Mzumbe dons in PhD scam
PIUS RUGONZIBWA, 11th February 2009 @ 11:16
Eight senior lecturers with the Mzumbe University have doctorate degrees that are either fake or acquired from institutions that lack internationally accepted accreditation, the Tanzania Commission of Universities (TCU) said today.
TCU Executive Secretary, Prof Mayunga Nkunya, said in an interview that it was recently established that some dons at the Morogoro-based varsity held questionable degrees. He said verification of the degrees was carried out after widespread public complaints on the authenticity of the degrees.
The matter was also repeatedly raised in the National Assembly. Prof Nkunya said TCU has already communicated its findings to the government for further action. He cautioned the public to be careful with some foreign institutions and individuals who were of late increasingly peddling undergraduate and graduate around the world.
The TCU chief said he was aware that some degrees were selling at around 2,000 US dollars (about 2.7m/-) and above. He said such offers were often being made online. It is ridiculous that these people are even sending a lot of e-mails to me, asking me to take part in the deals.
I have received many such offers, he said. He, however, declined to name the universities, local agents and individuals involved in the academic scam. We need to gather all the facts on the transactions, otherwise they may sue us, he cautioned further. Prof Nkunya warned members of the academic staff in institutions of higher learning against pursuing online courses, including degrees from unknown universities.
He also doubted the competency of online graduates in the world of research and academia, where they would need skills of impacting knowledge to their students. Such lecturers cannot do research professionally. They cannot teach well their students and help them become good researchers, he pointed out. Prof Nkunya said further that apart from the higher learning institutions, the problem of fake degrees was rampant in other organisations, saying TCU recently discovered five other fake doctorate degrees. He said there were proposals to amend the Universities Act, to give more teeth to TCU deal with proven culprits including prosecution.
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The list goes on and on:
Controversy
As Pacific Western University, i.e., prior to changing its name to California Miramar University, the institution was criticized on multiple occasions as a substandard educational institution or diploma mill. [19]
In May 2004 the US General Accounting Office presented the results of an eight-month examination of diploma mills and other unaccredited schools and federal employees holding their degrees to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.[20] Pacific Western University in Los Angeles was one of the six schools on which the investigation focused.
Later that year, investigative reporters from television station KVOA of Tucson, Arizona described the Los Angeles campus of Pacific Western University: "We don't find students, classrooms or professors. Only a small office with two receptionists and a man who introduces himself as the dean."[21] KVOA noted that federal investigators had identified PWU as a diploma mill.[21][22] The station reported that Pima Community College in Tucson had reduced the salaries of two faculty members who previously had been paid at the Ph.D level based on their degrees from PWU.[21]
Internationally, Pacific Western University has a similar reputation. It was reported in the Irish Independent on 9 October 2005 that the Chief Science Advisor to the government of Ireland, Barry McSweeney, had been found to have advanced his career using a suspect degree obtained from Pacific Western University.[23][24] The newspaper report stated that McSweeney had obtained his Ph.D. in biotechnology and biochemistry from PWU in 1994 after just 12 months of study. It described PWU as having "no merit or standing in the academic world" and having been "the subject of numerous official investigations, state bans and media exposés" during its 28 years of operation.[23] McSweeney was forced to resign his position as a result.[25] In Australia, the Brisbane Courier Mail reported on 6 January 2004 that a lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland was banned from using the title of "Doctor" after it was discovered that his Ph.D. had been obtained from Pacific Western University.[citation needed]
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Associate Professors
1. Moses M.D. Warioba DPA (IDM), Dip. Publ. Sect. Mgt (Aston), MBIM- (London), M.Sc. Publ. Sec. Mgt (Birmingham),
Ph.D. (Public Admin.) PWU, (USA)
2. Leonard .J. Shio B.A (Ed) Hons. (UDSM.), M.A. (Econ. Dev.) (UDSM),
Ph.D(Management) PWU, (USA)
3. M.N. Chao B.A (Ed.) Hons. (UDSM), M.A. (Dev. Studies) (UDSM),
Ph. D. (PWU), USA Senior Lecturers
4. Raphael J.M. Habi ADPA (IDM), M.Sc.(Pers. Mgt) (Aston) (UK), MIPM (U.K.), Dip. T. & D. (Manchester) (UK),
Ph.D(Management) PWU, (USA)
5. Christopher M. Sotta DPA (IDM), PG.D.(Gen.Mgt.)(IDM), MPA (IDM),
Ph.D (Public Admin) PWU, U.S.A.
6. Aristarch K. Kiwango B.A. (Soc. Econ Admin) Makerere, M.Sc. (Econ.) Wales, Ph.D. (Econ.)
PWU, (USA) PGD. (Project Planning)ISS,The Hague, PGD. (Pop & Dev Plan) ISS, The Hague
7. Colman Riwa B.A. (Education) (UDSM), PGD (Tesol) London, M.A. (Public Policy and Admin.) ISS, The Hague,
Ph.D. (Public Administration) PWU, USA. (On leave of absence)
