RE: phd/doctorate programs – caveat PHONY PHDs!

[Guest guest]

Sun, 4 Feb 2007 19:41:43 +0000, mike Bowser <naturaldoc1

response.

 

Thanks, Mike, for expanding the list. I haven't paid close attention

to the overall scene since leaving school administration some years ago.

 

>>There are some rather unknown PhD's that cater to the out of state

crowd (not in CA) and these would by the American Liberty Univ or

Gobal Univ and then you have Yuen Univ (located in Compton or South

central LA).

 

We need to be very clear here. Perhaps unknown when we speak of

genuine doctorate study. But American Liberty / Global is very

well-known in some circles, having issued hundreds of " PhDs " to

people, mostly Asians, in California alone. THESE ARE PHONY DEGREES.

They involve attending weekend " classes " once a month for about a

year, and writing a ca. 10,000 word " paper " , which is often

ghost-written. Then they represent themselves as Dr in advertising.

Sometimes they get called on it when blatant (in yellow pages,

newspapers), but it goes virtually unchecked in Asian media and

communities. I've even seen flyers for CEU courses tauting these phony

degrees as instructor credentials.

 

These have NO accreditation/approval/authorization stemming from the

US Dept of Education. In fact, the California Acupuncture Board,

BPPVE, Attorney General and other agencies have been vainly fighting

them and their advertising for a while now. They claim to be

accredited by some off-shore agency – a front for fake degree mills

(c.f. the websites).

 

These institutions and their " graduates " are constantly lobbying /

pressuring the Acupuncture Board for " approval " . They advertise, for

instance in " Acupuncture Today " , that they have " approval " by the

Calif. Acu. Brd., meaning in fact being approved for some CEU courses,

NOT their " degree " programs.

 

It's a cross-cultural problem. Acceptable behavior in some foreign

cultures (it's said one can buy a PhD diploma from Univ. of Beijing on

the street over there for ca. $150), taken very seriously in most

Western cultures. Doctorate degrees reflect a high standard of

accomplishment and hard work. American society has irksome

anti-intellectual slant, but the academic establishment maintains high

standards. In Germany, people with doctorates, of any (genuine) sort,

or held in high regard in the society at large. In my practice, near

major academic centers (Stanford, UCBerkeley, UCSF/SJ, etc.), I've

treated several PhD candidates as patients – doctorate study can be

hazardous to one's health.

 

Actually, the Western culture of PhD/doctorate education is in a way

comparable to the Asian culture of achieving mastery in a lineage. (It

is said academic culture is less " democratic " and more " feudal " in

nature.) The study traditionally and typically involves a close

relationship with a mentor, a prominent person in the field. For

instance, in the acknowledgments section of Volker Scheid's and Kim

Taylor's dissertations./books, each credits his/her " doctoral

supervisor. " " Acknowledgments " in fact often includes a virtual

statement of lineage. Oral examinations are, in one sense, an

initiation, a test that the candidate can stand on his/her own feet in

the presence of a group of peers they wish to become part of.

Acceptance of an apprentice into a Guild of masters (as dramatized in

the opera " Der Meistersaenger von Nuernberg " ). Accepting a candidate

into the group is acknowledgement that this person can faithfully

represent the field, bear the responsibility and carry on the

tradition. It's like family, in the Asian sense.

 

This is probably part of the attraction of Jeffery Yuen's program for

me. It's not created by committee (e.g. ACCAOM), but built around an

" 88th generation Daoist Master of the Yu Ching Huang Lao Pai (Jade

Purity Huang Qi Lao Tzu School) " . But admittedly this represents just

a personal bias. As I've learned along the way from Jeffery's

storehouse of knowledge, the Chinese Imperial Academy [of Medicine],

from perhaps Tang, clearly from Song times on functioned not unlike

the ACCAOM in collecting the know-how of masters in defining and

maintaining, committee-style, the standards of excellence of a great

tradition. (The interaction of the " 4 Great Masters " with the Imperial

Academy is another fascinating topic, but not for here.)

 

Again, plurality. Or, as someone once said: " let a thousand flowers

blossom " .