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Studying in London, Homeless: How My Dreams Were Robbed By 3 Rogue Universities (By Mehran Karim)

Below is a guest post submitted by Mehran Karim, an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in “international business management” at Webster University : London a.k.a. Regent’s American College London which is located at the Regents University London campus. (Karim is one of several dozen students who formerly attended American Intercontinental University : London before its sudden acquisition by Regent’s in 2013.) After our months-long investigation into Webster University : Thailand received massive traffic from around the world, Karim brought our attention to a Change.org petition he had launched for Webster University London in reaction to dozens of American students being abruptly cut off from their U.S. federal student aid (in clear violation of FAFSA guidelines). This in turn lead to our Kate Welenc interview, and now we follow up again with Karim with this guest post. PHOTO: Mehran Karim poses with Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus Mohammed during a social entrepreneurship event in London. “As of now I am working on a social business start-up on the side, with the hopes of beginning a new wave in this up-and-coming field of business,” says Karim.

It was October 2012, my brother Imran and I were thinking of a way to capture our dream of going professional in football, while continuing our education for “safety”. We learned of a great opportunity to study at American Intercontinental University London for not just a single degree but a dual degree (American and British accreditation) and all at about the same time and cost as most other universities. We left our family, our friends, nice jobs, and our home university for an expensive opportunity abroad in London. My father agreed to take out parent plus loans for us in order to cover the high costs of our studies. We were ever grateful of the opportunity and the prospect of studying in such a beautiful city while chasing after our dream of professional football; the tedious work of getting our passports, applying for visas and finding the best priced flight tickets was just a breeze, and before we knew it we had landed in London early in the morning on January 10th 2013. It was a cold and grey introduction to the beautiful city. That same morning, after dropping off our bags at our flat, we headed straight to our university and everything seemed great; great people, nice teachers, and the opportunity for many new friends to be made. We also couldn’t wait to get the ball rolling with football and begin playing with stiff competition for the chance to be seen by a scout for a professional team.

This exciting start was quickly overturned within two months time; the news had come out that our university had been sold to Regents University London. The contracts we had signed with AIUL had been broken without any notice to us students. The malpractice had begun and the rogue universities seemed to think nothing of it. This experience has spiraled out of control in many ways since that day, stemming from malpractices by three universities; American Intercontinental University London (CEC Corporation), Regents University London, and Webster University.

Breakdown of everything that’s happened since that day:

Phase 1: Breaking of our contract – American Intercontinental University London acquisition by Regents University London

Within two months of our studies we were told that our University had been bought by Regents University London. Prior to this we had no understanding of the situation; when signing up to AIUL we had not been told of an ongoing acquisition procedure. We had signed a contract with AIUL to study for four years and a certain number of credit hours; this was broken with no consideration for the students. My brother and I decided to stay in AIUL for another year under their teach-out program before officially transferring to Regents. As expected from the universities, students remained complacent and did not mind the acquisition due to the promises made by both universities (usually by word of mouth); prices would not go up, dual degree would be continued, credits would also be accepted. All of these promises came with some twists; the prices would go up by 4% yearly for inflation adjustment (although inflation is not at this rate), dual degrees would be given only to the Regents American College London students (excluding all students that required government aid and were not Americans, as only American federal aid was processed and no other forms of government aid was accessible), and core classes would not necessarily transfer as core classes which has made it so that some students like myself have to study beyond the credit requirements to receive their degrees (and in turn [this would cost] them more for the degree).

Phase 2: Summer 2014 FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) issues

When summer 2014 came we officially transferred and began our summer courses at Regents. It initially seemed fine and looked like everything was going to be okay because we were told that the finances would be taken care of as normal and FAFSA would be accepted (as told to us by our AIUL financial advisor who now works for Regents). The expectation of a dual degree was also “intact”. We finished up our FAFSA application, went through a lengthy process of extra paper work for Webster, which was filled with varying levels of miscommunication. We never had this experience with applying for financial aid under AIUL and the new expectations for receiving financial aid were never made clear to us in the beginning. The new expectations were understandable, just horribly communicated. Finally after a month of our summer term finishing we received our loans and it showed up in our NSLDS (National Student Loan Data System). But even then they wouldn’t release the loan, putting our relationship with our landlord on the brink. This eventually led to our eviction, although the payment was made to the landlord.

Eviction and homelessness

The eviction was a clear fault of the school and indicated the lack of administrative abilities. The original eviction notice was given to our finance director, who chose to ignore it and keep us uninformed. Two weeks into the eviction we were informed merely by coincidence after running into an employee who told us that we had to leave in a couple of weeks. Being that it was almost the start of a new school year, finding flats with the correct terms in London was very complicated and we needed all the time we could get; two weeks in a place like London is not enough time. We went homeless for nearly 48 hours and were severely stressed with a total loss of trust in the schooling system. The difficult search was not completed until the day school started. On the day of school we decided to accept the terms for a flat that did not meet basic needs. The flat lacked essential amenities and had mold everywhere with no ventilation. This damaged our health and mental wellness, but it was the best we could afford given the circumstances the school had put us in.

Phase 3: Return of all U.S. federal loans

When we thought everything was finally under control and that we could continue studying and have a fairly normal student experience, we were hit with a letter from the president of Webster, Beth Stroble, and the vice chancellor of Regents, Aldwyn Cooper:

“…the U.S. Department of Education has made a decision that may affect the way in which you receive your financial support… The amount of funds you receive will be unchanged; it will now just come from a different source… Due to a request made by the American Department of Education we are making an administrative change to the nature of funding support for those of our American students who have been in receipt of, or have applied for U.S. financial aid to study on the Webster University US degree programs at Regent`s [Regents American College London]. Funds are being made available to ensure that your education and student experience remain unaffected. We expect it will take few months to implement the new processes and to embed those processes.”

The loans which had been “processed” for our studies had now been reversed and the slow process of pushing for a bare minimum amount of [any type of] funding from Regents and Webster began. We never received the amount of funding we should normally have; in fact the amount never accrued to what was legally required for our visas and is still not meeting this requirement.

November 2014: Told that we could apply for FAFSA under Regents

All students were told to apply for loans as we normally would through FAFSA, except it would now be done with Regents as the school we use. This of course did not work out and we were told of it failing just before the start of our spring term, giving all of us students the false hope [again] of everything being fine. Had my brother and I known that the school would not be able to process federal loans, we would have used our comfortable [winter 2014] vacation time to progress the fight for our rights; however, that free time was strategically taken from us, thus disabling our capacity for holding the school responsible for their wrongdoings.

Phase 4: “Apply for private loans or transfer campuses”

Nearing the end of our spring term, many students were told to transfer campuses or alternatively apply for private loans. Private loans are complicated and are rarely favorable compared to federal loans. Transferring campuses meant that we could not receive our dual degrees. Due to our mother not working and our father not having any income from personal complications, my brother and I are not even eligible for private loans.

Webster University’s offer

The school has offered [in April 2015] all students the equivalent of their eligibility for Federal Stafford Loans and Pell Grants as a loan. Thus in our case making it so the original $5775 we would receive as grants to be turned into a loan by the school. This loan is without interest and the school did make clear that it would not be considered a loan and is only a “balance due on your Webster University student account”. Even still this credit amount does not come close to covering our costs of studying and completely disregards the original communications made to us about how our experience, studies and funding amounts would not be affected.

Phase 5: Legally Homeless

I am currently legally homeless in a foreign country. I sent the school an email stating this and they have not yet replied and don’t seem to care much. The school is giving me no option but to give up and leave to another university. With that I would lose everything I have put into my education. I would lose the time I have put in, I would lose the money I have put in, and foremost and finally I would lose access to my dual degree.

Personal note

Nelson Mandela once said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. I personally understand that my future professional opportunities would not be severely affected by this situation if I opted to not receive the “dual” degree and transferred campuses – but the fight against the school is on the grounds of principles. Our right to a fair and just education is important and it is the one thing that we, as Americans and British alike, cannot allow to wither. It is our only chance at keeping our place in this hyper-globalized world. The “student culture” is getting weaker every decade and education is not given enough appreciation.

I want to stand up against this rogue university and make a point to all students that our right to a fair and just education should never be tampered with. Students must understand that they are the ones in control and no university can toss them around as they please. A university should never be allowed to continue in such a manner. Webster and Regents should have known they were breaking regulations by operating in the manner they were. They have jeopardized our education and must be held responsible, not only for my benefit or the students currently affected but for the benefit of students in the future and for benefit of our student culture. Students must wake up and understand that they are the future of our world and the ones in control. If we as students cannot stand up to the wrongdoings of our universities and hold them responsible for any wrongful acts, how could we ever hope to stand up to our governments and hold them responsible for any wrongful acts? And as we are entering this newly hyper-globalized world, the current generation of students will have to stand up against entities larger and stronger than our current governments. Giving up is not a choice.

Thank you for your time and please give light to this issue.

Mehranullah Karimullah (Full name)
Mehran Karim (Preferred name)

GTA ‘Drone’ Fan Film: Grand Theft Auto Fans Re-Create Early Version Of Game Using Drone For Aerial Views

Grand Theft Auto is one of the highest grossing and most successful video games ever created on any platform. In the latest version, GTA V, which was released in April 2015, the graphics and visuals have become so stunning (even on 4K screens at 60 FPS) that many critics have found themselves at a loss for words.

But like (most) video games, there was in fact a time when GTA didn’t look all that amazing – a time when limited 2D aerial views were pretty much all that users had to settle with as they cruised, crashed, robbed, assaulted, and ran from the cops.

Throwback To The Views Of Yesteryear

The video, uploaded by YouTube user vojta paul and simply called ‘GTA 2 LIVE’ has already garnered nearly 1 million views since being published on May 2, 2015. Although the user did not include any description of the project, YouTube commenters quickly identified him as being from the Czech Republic, where he apparently created the film with multiple other unknown people (friends?) from the country. More interesting, perhaps, is that vojta paul only appears to have uploaded a single other video filmed by drone before achieving this smash hit, along with a few dozen slapstick comedy pieces including one involving an Orthodox Jew and a Nazi soldier, among other bizarre concepts.

The film comes at a time when drones are in the news practically every single day, from military attacks, to mail delivery, to consumer hobby projects. In a vast number of cases, videos filmed using drones often employ GoPro products, a fact that has lead the company to develop their own consumer drones, which will be for sale later in 2015.

Interview: Kate Welenc, Business Student At Webster University London, Recounts Fraud, Illegal Practices

Below is an exclusive CollegeTimes interview with Kate Welenc, an undergraduate student in the International Business Management program at Webster University : London campus, known locally as Regents American College London (located at the campus of Regent’s University London). After CollegeTimes revealed rampant fraud and corruption going on at the Webster University Thailand campus earlier this year, Webster administrators in St. Louis slandered our team and threatened us, claiming we were a “libelous platform” after they discovered the SLAPP lawsuit filed against us back in 2012 by for-profit Neumont University (which was recently thrown out this month). Soon after our report on WUT, it came to light that Webster’s London campus was in the midst of its own scandal after dozens of American students were cut off from their U.S. federal financial aid in 2014 after the U.S. government discovered Webster’s apparently illegal partnership with Regent’s; Webster hid this fact from WUL students and decided to provide temporary tuition “grants” in late 2014, presumably to avoid massive dropouts… the “funds” were quietly announced in an undated, unsigned, and vaguely worded letter in which WUSTL administrators referred students to a 67-word blog post to “find answers to many of your questions” – a page which, in fact, merely declared that unspecified Regent’s programs had recently been approved for U.S. Title IV financial aid. Subsequently, Webster St. Louis announced that the contract with Regent’s University would be terminated by the end of 2016, yet then waited until April 2015 to tell American students at WUL that they should seek out “private student loans” if they wanted to complete their London studies on time. We decided to reach out to WUL students for a complete breakdown of the situation, which they were more than happy to provide.

Update 5/8/2015: Another WUL student, Mehran Karim, who was responsible for creating this change.org petition has forwarded us additional information regarding his nightmare experience at Webster University London (now a guest post).

Update 5/24/2015: Welenc has updated our team that Webster London has confirmed that they won’t send any transcripts to “grad schools” until their (illegal) private loan schemes are paid off in full. Says Welenc, “With the ‘deal’ they have for us – of which I can not disclose too many details without being in trouble as that was part of the terms of the contract – they did not mention sending transcripts for graduate school, only for employers and visa applications IF payments are current. This is the email response I just got: ‘The agreement does not provide any exceptions for deferment or provide for the early release of your transcript for graduate school. You always have the option for early payment, and you have the option to not make the agreement.’ So basically I can not get my Masters degree until the full [private Webster loan] amount is repaid which is over a TEN YEAR payment plan… they state that I have the option to repay ‘early’, but added to all my other loans I do not see that as a reasonable possibility. Nor do I have the ‘option’ of not taking the agreement as you know my situation and lack of options. Preventing someone from furthering their education is shameful… I am outraged.”

From my understanding, you first attended the (for-profit) American Intercontinental University from 2011, but the school was sold in 2013 to Regent’s University London, a non-profit British institution. Why were you (business students) absorbed by Webster University, rather than Regent’s, and what was the understanding between the students and organizations during this seemingly complicated transition as far as courses, credits, accreditation, etc? Furthermore, are you familiar with Webster’s presence in London prior to the absorption of AIU students?

Since AIU was an American school in London (but also giving a British accreditation) when Regent’s bought it they offered the business students who had some time left in their studies into their American program since that would give us the most transferred credits. Students who had only a semester left at AIU did a teach-out online program and did not have to transfer if they did not want to. Regent’s has three business schools in one, (RBS) Regent’s Business School, (EBS) European Business School and (RACL) Regent’s American College London (I think it is important to note that when Regent’s attempted to get their American accreditation, they were awarded it in both RBS and EBS schools… RACL was the only one to get denied because of the current Webster affiliation). Through RACL all of our credits transferred as at least credits, but not all were able to transfer as core classes or gen-ed credits. Which is fine since this can happen when anyone transfers, as different schools can have different guidelines for their curriculum.

We had the option to transfer to RBS too (maybe EBS as well, I am not sure of that one) but there was a significant difference in the amount of total credits transferred so most of us went to the RACL program which is the partnership with Webster. Their partnership for RACL is that we are ‘technically’ Webster students, but we study at the Regent’s campus in London. Though this is a unique situation since we have Regent’s ID cards and we have both Webster and Regent’s ID numbers with access to both universities’ e-vision portals. It can be quite confusing sometimes because for certain things we address at Regent’s and others we have to address with Webster. Financial aid is one we address with Webster.

But back to your question; when we first transferred there was some confusion about whether or not we would get a dual degree, though in the end (since that what we all signed up to AIU for) they (being RACL) got the ability to do both. I have heard speculation that things were not handled appropriately during the sale of [AIU], as AIU had knowingly taken in new students all the while finalizing this deal to sell [the school to Regent’s], but I do not know as much about that situation as I do with this one so it is hard to comment further on it. I had not heard of Webster in London before this situation but I had heard of Regent’s before. It was a very unsettling time and all I really knew when this was going on, is that I could still get FAFSA funding for my tuition, I could still get my dual degree, I would pretty much get all the credits I had done so far transferred; they would handle the paperwork so we didn’t have to actually re-apply to get accepted into the school or any such thing and we would get the same tuition cost as AIU with a 4% yearly inflation till we graduated as Regent’s tuition was more than AIU’s had been. Things were happening quite fast back then, so at the time this was all good enough for me.

How would you compare your experience studying at AIU with that of Webster London? Does the London campus “feel” like a Webster University campus, or is it so intertwined with Regent’s University (physically, or otherwise) that the lines are blurred? Is it not very strange that a for-profit college was purchased by a “non-profit” college?

To be honest I much prefer going here than AIU, and by ‘here’ I mean Regent’s. It does not feel like a Webster school at all in my personal opinion. In fact unless you are in Webster personnel’s office (they have Webster people on site to help handle certain aspects that Webster would be in charge of) you won’t see much to do about Webster. There are no signs or posters about, no Webster items sold in the school shops etc. etc. So I would for sure say lines are blurred. Even during this whole situation a lot of students didn’t know who to turn to or who was responsible and it took me a bit of digging to find out who held responsibility for financial aid in their contract.

As far as your last part to the question, from what I understand, Regent’s wanted to expand their portfolio and AIU had quite a known fashion department and that is really what they were interested in; that and the Marlebone campus they got in the deal as well. Regent’s already has quite a business prospect so we were a mere bonus. Other than that, pertaining to a non-profit buying a for-profit school I am not entirely sure, as I said that was already quite a confusing time for all of us at AIU.

You mentioned that “in July 2014 Webster got a letter stating that they had to cease all federal funding to the London campus because we never should have been given FAFSA through the type of partnership Webster had with Regent’s”. This may be a “pandora’s box” question, but can you briefly explain what brought this situation on, and where it currently stands? To your knowledge, if Webster was breaking U.S. federal guidelines on financial aid, how were they able to get away with it for nearly 20 years?

Here is what I can say about this. Regent’s and Webster have been partners for 20 years. In the meeting I had with the Financial Aid Director [James Meyers] he said they got the letter in July 2014 saying they had to cease all funding to the London campus due to a ‘compliance’ issue. The ‘never should have been given to the London campus’ statement came from a credible source that I cannot publicly name and was due to a technicality but other than that I am not too sure myself how it went on for so long. I got the feeling like maybe Webster did not know this somehow and this may be true, but that does not excuse their responsibility to us or all the tens of thousands [of dollars] we paid them in loans to this far. It is their responsibility to keep up with government regulations and it never should have got to this point.

I did hear a story about how the Financial Aid Director knew this was coming before the letter was officially given in July, but this was from a less credible source and so will only go further into that story off the record. Needless to say I am sure that a lawyer could get access to all this information, which is something I am looking into as we speak. For now it currently stands that we will not be getting FAFSA loans of any kind for the rest of the ‘teach out program’ we are now all in through Webster and RACL since Webster has broken contract with Regent’s (I am not clear on why exactly they did that). I know that Regent’s is still trying to get their own American accreditation and I am also not entirely clear as to why they were denied in their first attempt recently.

Author’s Note: At the time of article publication, Webster’s web page regarding their London campus programs reads as follows:

Webster University London will not be accepting new undergraduate students into degree-granting programs at the current Webster London location at this time. We will also not be accepting new graduate students in this location after the Spring 2015 semester start in January 2015. We will be seeking a new London location and partner for students to study at in 2017. However, Webster University students may continue to study abroad at this location and enroll in Webster’s robust online programs.

You said that “Many of us were not aware of [the suspended U.S. federal financial aid] at the time [2014] as they simply stated the funds are just coming through in another way this year, as stated in the ‘Webster letter’ I have attached. A few weeks ago we were all told that the grants will no longer be available and we can no longer receive FAFSA at this campus as well as student plus loans through the government. When looking online at my FAFSA statements it shows that FAFSA has not been taken out since May 2014. So the previous grants were ‘free’ money but that does not resolve the University’s responsibility of for us. The solution offered to me (everyone) was to get a private loan for the amount I need to continue school.” Do you feel that Webster purposefully mislead students to prevent them from transferring out while they had the chance? Are you currently able to transfer out? Why or why not? What other hardships has this situation caused you or other London campus students?

The review I sent on your site was a copy of the letter I had sent to a variety of people and so did not actually have the Webster letter attached, my apologies for that I should have edited it. But in this letter they state that “The amount of funding will be unchanged, but it will now just come from a different source. And funds are being made available to ensure that your education and student experience remain unaffected.” Obviously neither of which is the current case for me. It would certainly seem that Webster had waited until the very last minute to inform us of the trouble since they got the notice in July 2014 which has been almost a year since. I am not able to transfer now because my Visa is expiring in Oct 2016 which would be my 5 year cap (as previously mentioned after AIU my graduation was pushed back) — when I recently looked into similar schools with comparable curriculum standards I would still go over at least one semester from my Visa expiration date to graduate. I could have transferred back when we came from AIU, but again I was told that Webster would offer everything I needed to continue in the same standard I had been. Now Webster London is my only option for graduating with the dual degree I paid for. There are many students who rely on FAFSA loans who now can’t get funding, as well as there are students who applied to Webster/Regent’s in August of last year and came over in September thinking they could get their funding and signed year leases in flats only to be told after they have arrived that this will no longer be the case and in the timeline you can see that Webster was already aware of this and could have stopped them before they made all the commitments and paid to fly over here.

As an undergraduate student at the University of California, I was able to study abroad twice at both a public university in Spain and a private university in Korea, using my FAFSA funds which were disbursed directly to my UC campus. Instead of finding “study abroad” partners, it sounds like Webster has been trying to profit by “self-accrediting” (“validating” as Regent’s calls it) the multi-year programs at Regent’s University despite the academics, professors, and campus all being British. This not only violates U.S. federal aid statutes, but also creates a Catch-22 situation where Webster is now unable to abide by FAFSA disbursement regulations. What are your thoughts on this, and how many American students have been effected by this mess?

Yes this also seems to be the case. All the teachers in the RACL program are in fact Regent’s employed and Regent’s is the one to set up all curriculums with the ‘approval’ of Webster. It should also be noted that in the paperwork filed by Webster to the Federal Government i.e. FAFSA forms, we are listed as Webster students and so there was no way of knowing that we were actually going to be in London at a campus not owned by Webster (as their other campuses are). Furthermore funds for the RACL program other than FAFSA loans i.e. cash c/c or any loans that are from other countries are directly paid to Regent’s and they then give Webster commission on them, so it would appear that Webster has been making money on students that aren’t from the US as well. I know that they have been partners for 20 years but I am not sure if the regulations have always been the same, I know Tier 4 started in the UK in 2009 so the ‘compliance issue’ has been going on for at least that long. But again I am not too familiar with the statutes and the dates of amendments. This is all Webster’s responsibility, and one would think that at some point in that time, someone would have had an idea of this if anyone was doing their job.

Whatever the behind the scenes reasons for this, we are where we are now and this has really been adversely affecting me personally and my studies. I overcame many inner and outer obstacles to get where I am today. I have fought my way to a chance at a better life than what was originally dealt to me; to have it taken away through no fault of my own is really unsettling. It is currently the end of the semester and as I’m sure you remember this is when work piles up and then you have finals which are naturally stressful for any student. I have an SSA (student support agreement) with Regent’s which is basically registering a disability or handicap. My SSA makes my studies more difficult than most and they get more difficult with added stress. Since the news of this situation became public I have been in a constant state of anxiety and my work over the last week has suffered. There is a saying that there are only two things certain in this world, but if you have sought higher education through US loans then you know this becomes three; death, taxes and student loans. In the US even if you become bankrupt your student loans do not disappear so it can be a scary risk to put yourself in so much debt on the bet that you will financially succeed after. I have literally put all my eggs in this one basket and if it will not be completed than I have put myself in $100,000 debt without the education I paid for, which keeps me up at night and has been all my focus for weeks. I am a good student and I get good grades. I just want when I was told I could have and what I paid for. There are anywhere from 30-50 students affected by this development to various crippling degrees.

Regarding the FAFSA lapse, it sounds like Webster has not only systematically lied to you and caused you to enter into contracts based on false pretenses, but has also possibly committed financial aid fraud in the United States. Specifically, are you able to name both the Webster University and/or Regent’s University London representatives who have been responsible for these various misrepresentations?

This is exactly what it sounds like happened. But unfortunately I do not know the names of those responsible. My assumption though is that it falls on Webster for not abiding by the federal regulations and Regent’s for the fact that it seems they did not keep updated tabs on whom they were in business with.

Briefly, what did your meeting with Webster University officials on 13 April 2015 in London entail? What was their proposal to you, and/or to other American students, for solving this situation? Specifically, what options did they offer in regard to finance, transferring, completing your “dual” British degree, or otherwise? To date, have you reached an agreement with Webster officials?

Below is their solution to ‘our’ problem. I do not feel that their remedy is proportionate to the situation they’ve caused me and others. At the very end there is a statement about collateral for this “credit due” and it raises many questions for me. What guarantee can they give me that in the whole of the “ten years” they will always provide my transcripts in a timely fashion to either a prospected employer or boarder agency for a Visa, to where it will never adversely affect me? And if by chance there is a mistake down the road and it costs me a potential job or Visa, what then? They mention that they will [only] do this, proving that payments are current. With student loans if we do not have a job we can go in to deferment, they mention nothing of this. So are they saying that if I either can’t find a job in the 30 days they give us after graduation to start paying it back or lose my job in the future for some unknown reason and therefore fall behind on my payments, if I then [receive a job offer dependent on] my transcripts or need a Visa for the same reason… they will not provide them? Keeping me from being able to fix the situation? I am extremely weary of this condition and have little faith that this will be nothing more than a ten year headache and hassle for a circumstance THEY caused. I find it utterly ridiculous and disgusting that we will have paid over $100,000 in loans for this degree, completed the academic requirements and yet it could be ten years before we are able to receive the very bit that matters. I waited a long time to be able to complete my education and I wanted nothing more than to be proud of the name on my diploma.

Author’s note: The below excerpts from Webster’s April 2015 email “overview” sent to American WUL students were verified by CollegeTimes. The section in red was also similarly colored in the original email. Note the affiliate link to private student loans that Webster is recommending to their stranded London students, which likely earns Webster a commission for any student who decides to sign up for the private loans.

• To support our students, Webster University has decided for those who wish to complete our academic programs at Regents by the end of the Fall 2016 semester, we would allow students to have access to funding equivalent to the Federal Student Loan eligibility based on enrollment in each term not including Federal PLUS loans. For undergraduate students, those who are eligible for the Federal Pell Grant, the equivalent will be considered.
• The equivalent funding will become a balance due on your Webster University student account after funding is disbursed for each semester of eligibility with a signed payment agreement.
• Repayment of the balance due to Webster University will begin thirty days after your last course or graduation
• The repayment term is ten years (120 months) with payments divided equally without interest (no penalty for early repayment)
• Students will be eligible to receive their Webster University diploma
• Official academic transcripts will not be available until your student account has been paid. However an official academic transcript will be available (if payments are current) for those who need it for employment or visas (will be sent directly to the agencies only).

Please remember an additional loan option available to you is a private education loan. The link to our recommend lender list is https://choice.fastproducts.org/FastChoice/home/252100/1 for your convenience as a financial aid resource for your Webster University degree in London as we teach out the Webster University academic programs at Regent’s University.

8. Lastly, why did you choose to pursue a “dual” British/American degree in the first place? What advantages are there to possessing such a degree, and/or why did you settle on the United Kingdom for your studies? Do you have any advice for other students out there looking to pursue a similar “dual” degree, or who wish to study abroad while attending a private college (re: accreditation, finance, or otherwise)?

I had wanted to live in England since I can remember. I have always been fascinated with the history here. I have a church up the street that was consecrated in 1096! You just can’t get that in the US. The dual degree was something I stumbled on when looking into schools. I was limited on where I could go as my high school days were not my best. Things have changed a lot since then, I work hard to overcome my obstacles and I fluctuate from a lowest 3.2 to my highest 3.6 GPA now. The dual degree was something that was not an option back in the US and since I want to continue to live abroad and travel and learn, having both British and American accreditation could not hurt my chances for success. I would certainly hope that other students do not read this and decide not to go abroad. Bad things happen and we do what we can to right a wrong, such is life. But this place has become my home and I love everything Europe has to offer. I would however firmly suggest that any student reading this will make sure to know their rights. Education is a right. YOU HAVE RIGHTS. Do not let an establishment tell you otherwise. Do your research on schools, make sure you know your options for finance, because you could end up a river without a paddle, and most importantly, if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t, so don’t be afraid to look into it.

Cestar College : Toronto

Regent’s University London

Neumont ‘University’ Lawsuit Ends In Epic Fail

Update 4/28/2016: Despite failing miserably in their 2+ year long effort to take down CollegeTimes, Neumont University’s new owners (who remain unknown since the secret 2015 buyout) have decided to allow Edward ‘Nasty Ned’ Levine to remain on their board of directors (at least for now) apparently to help him save face as part of some closed-door deal that was made. Although a press release published by Neumont in the weeks after their lawsuit fell apart claimed that Levine was “retiring” to focus on “land conservation” hobbies, ‘Nasty Ned’ is now back in business again with a new company that he created focused on “growth advisory” called Firebrand Advisors… he now appears pissed as hell that our article about his getting fired is ranked at the top of Google for searches of his name, and has recently registered the domain edward-ned-levine.com in an effort to outrank us. Only time will tell if Neumont and/or Levine will come up with a new lawsuit as they desperately seek to censor the web…

It’s a redeeming day in America when even the most highly organized and well-funded criminals realize how difficult the U.S. legal system is to manipulate.

Neumont University – who has spent the last 2.5 years suing, stalking, and harassing me in an attempt to censor negative student reviews of their school from the web – is one such entity. Unfortunately for Neumont, they apparently forgot that outside of Utah, the reach of their powerful “LDS” Mormon friends is still rather limited.

Neumont: A Big Fish In A Small Pond?

In the case of Neumont – a for-profit technical institute based in Utah that lacks both regional and ABET accreditation – even paying off newspapers like the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Times, hiring one of the largest law firms in the western United States, getting two judges on their “SLAPP lawsuit” docket both of whom have a history of colluding with Mormon figures, and threatening their own students and faculty against speaking out… STILL didn’t prevent an embarrassing, and costly, courtroom loss.

Of course, the best part of all is that I spent exactly $0 on a legal defense.

On March 24, 2015, the U.S. District Court of Nevada ordered Neumont to show proof of (new) proper service on me before April 1, 2015. As that time period has come and gone, the case will now likely be thrown out completely:

On February 9, 2015, I gave Neumont University, LLC until February 19, 2015, to serve defendant Jesse Nickles “by email at [email protected] and file proof of this service.” Doc. 69 at 9. More than a month has passed since this 10-day service deadline ran, and Neumont has not filed proof of service or explained why service of the filing of the notice was not possible. … As Neumont has apparently elected not to avail itself of these extensions of the service deadlines and the ability to serve Nickles by email, I now give Neumont until April 1, 2015, to comply with my prior instructions or have its claims against Nickles dismissed without prejudice and this case closed.

After proceedings dragged on for more than 2 years, Neumont’s legal costs had jetted past $100,000 according to court-required disclosures (which Neumont had unsuccessfully attempted to hide from the court), despite claiming initial losses against my web hosting business, Little Bizzy, of only $72,000 (the lost revenue of one student who allegedly decided not to attend Neumont after “reading negative reviews” of the school on CollegeTimes). Due to my financial inability to hire a corporate attorney, the case eventually went into default judgement, at which point Neumont suddenly (and without explanation) changed their lost revenue claims to be over $1 million.

However, after my article tying the judges in the case – Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey and Magistrate Peggy A. Leen – to possible corruption involving U.S. Senator Harry Reid (and his vast ties to the LDS Church) was picked up by a popular Las Vegas area legal blog after I submitted the piece to Reddit’s Ex-Mormon subreddit, two digital law experts reacted accordingly; Eric Goldman and Paul Levy both excoriated Dorsey for her seemingly purposeful ignorance regarding Section 230 protections. (In fact, Leen went so far as to completely strike my initial Motion To Dismiss from the record, hiding any potential mention of Section 230 protections from further court proceedings.)

“This led me to wonder how Judge Dorsey, having been so attentive to the free speech consequences of the requested injunction, could have missed the section 230 issue. Although her opinion does not mention section 230, an earlier ruling denying a preliminary injunction, issued by the judge to whom the case was previously assigned, noted in passing that Little Bizzy had moved to dismiss the complaint based on section 230 but that the motion was “stricken” because it was not signed by an attorney. The motion has literally been stricken from the record. When I tried to access the document on PACER, I received a screen saying that I did not have permission to view the document; and when I called both Judge Dorsey’s chambers and the clerk’s office to inquire further, I was told that the office could not show me the document once it was ordered stricken. I was, therefore, unable to assess what section 230 arguments Little Bizzy had tried to present, albeit without counsel, and thus assess how Judge Dorsey could have missed the obvious section 230 defects in her default judgment.” — Paul Levy

After the story made the rounds, Dorsey took over the docket from Leen and seemed to have a sudden change of heart (or perhaps an attempt at covering her ass?), deciding to set the default judgement aside without my having filed any motion for such. Her reasoning? Improper service of process, mostly. (Which of course, is hilarious, seeing as how that should have been entered much earlier, and/or, Section 230 protections would have made a much more compelling legal argument for throwing out the case.)

Barbra Streisand Effect Strikes Again

What never ceases to amaze me is how pretty much every single for-profit diploma mill falls into exactly the same pitfalls; specifically, scam schools like Neumont and their president, Edward “Ned” Levine get so carried away running their corrupt little fiefdoms and are so thoroughly cut off from reality that they literally can’t see beyond their own minuscule worlds of fraud, threats, and ego-stroking power trips.

Due to this 2 year long saga, CollegeTimes has received dozens of quality “SEO” backlinks, massive traffic from websites like Reddit, a new throng of followers on Twitter and Facebook, and beyond. Not only that, but our profile of Neumont University now sits squarely at the top of Google results for queries such as “Neumont University reviews” or “Neumont scam” or “Neumont University Mormon?”

Maybe its just clueless Baby Boomers, or maybe there will forever be a massive slew of people who simply don’t understand how the internet works. Here it is: never try to censor the truth from the web (recall the Streisand Effect). But as Webster University becomes the next heir apparent to the wrath of the internet, it seems things may never change…

P.S. CollegeTimes has officially been valued at over $1 million. Thanks, Ned! :)

Colorado State University : Global Campus

Interview: Charles Brumfield, Former Professor At Webster University Thailand, Reveals Mass Abuses

Below is an exclusive CollegeTimes interview with Charles Brumfield, a former lecturer at Webster University : Thailand with a PhD in Economics who has spent over 25 years of his life traveling and teaching at universities across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Dr. Brumfield is one of dozens of faculty members from the WUT campus who claim they have been treated wrongfully (illegally) by the school, and despite being threatened by current administrators for speaking out, he made the decision to come forward as a public voice of dissent against ongoing corruption and fraud within Webster University’s international system. He still lives in Thailand, where he has been offered protection from WUT administrators by the Royal Thai police. The below interview has been combined with quotations (shown in gray) from a series of emails that Dr. Brumfield sent to a private group of former and current WUT faculty members; much of the email content has been re-arranged in accordance with the flow of the interview. PHOTO: Dr. Brumfield poses with U.S. Army Sgt. Evan Mann in a Department of Defense classroom at Camp Casey, Korea – near the DMZ – while teaching on behalf of the University of Maryland in 2013.

• See also: Webster University Thailand: Rampant Corruption, Fraud Put Blemish On Growing International Brand

1. How did you first come to begin lecturing at Webster University Thailand? When did you start, how were you recruited, and what were the terms of your contract? What is your academic background/qualifications? Further, why did you decide on living and/or teaching in Thailand, of all places?

I was teaching for the University of Maryland in Singapore when I first applied to Webster in late spring 2001. I was engaged to be married to a Thai woman and wanted to live in Thailand (still married to her, 15 years in February). I already had one job lined up, i.e., continuing to teach for the University of Maryland at the American embassy. [Then-WUT Director] Brad Keith said I could work for both WUT and the University of Maryland. The University of Maryland offered their courses on weeknights and Brad said they would schedule my graduate courses on weekends, which he did. I also taught on weeknights in the MBA program at Naresuan University (in conjunction with Bangkok University and the Australian universities Queensland University and Southern Cross University).

I left WUT and Thailand [in 2002] after one year because I thought WUT was a terrible place to work and the University of Maryland offered me 5 times as much money to teach 2 courses in Japan as I was making teaching 5 courses for three schools in Thailand.

Shortly after I left, the only other Ph.D. on the WUT MBA faculty (Ph.D. Cambridge University) resigned also. This left only Masters degrees teaching Masters candidates, same as now… by January [2002] student enrollments at WUT had dropped from around 500 to just under 160. WUT had to be bailed out by WUSTL and began a slow climb toward its former level of deception. It never fully recovered its student numbers.

In 2014 I retired — after 25 (nonconsecutive) years with the University of Maryland, I decided to retire to Thailand. I had plenty of money coming in, so I didn’t have to work. But I wanted to keep my hands in teaching to keep my mind sharp. On the suggestion and encouragement of some WUT insiders that they were “desperate” for good teachers, I reapplied to WUT and got the job under a “B contract” requiring me to teach 5 courses in 10 months for ฿481,000 THB.

To see my credentials, please see the attached vita.

Why did I apply for and accept a position at WUT in the first place with my stellar credentials? (A couple of WUT administrators actually observed that I may be overqualified to teach at WUT.) In my case, I was retiring to Thailand, and was encouraged by a friend to apply for a teaching job at WUT. He apprised me of all the administrative problems at WUT, but he said it would be something to do in retirement and would give me a modest income to add to my five retirement incomes. He advised me just to keep my head down with the admin and enjoy the students. That’s exactly what I tried to do, just the best teaching job I could do without complaining about anything or making any waves…

I was hired in May 2014 after an ad hoc 30-minute interview by [Then-WUT Interim Head of School of Business and Technology, Roy Avecilla] and [Then-WUT MBA Program Coordinator, Ramona Mihaela-Paun] at Starbucks. I revealed to them during the interview the troubles I had while teaching in the MBA program at WUT in 2001-02 (at the same time that I was teaching at two other universities in Bangkok with outstanding reputations). I was singled out [back then] for harassment by the interim WUT director who was sent over from Austria to try to bring administrative corruption under control.

Shortly after our meeting I received their offer with three options. Option A was fulltime which required a lot more work while offering little more in compensation. Option C was adjunct at almost no pay and very little to guarantee courses. Option B seemed to be the best way to go, with a contract guarantee of 5 courses, which for me were offered as MBA courses in Economics and Finance, both subjects I had taught many times before, both graduate and undergraduate. I didn’t even ask about the pay. With my money, it was of little concern to me… My contract was only ฿481,000 THB to be paid over 10 months at ฿48,000 THB a month. (That amounts to about $1,500/month, or about half of what is considered to be the poverty level in the USA. One can’t even live in Thailand on that!) Anyone who thinks I signed up with WUT for the money is insane.

2. From my understanding, you were “dismissed” from Webster University Thailand in December of 2014, is that correct? From what you were told by WUT administrators, and from your own personal conclusions, what was the reasoning behind the severed contract?

Yes, I was “dismissed”. The MBA Program Coordinator [Ramona Mihaela-Paun, now the new Head of WUT School of Business and Technology as of January 2014] told me it was because I got a student complaint that I’m a “terrible” teacher after one and a half class meetings… [but] I believe it was because [Mihaela-Paun] was jealous of what I wonderful life I have led (and continue to lead), and subconsciously she resented that because her life is miserable… just my take.

Beginning in August [2014], I was assigned to teach one undergraduate class at the Bangkok center, and then I would begin teaching two graduate classes in my specialties in Graduate Fall Term 2. In the first week of my graduate classes, I taught [a half-full] Economics class on Monday because of an administrative screw-up in telling most of the students the class started on Wednesday. The Finance class was canceled with only three students because [Miahela-Paun] expelled one of the four students in the class for what seemed like a bizarre reason to me, really no reason at all (allegedly for turning in a project in her class a day late the previous term because his computer crashed… she gave him an ‘F’ in the class). The student begged me to help him stay in school, but what could I do? I was instructed to mind my own business, which I did. He was on the next plane out of Thailand.

The remaining class was a graduate level Macro-Economics class. Not one student in the class had ever been exposed to any economics. I had to start with basic economics, but at an accelerated pace because, after all, it was a “graduate” MBA class. I did a great job! Absolutely great! I didn’t say anything racist, sexist, or otherwise untoward, make any advances on the female students, or commit murder; I did absolutely nothing wrong… My undergrad class was a very basic management class, probably the easiest class offered in any business program, and the book I was assigned [Kinicki, Angelo and Brian Williams, Management: A Practical Introduction, McGraw-Hill, 2013] was less than basic, more “high schoolish” than any university textbook I’ve ever encountered. It didn’t even introduce such an elementary HR management concept as the “Abilene Paradox.”

On Thursday morning I woke up to an email from [Miahela-Paun] saying she and [Avecilla] wanted to meet with me on Friday morning (remember this is still the first week of the term). I went to the meeting in good spirits honestly thinking they were going to offer me an administrative position. The first thing [Miahela-Paun] said was that she was canceling the Finance class and removing me from the Economics class. I was shocked! I asked, “Why on Earth!?” She read one complaint from her iPhone calling me a “terrible teacher” and claiming the student said he “wasn’t learning anything.” After one and a half meetings! If the email wasn’t fabricated, it obviously was written by an ignorant, cowardly student who thinks he knows more how to teach an economics class than a professor who has been doing so for over 40 years with a stellar teaching record and reputation (e.g., University of Maryland Excellence in Teaching Award, Spring 2014). She revealed the student’s name, and it’s hard to believe he wrote the complaint because he was so complimentary to my face. [Miahela-Paun] said, “We can’t have student complaints if we are to make the MBA program succeed.” In other words, “do whatever it takes to keep the students from complaining” – a pattern I found ubiquitous at WUT… no waves, whatever it takes to keep the waters calm… “let the students decide” what is to be taught and how it is to be taught.

She replaced me with a teacher totally unqualified to teach graduate economics… [Avecilla] said I was not being “fired from WUT” but only from the graduate program. This “terrible” teacher could continue to teach undergraduate courses under my contract; still it was an insulting demotion, and obviously he was being deceptive with me because he and I both knew I would be terminated after finishing the one undergrad class I was teaching. [He] seemed to realize that [Miahela-Paun] was making a terrifically damaging mistake, but he said he had “no control” over the MBA program, [even being the Head of WUT’s School of Business and Technology], and had to defer to her. Why? “There’s nothing I can do. It’s out of my hands.” In the far distant future, I hope, maybe those words should be his epitaph, he says them so often.

I was half way through my undergraduate class, and they let me finish it out before terminating me fully with a terse unsigned termination email on December 19 [2014]. I could have just walked away after the meeting and left them hanging without a teacher to finish the class, but I’m not that kind of person. Even knowing my days were numbered, I continued to teach the class at the best of my ability until the end…

3. Surely dismissals of faculty at an “American university” are not so arbitrary as you describe – or are they? Ironically, I was also “dismissed” from the WUT campus allegedly for not holding a PhD degree in web design (the elective course that I instructed). There are several other recent “dismissals” or similar at WUT, that don’t seem to follow Thai labor law, let alone the contractual terms set out by WUT, let alone common traditions in the academic community. Can you comment more on this?

I am not an authority on Thai labor law, but from what I’m told by my Thai attorney, WUT administrators appear to be violating just about every law on the books.

I’m still working on a 100 million baht lawsuit against WUT for defamation, gender bias and discrimination, fraud, libel, slander, wrongful termination, loss of income, intentional infliction of stress and mental anguish, and two separate 10 million baht lawsuits against individuals for defamation. The preparation of these legal actions is taking more time than I anticipated in coordinating the Thai and US systems, but they will be forthcoming. I may never get a baht out of these lawsuits, which will cost me around 200,000 baht to pursue, but my intention is not to enrich myself (believe me, I have plenty of money, hidden away and protected in safe harbors around the world). I want the publicity surrounding these lawsuits to call maximum attention to the incompetence, fraud and deceptions, and outright arrogant foolishness of the current WUT administration. I want them to get the message loud and clear that they simply cannot continue to get away with what they have been doing. If nothing else, they are grossly violating every basic standard of human dignity and academic ethics.

Update 3/10/2015: When my BKK lawyer asked me, “At your age, do you want to spend the next 5 years of your life dealing with this,” I realized I did not. It’s not worth it for the little I would gain. Certainly WUT is not worth it. The lawsuit is still potentially on the table as a tool to help bring them down, but I doubt it will ever be filed…

I’m doing all I can to reveal and stop the deception. A few other current or former faculty are pursuing their own actions. The remainder are too afraid to stand up and be counted. They would rather live with incompetence and fraud than “man up” and try to get rid of these corrupt administrators and restore WUT to an ethical quality institution of higher learning. They are afraid of losing jobs that they are going to lose anyway because of their refusal to take a stand.

Everyone ask yourself, in good conscience: “Do I want to continue to be a part of this corruption and absence of even a hint of academic or human integrity? Do I have the courage to face them and stare them down? Or am I content to stay hiding in the closet hoping they won’t come for me next?”

4. On 23 December, 2014 you sent an email out to current and some former instructors at WUT announcing your sudden (unsigned) termination letter. You mentioned never having received Faculty and Teaching Policy Handbook 2004, WUT Employment Policies and Procedures 2011, among other key documents referred to in employment contracts and elsewhere – a common claim among several WUT instructors. In addition you claim that student evaluation results – neither specific, nor summary results – were ever shared with you (another common claim) even despite your “termination” being based off a supposed negative review submitted to WUT by one of your students. To date, has anyone from Webster University confirmed to you who made the final decision regarding your dismissal, provided statistics re: discipline of faculty, or fully justified why such action was taken?

The answer to all your questions is “NO”. I have never received any of the documents you mentioned. I saw summarized results of my mid-term evaluations, without explanation, in a clandestine meeting with [Avecilla] at a coffee shop. I never saw any other evaluation results, including Lee Tao Dana’s (Peer Faculty Evaluation) visitation results.

The Head of WUT’s School of Business and Technology told me my midterm evaluations were slightly “below average” but wouldn’t let me see them, only poorly explained summary results… [but] I wasn’t surprised by the results because I detected that the students were expecting a level of teaching that I hoped I would not have to stoop to. They had become used to a way of teaching that can hardly be called teaching.

5. Considering the bigger picture for a moment, why do you think a school like WUT has such a shockingly high turnover rate of faculty and support staff (from both “dismissals” and also resignations)? During a July 2014 faculty meeting, Rector Ratish Thakur claimed it was primarily due to the campus location, and the fact that Webster University in St. Louis had “refused” to contribute funding to WUT, etc – but is there reason to believe its perhaps a strategic move by the administration to keep employees “fresh and clueless” to ongoing scandals and problems?

I think one reason is the very low salaries and the poor working conditions at Cha-Am. But I think the major reason for their bizarre behavior is their fear that someone will expose what they’re up to. Yes, keep the faculty “fresh and clueless” and there is no one to report their criminal behavior. Anyone who might pose even a slight threat is simply eliminated. Thus, WUT is left with a cowering faculty who will not stand up to their bullying.

In my opinion Webster is violating every moral tenet of higher education and should not continue to get away with it. Again, in my opinion, I sincerely believe Webster University Thailand will be out of business by summer. It didn’t have to be like this. All that has happened or is about to happen to Webster University really is quite bizarre.

I am very happy in Thailand and will be just fine in spite of WUT’s unwarranted, very foolish, premature termination of my contract with them. I have never had a contract or any job terminated in my life, and I have always been lauded for my work and always offered a new contract.

We who have been so grievously treated by the WUT administration have about 20 or 25 insiders helping us out. They can’t fire everybody on fabricated charges and expect to keep the institution going. If we all stand with a solid front, we can get the corruption and incompetency out of WUT and make it a much better institution of higher learning.

6. Since WUT was first established back in 1999, there has been a seemingly continuous amount of scandals – whether bizarre hirings, to dramatic firings, to suspicious recruiting practices, and beyond. In one email, quoted below, you mention that during the 2001-2002 academic year, WUT went through, astoundingly, five different directors. As one of the only people able and willing to publicly recall the turbulent history of the WUT campus, could you summarize as briefly as possible what forces have kept WUT in existence, and why those forces seem to be so desperate to keep WUT alive?

WUT went through a similar conflict between faculty and administration back in 2001-02, during which the university went through 5 directors in one year. The Ph.D.s on its faculty (including one very prominent Ph.D. from Cambridge University) walked away in protest to the terrible administrative job going on, leaving WUT with only Masters degrees teaching in its MBA program, and within the next year enrollments dropped from near 500 to less than 160. Yet St. Louis bailed WUT out at great losses, and it slowly recovered under somewhat better administrations. Now WUT is drifting back into that wounded bear condition that may ultimately lead to its demise… Will WUT turn around? It has never had much respect anywhere anyway. To gain respect it must employ a staff that will work to increase it’s quality and status and stop the lying, deception and fraud. To find a competent staff, it must increase its pay scale, which may mean increased tuition, which may drive away some of its students. WUT is caught in a “Catch 22”, damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. WUT needs increased support from Webster St. Louis if it is to survive, and I don’t think that support is forthcoming this time. It also needs a complete sweep of the current admin and a concerted effort to recruit good, honest, concerned people to replace them.

Believe it or not, some of us ex-WUTers who have been getting together on a regular basis recently have discussed this very question. Why is Webster keeping its Ghana program alive for 6 students when they are losing (according to one inside source) $20 million per year on it? Probable answer: They want the prestige of being called an international university with campuses on 4 continents. That’s understandable. But the problem with that is, when your international program is a sham, it becomes the laughing stock of the international academic community. An international university with campuses around the world is very prestigious if you’re offering quality programs like the University of Maryland does. If you’re running a shoddy program, all respect goes down the drain. All your efforts are for naught.

If you are hiring people with great credentials which certainly would make your program look good if nothing else, and then you fire them after a couple of months, you can’t be taken seriously as a quality program. Why would anyone do that? It’s bizarre to the extent of being almost insane, as far as WUT is concerned.

If you run your program based on fear, intimidation, deception, and fraud, how can your program be taken seriously? You need Ph.Ds on a graduate program. I know there are many very good professors, even at WUT, who have only Masters degrees. I have said many times: You don’t have to have a Ph.D. to be a good teacher. But, the academic community thinks you do.

I taught many undergraduate classes with only a Masters degree, but never a graduate class. After earning my Ph.D. and teaching graduate classes, I realized that in no way was I qualified to teach a graduate class with only my Masters. There’s no way I would have done a quality job. It would have been a mockery.

So, in answer to your question, Webster seems to be trying to hard to achieve mediocrity. They want to be prestigious, but the academic community is thinking otherwise based on shoddy programs administered poorly.

7. It is widely known among the greater WUT community that during the fall of 2014, Webster’s St. Louis campus sent a so-called “Campus Review” team on multiple visits to “review” what needed to be improved at WUT. To my knowledge, this was the first such organized trip in WUT history, is that accurate to your knowledge? Moreover, why do you think the trip was so bizarrely secretive to the point of most faculty and students not even knowing about it, let alone being invited to share feedback with St. Louis? Doesn’t this guise of a “review” in and of itself prove that St. Louis is just as much, if not more so, to blame for the scandalous reputation that WUT has?

I’ll just say, I think your question best answers itself. That is, I agree with everything you say in the question and I cannot say it better. To my knowledge investigative committees of this sort have never been sent over before. Everyone tells me that. But I think it’s important to emphasize – as I have many times before – the committees they send over are being whitewashed. They are wined and dined by the people they are supposed to be investigating, in a lovely exotic tropical atmosphere, and then they go home and write glowing reports. They never talk to the faculty or students because they think all they’ll do is whine and what they have to say is not important anyway. That’s always been the way administrations have looked at faculty and students… as disposable.

If reports are made available to the general public, they will have been edited by the upper administration at St. Louis to say exactly what the admin wants them to say. But I have serious doubts that committee reports ever will be released to the general Webster community. Why would they see a need to? Nobody really cares. It’s all window dressing… a farce. If the reports ever are released, they will be whitewashed and show nothing but lollipops and roses.

By the way, I’ve served on some pretty important committees at some big universities (e.g., Appropriations), and it’s pretty much the same everywhere. Committees say what administrations want them to say or approve. I hate committees.

Why do you think Webster St. Louis has sent 3 investigative committees to Thailand in 6 months to try to come up with reasons for all the problems, complaints, and lawsuits involving WUT? It’s not so much the faculty, it’s not so much the students… it’s the administration.

The problem is that the investigative committee members are wined and dined by the people they were sent to investigate and then return home painting a rosy picture that doesn’t exist. So complacency sets in, and nothing ever changes… Fraud, lies, deception, and discrimination are commonplace in the WUT administration. The problem is that the team only talked to the people they were supposed to be investigating. I and most others were not invited to talk to them. It turned out to be a whitewash, although the conclusion in the report was that WUT has many problems that should be dealt with immediately.

8. In January 2015, you sent out an email to various faculty members explaining that WUT was not AACSB accredited, despite its increasing focus on MBA programs at their newer location in Bangkok. In fact, none of the Webster campuses world-wide are AACSB accredited, nor have they ever been. In response, Oliver Skatar, WUT’s new Marketing Communications Manager and former Webster student, sent out an email to the WUT community claiming that WUT is indeed a “member” of AACSB, is accredited by ACBSP, and maintains “Excellent” standing with Thailand’s Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA). Would you mind clearing up this situation, once and for all?

I had believed in late 2014 that WUT lost membership in AACSB, [along with its lack of AACSB accreditation]. Membership is required to apply for accreditation. In effect, [that is] their place on the waiting list. Those schools applying for accreditation must go through a very extensive review and analysis before a yes or no is given on accreditation.

I know because I helped California State University keep their AACSB accreditation when they came up for their periodic required review. Just like passing the CPA exam does not mean you are a CPA for life, AACSB accreditation is not for life. It must be renewed every few years (CPA renewal is every year; the only accounting certificate issued for life in CA is Certified Auditor, which I have).

Author’s note: Webster never did, in fact, lose its “membership” in the AACSB database. For some reason, certain websites seem to list AACSB membership incompletely. That said, none of the Webster campuses have ever achieved AACSB accreditation.

I’ve said elsewhere, of some 12,000 schools or colleges of business worldwide, only 711 have AACSB accreditation (accredited separately, only 182 Accounting Departments have it). Only 1,300 schools or colleges of business have membership, but that number includes the 711 who also are accredited, meaning of course that only about 600 schools are members [of AACSB] without having accreditation.

WUT could only dream of being able to shine the shoes for AACSB accredited schools… i.e., not even a remote chance of accreditation for WUT.

I have also contacted North Central Association which accredits the Webster University home campus regionally, and which automatically accredits all of its branches, foreign and domestic. I got an email from the [NCACS] – in response to information I provided them – saying they are considering putting Webster on probation until they clean up their Thailand campus, [which would] be a major blow to Webster all around the world. The ACBSP is also considering suspending their accreditation of Webster, but that accreditation is less than worthless [anyway], in that it actually hurts a school to be ACBSP accredited if anyone cares to look into it.

So of course, [Skatar] and the WUT admin are trying to make ACBSP accreditation equivalent to AACSB, when it isn’t even close. If you have been keeping up with things, you realize that ONESQA has come up for investigation itself for negligent and deceptive practices. So, neither of these accrediting associations is worth much and may actually hurt a school. In light of the recent charges against the rector at KMITL for embezzlement, I have also convinced the Thai Ministry of Education to renew it’s interest in suspending the accreditation of WUT.

There is absolutely nothing exclusive or prestigious about ACBSP accreditation. They will accredit any school that applies, even without investigating the legitimacy of the applying school. To date, they have accredited mostly community colleges in the States and schools that have the reputation of being diploma mills. Many schools that have not been granted AACSB accreditation will not apply for ACBSP accreditation because of the negative image that comes with it.

Webster University Thailand never has had AACSB accrediation and probably never will. They do not come close to having the qualifications even to apply for membership in the AACSB, much less become accredited… the requirements are very strict and schools come up for re-accreditation every few years unless questions are raised in the interim. I’m told by many corporate recruiters that they recruit first and foremost at AACSB accreditated schools and colleges of business before even considering recruiting at schools or colleges that are only members. The big companies do not recruit at all at schools or colleges not associated with the AACSB.

In the early 1990s, the for-profit diploma mill, University of Phoenix, applied for AACSB accreditation and was turned down flatly. They were also turned down for membership. In retaliation, they organized a similar sounding accreditation association called the Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs (ACBSP). Do you see how similar those acronyms are? It’s easy for potential students to get them confused, and that was what the organizers of the ACBSP intended.

9. Besides accreditation issues, what specific instances of fraud are you aware of in regard to WUT claiming certain rankings, achievements, or faculty standards? Do their qualifications line up with their marketing slogan, “an American university in Thailand” in your point of view? As someone who’s been involved at WUT over the past decade, do you think fraud has been an ongoing element of the WUT business strategy?

Well, specifically… until January [2015] WUT’s ads contained an icon implying WUT is ranked by US News and World Report in the “top 100 universities” in America. Just by posting that implication, they were committing fraud. It’s not true.

When I pointed out in an email that there’s no way that’s true, either of WUT or St. Louis, they changed the icon to read “Best Colleges US News” with small print reading “Regional Universities Midwest”… which is [true] of the St. Louis campus. WUT is implying things about the Thailand campus that may be true of St. Louis but certainly, absolutely, not WUT. They’re doing the same thing implying that Forbes ranked WUT among “America’s Top Colleges” which is not true of WUT and not even of WUSTL.

Through research of US News and Forbes over the past 2 years, we could prove this is false advertising, certainly of WUT if not of WUSTL, if anyone has the time to do that research. But of course they’ve now changed the wording to protect themselves against the ongoing charges of fraud, so the point may be moot. They are clever.

Author’s note: Webster University’s St. Louis campus was ranked #568 out of 650 total colleges in Forbes 2014 rankings. The WUT campus is not listed anywhere on either Forbes or US News and World Report annual rankings.

The fraudulent claims they were making before this January 2015 letter was published in the Bangkok Post have now been covered up. If the academic community wants to accept that, what can I do? They’ll be back to business as usual as soon as this blows over.

However, I do believe we hit them harder this time than they’ve ever been hit before. Will it bring about real change? And why do we who are now on the outside really give a damn? Eventually I’ll pull out and leave the task up to others, or if everyone involved is willing to accept what they do, everyone will just have to live with it.

10. You’ve been working non-stop contacting governments, education ministries, and so forth across the world to warn them about the WUT “situation” from what I understand. In your words via email, “I have now taken several drastic actions designed to expose the WUT administration for what it is: Undereducated, inexperienced, incompetent, corrupt and deceitful.” You’ve also been offering free help to WUT students and their families for the past several weeks. In short, do you think change will come? Or is the future of higher education a blurry mess of corporate interests, corruption, and bureaucratic ineffectiveness?

[It] would require a book to answer adequately, but I can answer simply: The latter.

Small changes may be made for the better, but overall higher education is a mess. The University of Maryland, University College has already taken steps to privatize its operations and break away from the home campus, while keeping the name for the prestige. They want their classes to be taught by administrative-determined rules (i.e., every Economics 201 teacher on the same page on the same day) in what we oldtimers call “a class in a box”. Online “Distance Education” classes are already being taught that way, and UMUC is leading the world in DE.

When the “Golden Handshake” was offered to me at age 50 by Cal State to “get rid of the overpaid teachers and replace them with more cost effective teachers”, I didn’t want to take it. I loved my job and was at the top of my game teaching graduate applied Economics classes and a few upper division undergraduate classes. Then I did the numbers and realized they were offering me a very nice tax-free retirement check every month plus free health insurance for the rest of my life. The only way that could not pay off was if I had signed the retirement papers and walked out of the building and be hit by a bus. I would have been a fool not to take it.

Thousands of very qualified professors chose to take the handshake and leave. Some Berkeley professors took it and moved across the Bay to private Stanford, including Nobel Prize winners. Berkeley sank fast from its top-5 status, as did the whole system. In my case, I was replaced by 3 part-timers with Masters degrees, each taking one of the three classes I used to teach (very well). Their combined part-time salaries added up to half the full-time salary Cal State was paying me, and they didn’t have to pay any “bennies” (retirement, health insurance) for the part-timers. They saved money but the quality of education (in my opinion) went down by more than half.

I understand that approximately 70% of the teaching positions in the California system are now filled by part-timers, “freeway flyers” as they’re called in California because they teach 3 courses at 3 different schools making as little as $30,000 for all 3 with no benefits. It’s happening all over the US education system as budgets are cut while football coaches and university presidents are receiving salaries ranging into the millions of dollars.

Short answer then: Higher education in the US, and indeed in the entire world, is a mess. I’m glad I got in when higher education still meant something, and out when it didn’t. I draw 2 university retirement checks as well as social security. I benefited.

I didn’t need the pitiful WUT salary, but I didn’t need the biggest insult I’ve ever received in my life either. That’s why I’m involved in all this. This didn’t have to be. I was doing at least an adequate job, and they had to pay me for the courses anyway. Why not give me a chance to finish and see how I did? Why fire me in the first week of the graduate term?

If WUT is not shut down by St. Louis, it may be by the Thai Ministry of Education, under pressure from the investigative free press… I have contacted the Ministries of Education in India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Vietnam [etc] about the deception being carried out by WUT recruiters within their borders. I have suggested that they bar WUT recruiters from recruiting unsuspecting students within their borders using outright deception and fraud. I will be contacting several other countries in the next few days and the major universities in each country. I won’t stop until WUT gets the sordid international reputation it so justly deserves.

11. In closing, it seems rather clear that you are not afraid of the so-called “India Mafia” administrators at WUT, or are you just brave? After the January 2015 “letter” appeared in the Bangkok Post, Rector Thakur sent out a faculty-wide email insinuating legal action against any dissidents. What do you have to say to the faculty at WUT, or at any institution of higher learning, who witness ongoing fraud, corruption, threats, or other abuses?

No, I am not afraid of the “India Mafia.” [They] are weasels of the first order. In my opinion they are weak and cowardly. Like all cowards, they prey on the helpless. They have preyed on, threatened, lied to, and stolen from those who they were supposed to be serving, the students and faculty at Webster University Thailand.

If I have any advice for a faculty like that at WUT, I would advise them to get some backbone, stand up, stick together against small-minded tyrants who use appointed positions to bully those under them… WUT is the end of the road, the bottom of the barrel, the French Foreign Legion of higher academics. To be afraid of losing a job at WUT is like being afraid of losing a rotten tooth at the dentist.

Harsh, but the real world is often harsh. I would advise the WUT faculty and any similar faculty that you can do better than hiding out in a diploma mill.

I’m not a practicing attorney, but I’ve argued a dozen court cases on my own behalf with a record of 11-1. I’m not versed in Thai law but have people on my side who are, and I’m not afraid of any legal actions WUT might come up with… I have a law degree as well as a Ph.D. I know what I’m doing. I’ve protected all of my assets from possible legal action. My son is a multi-millionaire. He is backing me totally. I took on the State of California over just $6 on principle in a case that lasted 6 months. I spent about $20 to keep from having to pay the $6 and the State spent about $6,000 of taxpayers money trying to collect [the $6]. Eventually the Governor of Calfornia stepped in, declared me right, and told the State to drop the case. I never had to pay the $6…

In the fall of 2014, I took on the mighty Google who were stonewalling me from the United States on an access issue. I found their office in Bangkok and went there. You would think I was trying to get into CIA headquarters the security was so tight, but I got in through using my connections. They backed down within the hour, and I’ve had no trouble since…

I’m sorry, but I can have no sympathy for the good people on the faculty at WUT. There are better places to work (e.g., Stamford in Bangkok – not in Hua Hin – and some other Thai universities that offer their graduate programs in English… I know because I taught for one and will again soon).

Webster University Thailand: Rampant Corruption, Fraud Put Blemish On Growing International Brand

Author’s Note: Journalism ethics often call for 3rd-party dissection of information and experiences in order to provide a non-biased view of a story. In this case, due to my personal involvement with Webster University : Thailand, such pure dissection is not possible at CollegeTimes. I have done my best to present a balanced perspective, including interviewing multiple current and former students and faculty from the WUT campus. This post was also reviewed for factual accuracy by multiple WUT students and faculty before final publication. PHOTO: The current Rector of WUT Ratish Thakur (left) accepts a “Trust Mark Award” from then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2013 on behalf of the campus, despite WUT having submitted allegedly fraudulent PhD research to the Thai Ministry of Education multiple years in a row in order to renew their university-level Quality Assessment marks.

Update 3/22/2015: Webster University has officially responded to this article by sending out a private letter to WUT students via email (while avoiding all WUT faculty) threatening to sue CollegeTimes. Apparently, WUSTL thought that we would not be forwarded the threatening letter by outraged WUT students…

Update 3/23/2015: Thailand’s well-known investigative blogger, Andrew Drummond, and Hua Hin Forum, have both picked up this growing story…

Update 3/26/2015: According to writers at the Webster Journal (the student newspaper at WUSTL), they are being muzzled by WUSTL administrators and have been threatened that their funding will be “cut off” if they cover stories that cast Webster University in a critical light. This water-downed article was the only mention of WUT fraud and corruption that was “approved” by WUSTL administrators.

Update 3/29/2015: Alex Friptu, the Romanian “Online Marketing Manager” for WUT who was responsible for recruiting Ramona Mihaela Paun (see below) to be the new head of WUT School of Business and Technology, just spent 4 hours 6 mins 32 secs spamming our website from his iPhone on a Saturday night. According to WUT sources, he was recently given a part-time teaching position at WUT so that the “Indian Mafia” administrators could reward him with money allocated by Webster for continuing education of (select) faculty. Apparently spamming and slandering our website were pre-requisites to whatever they have promised him…

Update 4/6/2015: In a completely independent development, American students at Webster University : London have launched a protest regarding the illegal withholding of their U.S. federal student aid. In reaction to being told to “apply for private student loans” instead, nearly 200 students have signed an online petition demanding that WUSTL officials immediately disburse their financial aid funds.

Update 4/10/2015: In reaction to this article, Inside Higher Ed published an investigative piece of their own with several additional stories, testimonies, and other evidence of rampant fraud and corruption going on at the WUT campus. In addition, a letter signed by 160+ students from the WUT campus was recently delivered to WUSTL administrators in reaction to the lawsuit threat against CollegeTimes that WUSTL recently distributed to WUT students as an intimidation tactic.

Update 4/16/2015: After ignoring months of emails and phone calls from WUT faculty and students, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch finally decided to mention the WUT scandals after the IHE piece mentioned above was published (although the Dispatch offered zero additional research). It was followed up immediately (strategically?) by a piece acknowledging the “site review report” released by WUSTL a few days ago. We have heard reports that the Post-Dispatch’s editorial board has rather close ties with the WUSTL administration and will be following up on this. IHE briefly broke down the report’s clear attempt at glossing over serious issues.

Update 5/24/2015: A long-awaited months-long investigation into the WUT campus was published today by the Bangkok Post newspaper. WUT Rector Ratish Thakur has repeatedly insisted in recent weeks to the Post that Webster’s Cha-Am campus will be ‘moving’ to Bangkok in an apparent effort to minimize the reputation damage to Webster that continues to snowball across Southeast Asia.

Update 7/27/2015: Months after WUT Rector Ratish Thakur told the Bangkok Post that the campus would be permanently shutting down – a story that has in fact been rumored for several years – the campus continues to aggressively recruit new students from India and beyond, particularly noticeable via traffic logs maintained by CollegeTimes.

Update 3/22/2016: Well into the 2016 year, it is apparent that WUT has no intention of “shutting down” their campus in Cha-Am despite repeated promises of such to the Bangkok Post newspaper. Instead, they have pushed forward with more aggressive marketing, especially in Bhutan, as measured by CollegeTimes traffic logs. However, we were recently forwarded copies of these three emails showing that WUSTL has begun a massive “budget slashing” campaign across its international campuses, banning WUT from hiring new faculty or staff without approval and ordering them to immediately find ways to contribute to a $1.5 million dollar budget reduction.

English introduction: In late 2014, I saw General Prayut Chan-O-Cha appear on Thai television in a special appeal to anyone watching to help make Thailand a better place. Speaking in Thai, with English subtitles, he asked for residents of Thailand to faithfully report any instances of corruption to his new government. I respectfully submit this article in an effort to expose serious fraud and corruption at Webster University. I hope and pray that the quality of higher education in Thailand can be protected and improved because of stories like this, where dozens of students and faculty have united together in an effort to end years of fraud and threats of violence. On behalf of these dozens of students and faculty, I sincerely thank General Prayut and other members of the Thai government for their dedication to the safety and well-being of students and teachers throughout all of Thailand.

Thai introduction: ในช่วงปลายปี 2557 ข้าพเจ้าได้มีโอกาสเห็นพลเอกประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา ทางโทรทัศน์ ในรายการพิเศษที่ท่านมีความมุ่งมั่นในการพัฒนาประเทศไทยให้ดียิ่งขึ้น ซึ่งท่านพลเอกประยุทธ์ ได้กล่าวเป็นภาษาไทยและมีคำบรรยายภาษาอังกฤษประกอบ โดยท่านขอให้ผู้ที่พำนักในประเทศไทยทุกคนแจ้งการทุจริตต่างๆแก่รัฐบาลของท่าน ข้าพเจ้าจึงขอส่งบทความชิ้นนี้มาเพื่อแสดงการทุจริตและการฉ้อโกงของมหาวิทยาลัยเว็บสเตอร์ ข้าพเจ้าหวังเป็นอย่างยิ่งว่าคุณภาพการศึกษาในระดับอุดมศึกษาของไทยจะได้รับความคุ้มครองและพัฒนาให้ดียิ่งขึ้นจากกรณีตัวอย่างนี้ ทั้งนี้ นักศึกษาหลายสิบคนและคณะได้รวมตัวกันเพื่อสิ้นสุดปีการศึกษาแห่งการฉ้อโกงรวมถึงการข่มขู่โดยใช้ความรุนแรงนี้ ในฐานะตัวแทนของนักศึกษาและคณะ ข้าพเจ้าขอขอบพระคุณพลเอกประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา และคณะรัฐบาล อย่างสูงที่ได้ทุ่มเทเพื่อความปลอดภัยและสภาพความเป็นอยู่ที่ดีของนักศึกษาและคณาจารย์ทั่วประเทศไทย

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There is one thing, at least, that nearly everyone at Webster University : Thailand seems to firmly agree on: the school has some serious potential.

• See also: Interview: Charles Brumfield, Former Professor At Webster University Thailand, Reveals Vast Abuses

Not only is WUT in an area of the world experiencing massive economic growth, but it is – at least, allegedly, anyway – also affiliated with a well-established American university that is both “non-profit” and regionally accredited.

Unending Scandals, Controversy, Threats

But spend a few days on campus at one of two WUT locations in Thailand – either the remote Cha-Am campus (near Hua Hin) or the new Bangkok center – and the scandalous stories begin to flow like rats out of a sewer. During my short time there as a part-time instructor of computer electives, here are a few revelations that I encountered, leading to my unwavering conclusion that WUT is nothing short of a diploma mill:

1) Multiple students have allegedly had their life threatened directly by the Rector of WUT, Ratish Thakur, after they questioned the corruption and fraud happening around the campus. Although the threats were repeated, the most recounted event is from 2010 when members of the WUT student council (SGA) held a private meeting in Thakur’s office. During the meeting, Thakur allegedly threatened that students “would be shot” (assassinated by a “hit man”) if they didn’t stop complaining about the poor quality of academics, facilities, and otherwise at the WUT campus. For the past 5 years, students have struggled to shine light on this shocking series of events to an unsympathetic Webster University : St. Louis (WUSTL) administration. Andrea Eickelmann, the former SGA president at WUT, has helped students submit several in-depth letters to WUSTL, interviewed with the Journal (Webster’s student newspaper in St. Louis, who seems to have recently deleted the interview), and even undertook a detailed survey of WUT students to prove that those at the Thailand campus are not only dissatisfied, but thoroughly “frightened” by what they encounter there:

• WUT: Dana Pacheco Letter To St. Louis (2009)
• WUT: Student Council Letter To St. Louis (2010)
• WUT: Jennifer Armit Letter To St. Louis (2010)
• WUT: Andrea Eickelmann Letter To St. Louis #1 (2010)
• WUT: Andrea Eickelmann Letter To St. Louis #2 (2010)
• WUT: Kris Parsons and Dana Pacheco Statement to St. Louis (2010)
• WUT: Student Satisfaction Survey (2010)
• WUT: Student Satisfaction Survey Written Responses (2010)
• WUT: Student Complaints Organized by Kris Parsons (2010)
• WUT: Student Council Letter To St. Louis (2010-2011)
• WUT: Andrea Eickelmann Interview with the Webster Journal (2011)

2) According to members of WUT’s Academic Committee that spoke with me, Academic Director Nisha Ray-Chaudhuri has been submitting fraudulent “research” to the Thai Ministry of Education for multiple years in a row in order to renew WUT’s “university-level” Quality Assessment ratings from the Thai government, which requires ongoing PhD research to be performed. Ray-Chaudhuri alleged to the Committee that she received direct instruction from Thakur on how to carry out the fraud, including submitting research that had been completed by other Webster University campuses, changing the names on certain research projects, re-submitting old research papers, and submitting the names of “full-time” faculty that do not work at the WUT campus. Interestingly, even with allegedly fraudulent research being submitted, the Thai QA system still concluded that WUT has an extremely poor rating in terms of full-time faculty and overall research activity. Specifically, for the “15” full-time faculty that WUT claims to employ, only a mere ฿7,495 THB (approximately $230 USD) is apparently budgeted for each “researcher” per year to carry out their mandatory university-level research, resulting in a score of just 1.4 out of 5 possible points for the WUT campus in that category:

• WUT: Quality Assessment Fraud #1 (2013-2014)
• WUT: Quality Assessment Fraud #2 (2013-2014)
• WUT: Quality Assessment Fraud #3 (2013-2014)
• WUT: Quality Assessment Fraud #4 (2013-2014)
• WUT: Quality Assessment Fraud #5 (2013-2014)

Yet, according to the QA, despite WUT conducting almost zero research, having very few full-time faculty members, and having extremely poor graduation rates, the final overall QA rating for WUT somehow managed to be 4.59 out of 5 total points. This comes on the heels of the Thai government seriously considering a total annihilation of the entire ONESQA system after years of dysfunction.

But it gets even worse – not only has WUT been committing “research fraud” for several years, the campus has also been hiring faculty with falsified credentials:

“We use people’s names who do not work full time or even part time at WUT, there is [research] publication credit given to WUT when the person writing it lives in Florida, for instance… Bruce Keel was another person who was let go at WUT, but then he returned. During the last rebellion/uprising in 2010, the “troublemakers” determined that the school giving his doctoral degree did not recognize his name on a list of persons actually earning a degree that year. In other words, he claimed to have a degree he didn’t. He was promoted to Academic Director, but all he did was make coffee. He ignored the long list of items he was supposed to do… Nisha [Ray-Chaudhuri] lists her degree as a DBA, but she added a “ABD” after it, which nobody does in academics. There is a mindset that we need to do whatever sneaky things we can to fool the Thai accrediting bodies, partly because they don’t understand academics either.” — Current WUT faculty member

Then of course, there’s the story of “Dr.” Edward Roy Krishnan, a scam artist from Malaysia with multiple “doctorate” degrees he purchased from diploma mills. Guess which Thai university hired him without a second thought? That’s right, WUT. There’s also the new “director” of WUT’s School of Business and Technology, Ramona Mihaela Paun, who claims 1 Phd, 2 Masters, and a Bachelors from Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, along with a Phd and Bachelors from the University of Gothenburg. Strangely, she achieved this impressive amount of six different degrees at the same time she claims to have held full time jobs at JCI Romania, a Romanian non-profit organization.

PHOTO: Julian Z. Schuster, Provost of Webster University in St. Louis, attends a 2014 groundbreaking ceremony for the new WUT location (a rented office building) in Bangkok. Standing with him is the so-called “Indian Mafia” administration, along with Phil Gwaltney (Student Affairs Director), an apparently “token white guy” whose job is to stop students from smoking on campus, among other trivial tasks.

3) According to multiple current and former faculty members, WUT administrators – commonly referred to as “The Indians” or the “Indian Mafia” by WUT students and faculty alike – maintain two separate financial accounting records; one that they show to Webster in St. Louis, and another that they keep for their own purposes. Over the past several years, this group of Indians have allegedly “borrowed” millions of Thai baht from WUT student tuition fees for personal travel and living expenses, and for their own higher education (i.e. PhDs in France), without any approval or acknowledgement from the rest of the Webster community. The below three documents provided to CollegeTimes by multiple sources show rather indisputable evidence of extensive financial “borrowing” carried out by Ratish Thakur, Nisha Ray-Chadhuri (now married to Samrat Ray, the Director of Marketing at WUT), and James Jain, all of whom are Indian nationals working in Thailand (and 3 of whom previously attended and later worked together at Samford International University in Hua Hin):

• WUT Scandal: Grenoble Ecole de Management (2010-2011)
• WUT Scandal: Long-Term Development Agreement (2011-2014)
• WUT Scandal: Signed Payment Vouchers (2013)

“It is obvious to everyone that Ratish rakes in his money every month while denying funding to so many others, even for legitimate purposes. I can only tell you from direct experience. He doesn’t document these kinds of things anyway. Executive committee decisions are simply edicts issued by him, and all the others simply go along. There are typically NO DOCTORATES on the [committee]. Some members post photos of their “retreats” at luxury spas/resorts including the bar area, pool, bedroom, etc. People were asked to nominate individuals but in fact some were simply expected to join, qualified or not.” — Current WUT faculty member

During my short time as an instructor at WUT, dozens of WUT students also claimed that various “fees” were regularly billed to them without any explanation, including a “General Fee” of $760 that did not include any itemization. Some of my American students, who must transfer their U.S. federal financial aid via Kasikorn Bank in Thailand, also alleged that they often must wait several weeks for their financial aid to be disbursed, plus pay disburment “fees”, both of which are a violation of U.S. student aid regulations.

One WUT student shared emails with me showing how, despite his plans to withdraw from WUT after December 2014, his Connections (WUT user account) was placed on hold after he was suddenly told he owed the school ฿2,000 THB from past “bank transfer” fees from up to 2 years earlier. After his account was locked, he was unable to officially withdraw from the Spring 2015 term, and thus his Spring courses “began” despite his already having left Thailand. Now, WUT is claiming that he owes both a non-refundable “General Fee” and “Media Fee” totaling ฿31,000 THB (approx. $957 USD), otherwise Webster’s St. Louis campus will not unlock his account and course records.

Update: 3/24/2015: Multiple students have discovered that WUT has been charging students a ฿25,000 THB “General Fee” (managed by James Jain, the WUT Director of Finance, who is from India) even when they are “studying abroad” at a different Webster University campus. No other Webster campus does this.

PHOTO: Despite graduation only costing $75 at the WUSTL campus, recent bills sent to WUT students totaled over ฿10,000 THB (more than $300 USD). UPDATE: immediately before this article was finalized, I was informed that enough WUT seniors had organized a boycott of the 2015 graduation ceremony that WUT was forced to drop the cost back down to its original price of just ฿3,000 THB; days later, the WUT went a step further and decided to “waive” the graduation fee completely.

4) During the fall term of 2014, Webster’s St. Louis campus sent over a “Campus Review” committee on multiple visits to the WUT campus allegedly to seek feedback from faculty/students on how WUT might improve; interestingly, very few faculty or students were actually made aware of the review process. According to members of WUT’s Academic Committee, Thakur was invited to a secret meeting off-campus with Julian Z. Schuster – the WUSTL Provost and COO – before the review process began, allegedly to reassure Thakur that St. Louis fully supported him and that the Campus Review process would not endanger his current position. Although WUT did not make any real effort to announce the Campus Review process – including burying an announcement memo prepared by WUSTL – I sent multiple emails to St. Louis administrators to inquire about the process on behalf of my students, who feared they would face backlash at WUT for any feedback they provided. Despite initial promises to the WUT student council that feedback would be “completely confidential”, Nancy J. Hellerud, the Vice Provost of WUSTL and a licensed attorney in the U.S., finally replied to my multiple inquiries with a significantly different and intimidating answer:

“Yes, we have received your e-mail. Information sent to the committee and the names of those who submit information will be treated as confidential to the extent possible, but we cannot promise confidentiality. If policy or law dictates that information be disclosed, we will do so.” — Nancy J. Hellerud, WUSTL Vice Provost

I had to personally inquire with WUT students and department heads multiple times to confirm the time and place of the “Campus Review” faculty meeting, but finally found the location at the WUT campus on 11 November, 2014. The meeting, which was hosted by WUSTL Vice Provost Nancy J. Hellerud, was only attended by around a dozen WUT faculty members in total. For the better part of 2 hours, Hellerud – fully taking on the part of an “attorney” – talked over and interrupted the attendees, making a clear effort to steer conversation away from more serious topics. Toward the end of the meeting, I confronted Hellerud over corruption and fraud allegations, and let her know to her face that one of my students’ lives has been apparently threatened by Thakur, as she had refused my earlier phone call attempts to the United States. Without any reply, she quickly canceled the meeting and walked away, fully uninterested in the fact that student lives were in possible danger at the WUT campus (@ 2:05-2:14):

At one point, Hellerud responded with vague reference to financial problems at WUT, possibly alluding to the fact that the St. Louis campus is well aware of and/or enabling the alleged corruption going on, believing it is “out of their control”:

“Frankly, its interesting because the idea of ‘profit’ is everywhere, and we’re not profitable, frankly… but what we, as an organization, have to think about, is there are things we cannot control… and some of those are things you have to ‘pay’ people… it might be benefits packages… but, you can make some assumptions.” – Nancy J. Hellerud, , WUSTL Vice Provost

If St. Louis is indeed aware of ongoing corruption being perpetrated by WUT representatives, especially related to bribery of officials or other entities in Asia, it would be a direct violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977.

5) Several faculty members at WUT have been the victims of contract fraud and/or withheld salary, often being forced to teach courses without pay or being promised compensation “at the end of the year” by administrators. One faculty member who has been at WUT for over 2 years, said even she had been scammed by the school, but told me that her students helped her to realize what was going on:

“Before, my contract finished in the middle of August. Then last year, they changed my contract to finish by the end of May. So that means they didn’t pay me for two and a half months. [They] said ‘Okay, we will give you [less] classes for the next contract.’ I said, ‘No! I finished this contract, I need to get paid first!’ So finally they paid me.” – Current WUT faculty member

I myself was a victim of contract fraud, when WUT Academic Director, Nisha Ray-Chaudhuri, attempted to force me to teach a “business” course that I was not contracted (let alone qualified) to teach, without compensating me. After Ray-Chaudhuri ignored several of my emails, I was finally able to surprise her outside her office on campus on one of my days off. When I asked for written confirmation that I was qualified to teach the course, along with financial compensation, Ray-Chaudhuri first tried to call my supervisor, Roy Avecilla, out of his classroom to tell me “why I had to teach the course.” When I asked why she herself, as the Academic Director, couldn’t resolve the situation, she said she would “make some phone calls” and asked me to leave. 30 minutes later, I received an email from her stating that I would no longer be teaching the course. The following week, Avecilla informed me that according to WUT administrators, I would no longer be able to teach at WUT because I “lacked a PhD degree, or at least a Masters degree” in web design (the subject of my elective course), despite WUT having repeatedly begged me to return in 2015 to teach again due to my strong student evaluations, and due to my course in computer applications being the most popular class on campus during 2014.

PHOTO: Although my contract at WUT was to teach computer electives part-time (web design/marketing and applications) I suddenly found myself being forced to teach a business theory class, despite my bachelor’s degree in social science. I was told to teach from Management Science written by Stephen Powell, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business who holds a PhD and Masters from Stanford University.

In fact, despite WUT’s very short history, already several former faculty members have filed – and won – lawsuits against WUT for wrongful dismissal, contract fraud, and other breeches of Thai labor laws, winning hundreds of thousands of Thai baht in settlements. It’s rather tell-tale that every single faculty member at WUT is placed on temporary 1-year employment contracts – even “full-time” professors who have been teaching for some years – seemingly to encourage a high turnover rate and faculty disconnect. Any faculty member or instructor who doesn’t “play along” with the contract fraud, among other campus abuses, seems to be quickly fired, “dismissed”, or their contract is simply not renewed at the end of the current year.

• WUT: Michael Erickson Letter To St. Louis (2014)
• WUT: Dario Navarro Letter To St. Louis #1 (2014)
• WUT: Dario Navarro Letter To St. Louis #2 (2014)
• WUT: Dario Navarro Letter To St. Louis #3 (2014)
• WUT: Jesse Nickles Campus Feedback For St. Louis (2014)
• WUT: Charles Brumfield Emails From Students And Faculty (2014)

Dario Navarro, a recent hire at the WUT campus with an impressive list of credentials from Yale, Princeton, and Northwestern Universities in the United States, is perhaps the best recent example of the bizarre, criminal treatment of faculty. His complete story – detailing how he was continually harassed and threatened by the “Indians” at WUT after making inquiries into the campus “audit” process with WUSTL’s administration – can be found in the documents linked above, but here is a short excerpt:

“Earlier today I learned that WUT administrators have made yet another in a long series of illegal, retaliatory and coercive decisions by instructing the WUT attorney to inform me that my salary at WUT for October 2014 would be withheld until I submitted my grades and agreed to WUT settlement terms. The withholding of my salary in an illegal coercive attempt to obtain my consent to a settlement offer violates Section 70 of the Thai Labor Protection Act of 1998. The illegal coercive withholding of my salary is just the latest demonstration of the lack of good faith and abusive misconduct of WUT officials.” — Dario Navarro, former WUT professor

Of course, this may not be entirely surprising to those familiar with Webster University’s recent reputation in the United States, as WUSTL fired their Vice President of Finance of more than 12 years, David Garafola, in 2011, after he filed complaints regarding unethical recruiting practices. Garafola later sued Webster in court and won a large settlement. In an interview with Columbia University, Garafola later explained:

“My philosophy is that you can’t be a successful business officer and not be transparent,” Garafola said. “There are just way too many constituencies. You have to have openness and a transparency that’s there if you’re going to be successful.” — David Garafola, fired from WUSTL

(There is also the 2011 case of professor Tracey McCarthy, an African-American female, who alleged discrimination and sexual harassment. Several other African-American students have also alleged an extremely racist environment at WUSTL.)

• See also: Interview: Jeme Deviny, Former Neumont University Director Of Financial Services, Spills The Beans

6) Despite claiming to be an “American university in Thailand” there are currently no Americans within the WUT administration, no apparent oversight of WUT course curricula, and the WUT faculty is increasingly made up of Filipinos and Indians (mostly friends of Thakur), among other non-native English speakers (which isn’t necessary a bad thing, but surely isn’t an “American” thing). When I contacted the Higher Learning Commission, who is responsible for Webster’s (American) regional accreditation by way of North Central Association Of Colleges And Schools and who allegedly “accredits” all world-wide campuses of Webster, one John Hausaman informed me that:

“We accredit the institution as a whole, which encompasses all locations of the institution. All locations of an institution can be included in the evaluation process for accreditation. I do not have specific information available about that particular campus’ last visit.” — HLC

When I asked him if “any” audit or campus visit had ever taken place in the history of WUT, or if anyone at the HLC could verify such, he refused to reply further. However, after a week of badgering Hausaman, and 4-5 email inquiries later, I finally confirmed (vaguely) that the WUT campus has no audit/accreditation records on file:

“Since we evaluate the institution as a whole, the information about the particular location you are seeking is not information we provide according to our policies.” — HLC

But how exactly does an accreditation agency “accredit” an institution without ever visiting or auditing its campus? It is widely believed that HLC accreditation standards have been going downhill for years. A public 2010 letter from the U.S. Department of Education lambasted the HLC for deciding to accredit American InterContinental University, a well-known for-profit diploma mill. University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college in the United States, is now also “accredited” by the HLC just like WUSTL. (And, coincidentally, UOP also helped to create the ACBSP accreditation agency for MBA programs after they and other poor quality schools were rejected for AACSB accreditation. Case in point, the only MBA accreditation that all Webster campuses world-wide currently hold is from ACBSP, which many American employers no longer even recognize.)

“The Thailand campus is also lacking in supplies. The last time I attended (2004), class textbooks still took 4 to 6 weeks to arrive, if they arrived at all. While cheap by American standards, the price of textbooks was high. Computer labs were not of very good quality and the internet is slow, although I believe that this has improved somewhat over the last year.” — WUT student, 2005

7) Althought WUT claims to be a “private American university”, the campus, which is located in a remote part of Cha-Am, is very poorly equipped. For years, students have complained about a lack of basic upkeep of facilities, including classrooms, cafeteria, library, sports areas, and more. For the entire 2014 year that I taught web design and digital marketing at WUT, the internet connection was so poor (and so many computers either missing or broken in our lab) that many of my students opted to bring their laptops to class and pay for a special 3G hotspot signal on their smartphones. Shockingly (or not), it appears these issues have existed at WUT since at least 2004.

PHOTOS: Despite WUT having received their Cha-Am campus property completely free of charge by convincing a joint-venture foundation of their good intentions, administrators fail to upkeep basic facilities like the library, classroom equipment, etc. Above you can see an ethernet cable dangling from the ceiling outside of my computer lab, where it remained until the end of 2014, failing to provide a proper WiFi internet connection to classrooms. During class, my students were forced to share 2-3 to a computer/desk, and also had to purchase special 3G hotspot signals to use with their personal laptop computers. Despite expensive “General Fees” charged to WUT students, somehow there was no budget for a $20 WiFi router, resulting in one anonymous student venting frustration by attaching a “No Internet Connection… you’re wasting your time sitting here” warning to one of the computers in our lab.

According to Human Resources staff, the only reason that WUT holds on to the Cha-Am campus is because according to Thai law, a private university must have at least 100 rai (acres) of land in order to operate (even though WUSTL’s true desire is to expand operations in Bangkok, where they don’t own any property whatsoever; during 2014, no less than 3 times did rumors spring up that the Cha-Am campus was being shut down). This claim echos statements made by Nancy J. Hellerud, who claimed during the “Campus Review” meeting that WUSTL is focused on growing profits in “metropolitan” areas, and that the Cha-Am location is “not profitable.”

Such claims are a bit hard to believe, though, seeing as how WUT managed to obtain their current Cha-Am campus completely free of charge as a generous donation from the Srikraivin-Bonython Foundation (a join venture of two families and University of Maryland via Raimon Land PCL), with campus buildings included, by convincing the foundation of their good intentions. Even according to Rector Thakur himself – during a July 2014 faculty meeting – the foundation is not very happy with the direction that WUT has been headed in recent years (they also reserve their right to withdraw use of the land if WUT does not abide by its contractual obligations).

8) After spamming and vandalizing Wikipedia for nearly 7 years, the WebsterThailand handle (managed by WUT marketing staff) was finally banned in February 2015. WUT continues to censor and vandalize Wikipedia to this day, deleting Ratish Thakur’s name and censoring key facts in regard to the WUT campus, in an apparent effort to hide from ongoing allegations that WUT has become an “Indian-Pinoy” college, leading Wikipedia to temporarily lock down the article. St. Louis marketing staff also got involved using new usernames, and were also temporarily banned from Wikipedia, but not before making the following bizarre and rather self-deprecating statements:

Please note that one of the incorrect pieces put on the page is that the University is “Indian managed.” Ratish Thakur is Indian, but the University is managed by an American non-profit and has numerous Americans, Europeans and Asians on staff. To specifically change this to “Indian managed” strikes me as somewhat racist. Inkyhack

Webster University Thailand is not a stand-alone University, but is a campus of Webster University based in the United States. As a result, it would not have an endowment by itself, nor should it even be called a “university” but rather a “campus of a university.” Inkyhack

Believe it or not, WUSTL marketing staff spent several days browsing CollegeTimes as well, after noticing how high our student reviews of WUT ranked on Google, and decided to try and spam Wikipedia by slandering my web hosting company, Little Bizzy (which was immediately deleted… but not before I captured it).

9) In December 2014, the entire WUT student council officially resigned in protest over the ongoing abuse and disrespect they felt they were suffering at the hands of WUT, writing a scathing resignation letter to administrators. Immediately after the announcement, WUT administrators wasted no time in tearing down student activity boards that the council had assisted with, according to student witnesses.

10) The Webster Journal, a student-lead campus publication at WUSTL, has been mysteriously deleting several stories in recent years that cast the WUT campus in a seemingly negative light. Here are a few of the stories I was able to recover:

• Thai prostitution displaces students, Thailand campus cancels housing (2005)
• Memorial service honors students (Nepalese student death, 2007)
• Insurance snafu leaves students without net (2007)
• Enrollment at WUT continues decline as new director takes reins of campus (2007)
• In spite of local violence, Thailand campus remains safe, director says (2010)
• WUT: Andrea Eickelmann Interview with the Webster Journal (2011)

Webster : St. Louis Completely Indifferent?

Any one of the laundry list of grievances mentioned above should be nothing short of abhorrent to a self-respecting “university” system – not to mention, any human being with even a basic sense of morality. How then, in a sane world, does Webster University not only accept the blatant fraud, corruption, and violent threats being carried out overseas, but even seemingly encourage it? One former WUT professor, Charles Brumfield, theorizes that blind ambition is to blame:

“They want the prestige of being called an international university with campuses on 4 continents. That’s understandable. But the problem with that is, when your international program is a sham, it becomes the laughing stock of the international academic community. An international university with campuses around the world is very prestigious if you’re offering quality programs like the University of Maryland does. If you’re running a shoddy program, all respect goes down the drain. All your efforts are for naught… It’s bizarre to the extent of being almost insane, as far as WUT is concerned. If you run your program based on fear, intimidation, deception, and fraud, how can your program be taken seriously?” — Charles Brumfield, former WUT professor

With the internet having introduced a new wave of consumer transparency (at least sometimes), it is impressive that phenomenons like WUT can survive so long without being crucified by online feedback and blogs. But that’s just the thing: arguably, WUT is a scam that’s been totally perfected for the 21st century. The campus is in Thailand, a country known for its sweet (innocent?) people and rife with political corruption opportunities; its student recruits are from developing Asian countries and have little cultural predisposition to things like “legal rights” or “freedom of speech”; and its administrators are masters of illusion, intimidation, and double speak.

Unfortunately, Mr. Thakur, you made one key mistake: trying to scam Americans.

To entertain for even a second the possibility that St. Louis is not fully aware of the fraud, corruption, and disgust that engulfs the WUT campus is impossible. From years of online student blogs, to internal and external surveys and QA audits (even after being doctored), to interviews in Webster’s own campus newspaper, to the dozens upon dozens of private emails and letters that have been sent, WUSTL is clearly aware to the point of exhaustion that WUT is a corrupt, fraudulent, diploma mill providing absolutely no value to the residents of Thailand and Southeast Asia.

VIDEO: WUT Rector Ratish Thakur appears on a television news show in India, an unusual event for a director whose campus is thousands of kilometers away in Thailand. The majority of WUT administrators are now Indian nationals, as the campus continues its aggressive recruiting in India and Nepal in recent years after interest declined drastically among Chinese, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asian students.

With recent explosive stories involving embezzlement at a major Thai university resulting in the arrest and indictment of the university’s rector, is it time to expect a new era of accountability in Thailand? As WUT announces new plans for recruiting Indian students (for the third time this decade), it seems the question remains: can a “university” that hides its own administrators from their website and uses testimonials written by their own marketing employees… ever really be trusted?

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