the federal civil complaint filed against GCU that GCU (1) "knowingly made false statements to get a false or fraudulent claim paid," and (2) "knowingly submitted false records to get a false or fraudulent claim paid."

GCU settled out for $5.2 million.

Now imagine that you are job searching and your potential boss knows that (a) any warm body was allowed to enroll at GCU and (b) online instructors who give real grades are fired (I was one of them).

How serious is your potential boss going to take your transcript which shows you received all A's and B's from GCU--and hundreds of other graduates from GCU also show all A's and B's on their transcripts?

"So, tell me about your experiences as an online student at GCU," your potential boss states.

"Oh, the online professors are really nice. And if they don't pass you, you can make a complaint on them and get them fired."

"Oh," says your potential boss. "I see several misspelled words on your job application and your statement of purpose. Why is that?"

"Well, because, at GCU, we get graded according to a grading rubric and misspelled words only count for a miniscule number of points. A student can therefore still receive an A on his or her papers, even if spelling is a problem."

"And did you learn how to write reports? This job will require you to submit weekly reports that must read well."

"Oh, yes!" you contend. "I participated in CLCs--Collaborative Learning Communities. Oftentimes, there are six people who write a paper as a group. Sometimes it's only one person who is really doing all of the writing, but all of the rest of us get the same grade, which is generally an A. I mean, if our "online facilitator" had not awarded us an "A," we certainly would have complained about her and gotten her into trouble."

"And what standing does Grand Canyon University have with the United States Department of Education?"

""Oh, we were sued by the U.S. DOE for fraud."

"Well, thank you for coming in for this interview. I'll be sure to keep your resume on file."

This is what happens when you post at DD and hang out with turds on the internet: Your brain is destroyed.

Quote:Prayers, Thoughts, Meditations requests, please...
by Jimmy on Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:11 am

A few of you know that two week's ago I suffered a grand mal seizure (first time ever) at work, passed out, and was rushed to the ER. At that point, the thought was my blood sugar was too low.

Was subsequently sent to a neurologist who had me undergo a brain MRI. Results today show a brain lesion. Will see a neurosurgeon to determine which one of four types (two serious, two not) I have. Please keep me in your prayers, thoughts, and meditations. Thank you.

Hello,

this is Dr. Muhammad Schmidt writing again after a couple of years.
First of all, my best wishes for a happy, blessed and successful New Year to all of you!

I have some news regarding IFTS and some other personal matters:

After several years of being in the process of applying for an interim university charter from the Kenyan government (issued by the Kenyan Commission for Higher Education as the competent body), we are done and expect to receive the government documents in January 2012. The process had been finalised some months before in 2011, but in Kenya it takes time - too much time perhaps sometimes - to get the respective documents issued to have them in hand.

This new year 2012 will be our seventh year of operation in Kenya and some other countries, and we have gradually developed from a Far Distance school into one with students physically present in class without totally giving up the Far Distance study option. While in the beginnng IFTS mainly served the less fortunate parts of the population in Kenya, we have been increasingly serving people from middle-class backgrounds upwards in the past years. One of our current students there is a highly respected Member of Parliament.

Some of our former graduates at Bachelor level made their way by transferring to other recognised schools like the Catholic University of East Africa (Nairobi) for advanced degrees, now serving as Secondary school principals with a good and stable income with the means to sponsor other, poorer student at IFTS. IFTS is the only interdenominational school in Kenya whose theological degree program is recognised by the official Anglican Church of Kenya for their clergy to be ordained into the deaconate and priesthood. The same for the training of Anglican military chaplains of the Kenyan army.

Some of our former graduates work as Lecturers for other legitimate theological schools. Most of the theses our advanced graduates submitted have been published, sold and generate a stable income to cover our expenses to keep the school going.

We have been donated a piece of land to erect our own buildings there, and there are plans to affiliate with another ministry from the US with plans to build a new university there with funding from the US. It remains to be seen how these plans will materialise in one way or the other.

In February or March this year, I am looking forward to another appointment as a professor at a Chinese university. I was offered a position as one of their Associate Professors with a tenure period of 2 years, which may be prolonged under mutual consent. It seems that some of my published works regarding Chinese language, culture and traditional medicine have not remained quite unnoticed in China, and the university in question actually expects me to continue publishing stuff like that but to include the name of that university and the department where I will be working in any such future publications.

I am far from intending to blow my own trumpet here, but as of one of the former targets and later victims of the stalking gang on the "other board" with figures like the deceased uncle, pretenders like Bill Grover, Levicoff and their likes, it must be quite a change in "career" for an accused "degree millist", "pompous pope", "evil person" and fake degree holder that they claimed I am.

Is it perhaps possible that these self-styled "experts" have been wrong in their "assessment" of people they do not know and have never met at all?

Again, a happy new Year to all of you!

yours in degreeinfo...
a big bear hug...

MIT has been offering free online courses for some time, but now they will begin offering "affordable" certificates for completion of those courses. As noted in the article, MIT is a brand with high acceptance. How long before someone begins offering degrees based on the certs?

Quote:M.I.T. Expands Its Free Online Courses
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: December 19, 2011

While students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pay thousands of dollars for courses, the university will announce a new program on Monday allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge — and for the first time earn official certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught.

“There are many people who would love to augment their education by having access to M.I.T. content, people who are very capable to earn a certificate from M.I.T.,” said L. Rafael Reif, the provost, in a conference call with reporters Friday.

M.I.T. led the way to an era of online learning 10 years ago by posting course materials from almost all its classes. Its free OpenCourseWare now includes nearly 2,100 courses and has been used by more than 100 million people.

But the new “M.I.T.x” interactive online learning platform will go further, giving students access to online laboratories, self-assessments and student-to-student discussions.

Mr. Reif and Anant Agarwal, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said M.I.T.x would start this spring — perhaps with just one course — but would expand to include many more courses, as OpenCourseWare has done.

“The technologies available are much more advanced than when we started OpenCourseWare,” Mr. Agarwal said. “We can provide pedagogical tools to self-assess, self-pace or create an online learning community.”

The M.I.T.x classes, he said, will have online discussions and forums where students can ask questions and, often, have them answered by others in the class.

While access to the software will be free, there will most likely be an “affordable” charge, not yet determined, for a credential.

“I think for someone to feel they’re earning something, they ought to pay something, but the point is to make it extremely affordable,” Mr. Reif said. “The most important thing is that it’ll be a certificate that will clearly state that a body sanctioned by M.I.T. says you have gained mastery.”

The certificate will not be a regular M.I.T. degree, but rather a credential bearing the name of a new not-for-profit body to be created within M.I.T; revenues from the credentialing, officials said, would go to support the M.I.T.x platform and to further M.I.T’s mission.

Educators at other universities applauded the M.I.T. move.

“It seems like a very big deal because the traditional higher education reaction to online programs was, yeah, but it’s not a credential,” said Richard DeMillo, director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “So I think M.I.T. offering a credential will make quite a splash. If I were still in industry and someone came in with an M.I.T.x credential, I’d take it.”

M.I.T. said its new learning platform should eventually host a virtual community of learners around the world — and enhance the education of M.I.T.’s on-campus students, with online tools that enrich their classroom and laboratory experiences.

The development of the new platform will be accompanied by an M.I.T.-wide research initiative on online teaching and learning, including grading by computer.

And because the M.I.T.x platform will be available free to people around the world, M.I.T. officials said they expected that other universities would also use it to offer their own free online courses. Mr. Reif said that M.I.T. was investing millions of dollars in the project, and that it expected to raise money from foundations and others.