"Student solutions.co.uk" seems to be associated with some low ranked colleges/universities. UEL is legal but one of the lowest ranked in UK. SS claims Glamorgan is top ranking--No, it is not. LSC is a money making scheme (they admitted it to me, saying because they are a profit making college they take in weak students. Their Dean of Business, Geoff Lancaster, is linked to at least one other dubious college, Kingsbridge--they once offered me money to help in their fraud). School of Computing and Management offers degrees from Australian Institute of Bus. Admin,AIBA. The Australian government say it is NOT authorised by them to offer degrees outside Australia. (AIBA is part of Gibaran; check anything to do with AIBA and Gibaran. I know they have links with several back street outfits in the UK).

OldLecturer – I have read your past posts and you seem determined to scare people about Higher Education in the UK and elsewhere.

I agree that people looking for HE courses need to be vigilant for fake colleges (Millennium City Academy for example) and avoid such institutions.

However, you are totally wrong to include legitimate UK institutions such as UEL and Glamorgan in with this warning, or say “Even if a degree is a valid UK degree it may be of very low quality” (a previous post).

All legitimate UK institutions are monitored for quality (ie by the QAA), claiming they are “low-ranked” or “low-quality” is purely subjective. Overseas students at these institutions reading your post will be worried about their education for no reason.

Furthermore, your crude definition of “low-ranked” institutions helps no one. The department of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at UEL includes RAE Grade 4 and 5 departments, making them among the best in the country!

OldLecturer is right to raise his concerns about universities which are in the low ranks or which are unaccredited diploma mills. While a degree is better than no degree, many international students do not realise that it will be harder to get a job after doing an MBA from an unaccredited/low ranking university. Many will get attracted to places in a city like London, where unaccredited places seem to be rife. Keep going OldLecturer!

It is totally unfair and misleading to lump “low-ranked” universities in with unaccredited diploma mills. There is a world of difference between the two. All UK universities meet minimum standards and university rankings are unofficial and to a large extent subjective.

As I have said I agree that people should look out for unaccredited universities/colleges but scaring people about the quality of education they are receiving from fully legitimate UK universities is not a good thing to do.

The crude, sensationalist warnings from OldLecturer about valid UK institutions do not help anyone.

My apologies XJR. You're right they should not be lumped together.

I do think its important to warn people beforehand about low-ranking universities (for Bachelors, some Masters and MBA degrees), as some people borrow lots of money to come from overseas, only to pay extortionate fees to go to a university that doesn't have such a great reputation. Sadly, reputation does count at this level.

For research degrees, the difference between universities is less, as it depends more on the quality of research within the department and by the supervisor.

XJR said: "OldLecturer – I have read your past posts and you seem determined to scare people about Higher Education in the UK and elsewhere."

I do not accept XJR's criticisms. I have not tried to scare anyone. I think I have given reasonable warnings about serious problems. Perhaps s/he is unaware there is wide agreement standards in many UK institutions are very low. Please see:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7511601.stm

Many people have noted the growth of post-grad courses where most students are from overseas and speak little English.

I have written on the basis of inside experience of several legitimate institutions, as well as some "dodgy" ones. I have corresponded with government officials on this matter in the UK, Canada, US and Australia.

XJR said: "All legitimate UK institutions are monitored for quality (ie by the QAA), claiming they are “low-ranked” or “low-quality” is purely subjective. Overseas students at these institutions reading your post will be worried about their education for no reason."

I accept you said that with good intent but I am afraid you live in cloud cuckoo land. The BBC link I supplied in another post discusses the relevant point. Thankfully their is pressure to deal with the problem.Whilst I accept it may seem the monitoring should work, it does not. It is not "purely subjective" to claim institutions are low ranked; the ranking tables exist.

Sorry , "there" not "their".

Hi,
I would like to find ot what you know about AIBA, the Australian Institute of Business Administration, or Gibaran.
You say its Degrees are only authorised in Australia, and not overseas, according to the Australian Govt.

We are an Irish College, considering deleviry of the AIGA BBA and MBA programmes.

Should we be wary?

Please explain?

Tx,

Gdeasy