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At least 218 here have off-the-shelf degrees

jbsmith

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Are you one of them? :p

A few famous names were in this article.

The Straits Times Friday, August 29, 2009

By Sandra Davie

AT LEAST 218 people, mostly Singaporeans, are proudly flaunting degrees, MBAs and doctorates from a dozen degree mills, including Preston University, Paramount University of Technology, Kennedy-Western University and Rochville University.

This was uncovered by Straits Times checks on the Internet and trade publications, to find out how widespread the use of bogus qualifications is here.

Most of them are males and predominantly businessmen, professional trainers, private school lecturers and financial consultants.

The majority have basic diplomas and in some cases, degrees from bona fide universities, but quote masters or PhDs from bogus institutions to bolster their credentials.

A few such as Expressions International founder Theresa Chew, who has a honorary doctorate from Kennedy-Western University, and Mr George Quek, who has an honorary business doctorate from the Wisconsin International University, add the words Honoris Causa (Latin for a token of respect or honour) on theirs namecards, to indicate that it is an honorary degree.

But worryingly, an increasingly long list of private school lecturers and financial consultants openly cite their bought doctorates and masters' degrees, in their curriculum vitae and client pitches.

A typical example is Be-Mad, a company at Scotts Road, that trains human resource professionals. Its chief executive officer 'Dr' David Ong Kah Seng and two of his associates, 'Dr' Ng Sin Keh and Mr Yeo Thiang Swee, have degrees from Rochville University, Preston University and Atlantic International University, which are all commonly referred to as diploma mills in the United States.

On its website, Be-Mad consultancy boasts that its long list of clients includes ministries, banks and educational institutions.

Yet another two successful businessmen with questionable qualifications are options trading expert 'Dr' Clemen Chiang, a Nanyang Technological University graduate, who runs courses through Freely Business School at North Bridge Road and 'Dr' T. Chandroo who runs a chain of 60 Montessori kindergartens here and abroad. Both of them have doctorates from Preston University, classified as a degree mill in the US.

Why do these successful businessmen who have demonstrated expertise in an area resort to using degrees from unaccredited institutions?

After all, resume detectives say such bogus degrees are a 'ticking time bomb', which may burnish your CV for now, but sooner or later blow up in your face.

The Straits Times put the question to 'Drs' Ong, Chiang and Chandroo.

Mr Ong claimed that his alma mater Rochville University was a reputed one and claimed to have worked on a thesis for 18 months on behavioural sciences.

Mr Chandroo's secretary said he was 'too busy' to answer e-mails or calls from The Straits Times over the past month.

Mr Chiang, known to be an astute entrepreneur who set up Freely Business School and is widely quoted in the local press on options trading, admits that he was 'not so smart' when he signed up for an online doctorate programme from Preston University a few years ago.

The NTU engineering graduate said he wanted to complete a PhD in extra quick time and found out about Preston University through the Internet. And because it was listed as a partner of a private school here licensed by the Education Ministry, he thought it was an accredited institution.

He suggested a thesis topic on options trading which was accepted by the university faculty in Wyoming, US. He researched the topic and submitted his thesis within 16 months and was granted a PhD. It cost him all of S$18,000 in fees.

It was only later that he realised that Preston was not accredited in the US.

Mr Chiang sheepishly admits that he continues to use his doctorate as it helps to pave the way in business. Besides, he reasons: 'I did write a thesis for it.'

But he added: 'But I am thinking of dropping my doctorate title altogether until I complete the current PhD I am working on with the University of South Australia.'
 

BlueCat

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more of these cases and people will surface soon.
a lot of employers will be doing a thorough check on the certificates and degrees of their employees after this was published and being discussed.
 

jbsmith

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more of these cases and people will surface soon.
a lot of employers will be doing a thorough check on the certificates and degrees of their employees after this was published and being discussed.

"Harry Doggy" also got a doctorate. :wink:

US$599 for an instant degree
By Sandra Davie
JUST how easy is it to get a doctorate from a degree mill?

To put it to the test, The Straits Times applied for a doctorate for my pet beagle Harry two weeks ago.

All I did was go to www.ashwooduniversity.net, fill in his name (Harry Doggy), date of birth (Nov 19), age (I multiplied his seven dog years by seven for the equivalent in human years and put down 49)and work-life experience - where I wrote 'spent years studying the interactions between people and animals'.

I then clicked on a Doctorate in Social and Behavioural Sciences, costing US$599 (S$850), one of the cheapest in the market. I also chose his grade point average (GPA). A GPA of 3.0 comes free, but anything above 3.5 with Latin honours (summa cum laude) costs another US$60.
 

makapaaa

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>>>Mr Ong claimed that his alma mater Rochville University was a reputed one and claimed to have worked on a thesis for 18 months on behavioural sciences.<<<

18 mths to get a PhD. He must be damned smart or he thinks the world at large is stupid - just like the Old Fart!
 

Merl Haggard

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>>>Mr Ong claimed that his alma mater Rochville University was a reputed one and claimed to have worked on a thesis for 18 months on behavioural sciences.<<<

18 mths to get a PhD. He must be damned smart or he thinks the world at large is stupid - just like the Old Fart!


Dr Dennis Wee, a property agent who dropped out at sec 2!
 

makapaaa

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Notice how it's reported last week that FTrash are using fake certs to gain entry into local schools and varsities, which causes more harmby depriving Sporns of educational opportunities. Now the 154th quickly does damage control to the the Emperor's FTrash decree by showing how some business crooks are also holding fake PhDs. Except of course, they forgot to mention that the Old Fart also holds a couple of them!
 

madmansg

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Mr Chiang, known to be an astute entrepreneur who set up Freely Business School and is widely quoted in the local press on options trading, admits that he was 'not so smart' when he signed up for an online doctorate programme from Preston University a few years ago.

The NTU engineering graduate said he wanted to complete a PhD in extra quick time and found out about Preston University through the Internet. And because it was listed as a partner of a private school here licensed by the Education Ministry, he thought it was an accredited institution.

He suggested a thesis topic on options trading which was accepted by the university faculty in Wyoming, US. He researched the topic and submitted his thesis within 16 months and was granted a PhD. It cost him all of S$18,000 in fees.

It was only later that he realised that Preston was not accredited in the US.

Mr Chiang sheepishly admits that he continues to use his doctorate as it helps to pave the way in business. Besides, he reasons: 'I did write a thesis for it.'

But he added: 'But I am thinking of dropping my doctorate title altogether until I complete the current PhD I am working on with the University of South Australia.

===============

so stupid how to be a top trader ?
 

neji

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super big can of worms opened liao.
People gonna have a even harder time looking for job with all these scrutinising going on, and God bless those people who have gotten their jobs using fake qualifications and get found out.
 

peterlth

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Mr Chiang, known to be an astute entrepreneur who set up Freely Business School and is widely quoted in the local press on options trading, admits that he was 'not so smart' when he signed up for an online doctorate programme from Preston University a few years ago.

===============

so stupid how to be a top trader ?

Received this from an insider friend. Wonder if it is true.

-------

Indeed, Clemen Chiang promotes himself very well on his website (www.freely.com/about-freely.html). But all you needed is to google and some common sense to know that some things he proclaims just aren’t that right.

Clemen Chiang claimed to have a PhD degree from a ‘Preston University’, which in actual fact is not a University but a business entity. Preston is probably a degree mill (http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/degree+mill.html), according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_University) and The Chronicle (http://chronicle.com/news/article/?id=1808). Degree mills will ship to anyone any academic certificate as long as they are paid a tidy sum of money. If what Wikipedia said is true, then Clemen Chiang probably bought his PhD to call himself ‘Dr Chiang’.

According to the University of Louisville (http://delphi.louisville.edu/distance/student/), where Clemen Chiang gets his MBA, students can complete their studies without ever entering a classroom. Have you heard of MBA classes without classroom interaction at all? Even if there is, then you ought to question its academic worthiness? Is it just a cheap and easy MBA program?

On Clemen Chiang’s Chinese website (http://www.freely.com/chinese/), he claimed to graduate from 普林斯顿大学. This is actually the name of Princeton University, an 100+ years old Ivy League University. Apparently, Preston choose to have the same Chinese name as Princeton University, even the English pronunciation sounds almost identical. Pure coincidental or outright misleading? You decide.

I am confused whether Clemen Chiang is a marketing guy or an investment person. He claimed to be a fellow of Chartered Institute of Marketing, Marketing Council Asia, Chartered Management Institute and International Professional Managers Association. If you are an Engineer, you join associations like Institute of Engineers. If you are into investment, you join SIAS. Further, why choose CIM, CMI and IPMA which are all based in Europe, when Clemen Chiang himself is conducting investment courses in Singapore and Malaysia? These organizations do have big names but have nothing to do with investment or option trading.

Clemen Chiang also claimed to be a fellow of Marketing Council Asia. I’m not sure if this organization exists as I google nothing. But in all fairness, there is another chap (http://www.bawany.com.sg/advisor.htm) who claimed that he is the founder of Marketing Council Asia, and he also has a Preston degree.

Clemen Chiang likes to throw in a lot of big names into his introduction, like CNBC and Stanford University. Clement Chiang claimed to be a recipient of the Shah Family Prize by this Stanford Professor for his good ECA records. But Clement's ex-NTU classmate revealed that he was asked to resign (voted off?) as a student leader during his college days. I am not able to ascertain this fact. But if it is indeed true, then Clement's good ECA record is only the rosy first half.

Towards the end of his introduction, he claimed to receive the ‘Key to the City’ by a US mayor, apparently given to esteemed visitors and residents. Yeah right, even a bunch of kids (http://kysoccer.info/open/2006/javan...louisville.pdf) who won a soccer tournament received the so call key.

Clemen graduated from university around 2000, therefore has only less than 10 years of working experience. And he is no trader or investor t beging with. Before he started his option trading education work, he worked in Coleman International Pte Ltd, a company which provides direct marketing services in the IT industry, from 2001 to 2003. How he switched from marketing to become a option trading 'expert' is interesting, but he certainly doesn't have solid investment experience behind him.

In fairness, the above are my findings based on google search and hearsay. I do not mean to discredit Clemen Chiang or the university and organization he is representing. From a marketing point of view, Clemen Chiang do package himself very well and able to convince others into believing his expertise in option investment trading.
 
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myfoot123

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I cannot understand why people wanted to buy fake degree. It is like buying fake weapon to fight in real war.
 

makapaaa

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Asset
Mr Chiang, known to be an astute entrepreneur who set up Freely Business School and is widely quoted in the local press on options trading, admits that he was 'not so smart' when he signed up for an online doctorate programme from Preston University a few years ago.

The NTU engineering graduate said he wanted to complete a PhD in extra quick time and found out about Preston University through the Internet. And because it was listed as a partner of a private school here licensed by the Education Ministry, he thought it was an accredited institution.

He suggested a thesis topic on options trading which was accepted by the university faculty in Wyoming, US. He researched the topic and submitted his thesis within 16 months and was granted a PhD. It cost him all of S$18,000 in fees.

It was only later that he realised that Preston was not accredited in the US.

Mr Chiang sheepishly admits that he continues to use his doctorate as it helps to pave the way in business. Besides, he reasons: 'I did write a thesis for it.'

But he added: 'But I am thinking of dropping my doctorate title altogether until I complete the current PhD I am working on with the University of South Australia.

===============

so stupid how to be a top trader ?

Perhaps he has a high EQ?
 

giggity_shit

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Update on this sotry.....

===============================
Varsity demands apology from ST
Friday • September 5, 2008

A US-registered university, which The Straits Times (ST) alleged in recent articles was one of many offering degrees for sale, is demanding an apology from the newspaper.
Dr Jerry P Haenisch, the chancellor of Preston University, took umbrage with two reports carried on Aug 29 and 30. He said they “contained factual errors” about the university.

“The articles’ research was superficial and simply repeated erroneous assumptions and untrue innuendo from other writers,” he wrote in an announcement published in this newspaper today.

He said the university was “legally licensed and authorized to operate by the State of Alabama”. The US Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation both state the voluntary nature of accreditation in the country, and caution that a school’s accreditation status should never be the sole criteria for assessing its quality or validity.

“Preston is not accredited, true; but a degree mill, absolutely not!” he wrote, citing its strict adherence to widely-accepted academic standards and its rejection of any type of non-academic transfer credit.

Dr Haenisch was also piqued that ST had used his university’s relocation last year from Wyoming to Alabama as evidence of “disrepute”. He said the move was a business decision as Wyoming had a population of just 500,000, while Alabama has much “greater academic and business support resources”.

The Aug 29 report had stated that at least 218 people, mostly Singaporeans, are flaunting degrees, MBAs and doctorates from a dozen degree mills.
 

zack123

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I cannot understand why people wanted to buy fake degree. It is like buying fake weapon to fight in real war.

A fake degree is akin to a woman with a dildo. It gives her some personal satisfaction but would be embarrased if pple knows that she's not doing it with a real thing.
 

Wobble

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A fake degree is akin to a woman with a dildo. It gives her some personal satisfaction but would be embarrased if pple knows that she's not doing it with a real thing.

provided she wants to let ppl know that she is doing it in the first place...
 

kakowi

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I cannot understand why people wanted to buy fake degree. It is like buying fake weapon to fight in real war.

But it is fake appearing real.

Besides, it is not about fighting a real war on intellectual debate or forging new creative grounds.

It is about helping people to part with their money.
 

hughgrant

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Are you one of them? :p
few such as Expressions International founder Theresa Chew, who has a honorary doctorate from Kennedy-Western University, and Mr George Quek, who has an honorary business doctorate from the Wisconsin International University, add the words Honoris Causa (Latin for a token of respect or honour) on theirs namecards, to indicate that it is an honorary degree.

A few famous names were in this article.

knn, no wonder went into a venture with this theresa , investments go down the drain. shld have checked more carefully:mad:
 

joker88

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Dr Dennis Wee, a property agent who dropped out at sec 2!

Dennis Wee's PhD is conferred by the uni not earned by coursework or research. These people were conferred by the uni for outstanding work and contribution to society. The late Dr Lien Ying Chow who owns OUB also same case. These are exceptional cases.

Mr Ong is different. He is trying to say he deserve to get his PhD after just 18 months of work on his thesis. He must think that he is damn smart or we are damn stupid. :rolleyes:
 
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