Online university 'awarded master's degree to a dog'

Executives from leading companies are boasting qualifications from a so-called “university” that awarded a master’s degree to a dog, an investigation has found.

Graduation day: attending university in Britain is a privilege not a right
Graduation day: attending university in Britain is a privilege not a right Credit: Photo: ALAMY

Senior figures – including a psychologist and a nuclear industry executive – were found to have bolstered their CVs with awards from the American University of London.

The move came despite claims that the institution is handing out qualifications with no academic work required.

A probe by the BBC’s Newsnight programme found that the university was willing to award a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree to a fictitious student in exchange for a £4,500 fee based on his prior work experience.

But the student – Pete – had submitted a fake CV and actually turned out to be a dog from Battersea Dog’s Home.

The institution, which offers online degrees and postgraduate qualifications in a range of disciplines, such as business, law, IT, arts and humanities, insisted it was “not a bogus university”.

But the disclosure will raise fresh concerns over the market in online degrees and the extent to which institutions that are not formally regulated by the British higher education system such as AUOL can market themselves in this country.

The Newsnight investigation found that hundreds of senior executives boasted on social networking websites that they had qualifications from the university.

This included Dr Rita Bowser, a senior nuclear industry executive who was in charge of selling a new generation of reactors in the UK. The programme said she was awarded a doctorate in business after submitting what she described as "significant amounts of coursework".

Her employer, Westinghouse, the US power company, told the Telegraph she was well qualified for her job based on 30 years’ experience and two previous degrees, including a master's from the respected Georgia Institute of Technology.

Newsnight named another figure, Dr Robert Oakes, a psychologist from Birmingham, who gives expert testimony in court cases. He was awarded a PhD five months after first submitting work, it was claimed.

He told the programme that he had spent 18 months on his own background research and was already a registered psychologist based on a previous degree.

The university, which has more than 100,000 students worldwide, is registered in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean and falls outside the jurisdiction of the British higher education system.

George Gollin, from the University of Illinois, said that AUOL’s degrees "did not stand up to scrutiny".

"It doesn't have authority to award degrees,” he said. “They are not degrees. They are pieces of paper and I'm guessing they are not able to sell very many degrees into countries where English is the first language."

But the university insisted most of its study modules were on par with those from other distance universities and only awarded degrees based on work experience in exceptional circumstances.

In a statement, it added: "We are not a bogus university… and have always been upfront about our status. We have not applied for accreditation with any American, British or other official agency. Many graduates go on to higher education or hold important positions on the strength of our degrees."