In the nineties, unaccredited university degree was virtually unheard of here in Singapore. There weren't too many reports in the media to uncover such operations either. My initial encounter with unaccredited degrees started with a call from a university representative many years back then. It spark my interest to probe into then an uncharted waters of unaccredited degrees. I was sitting my office preparing for what is to come when the phone rang. He identified himself as Mr Wong a representative from a prestigious sounding research university which claimed many links and ties with prestigious universities in the UK and US. What is more interesting is that fact that I could get a PhD in just 6 months and $5K. In the early days of Internet, a search of the word “degree mill” yielded a list "paper mills!" I got a copy of John Bear's book and subscribe to Alt.Education.Distance newsgroup and discover that's how it all begins....
With the advent of computers and Internet these days, it has revolutionized everything we do over the past decade. We used to have correspondence courses and materials are sent via snail mail, and response from teachers can be measured in term of weeks. These days, an email or instant messages does the job in lightning speed. Instead of receiving snail mail for a requested course brochure we received a acrobat file almost instantaneously after the submit button is hit.
Singapore, is a safe country, this is what we thought. We lived in a country where “we are safe”; low crime rate, no natural disasters but if you are looking to further your education via distance learning with a Internet University…. Be warned! There are unscrupulous individuals out there to skin you..
What you will read about from the series of articles is about people who are preying on your desire to earn a university degree or may be just another piece of worthless paper.
Singapore Context
In Singapore a university can only gain its recognition or accreditation by an Act of Parliament. These universities are: National University of Singapore (NUS); Nanyang Technological University (NTU); Singapore Management University (SMU).
The Public Service Commission (PSC) is the “Human Resources Department” of the Singapore Government. They set the employment standards and guidelines for the recognition of foreign universities qualifications. Since the government is the largest employer in Singapore, most local companies use PSC’s standard as a yardstick.
To my understanding, PSC will recognize U.S institutions that are accredited by the six regional accreditation agencies mentioned previously. For most commonwealth countries, a parliamentary or a royal charter should suffice.
