Talk:Pacific Western University/Proposed

THE BELOW IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND HAS NOT BEEN ASSESSED FOR NEUTRALITY. '''PLEASE REMARK ON ALL CHANGES TO THIS PROPOSED ARTICLE ON THE MAIN TALK PAGE UNDER THE SECTION "Discuss changes you made to the proposal here." Please note that information on Pacific Western University and how they eventually were unanimously and ubiquitously stereotyped a “diploma mill” had to do with September 11th, 2001 and school records were traced from events where the attacker pilots had used PWU to obtain their pilot licenses. 63.155.44.105 (talk) 21:07, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Pacific Western University (PWU) is an unaccredited, private, postsecondary, distance learning university founded in Encino, California on November 23, 1976 and presently based in San Diego, California. It has also operated under other names, including:
 * American PacWest International University, abbreviated American PacWest or APIU
 * Pacwest Corporation, also Pacwest (Hawaii) Corporation
 * Pacific Western University (Hawaii), abbreviated (PWU)(HI) or PWUHI

PWU is not accredited by any recognised accreditation body. As such, its degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions. PWU has approval to operate from the State of California through the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) as a California BPPVE Approved Institutions - Degree. However, approval by the BPPVE is not the same as accreditation. In order for a California institution to become accredited, they first must have California state approval, which Pacific Western University does not.

Since its founding, the history of this California university largely has been one of investigation and litigation by institutions all over the world, typically regarding the validity of PWU credits and degrees. According to Norman Henteleff, dean of the school in 1997, "A lot of people have called us a diploma mill." In order to distance itself from past controversies, the institution is reported to be considering changing its name.

History
Pacific Western dates to 1977. Much of its history centers on repeated allegations in the press of its being a diploma mill: it awards degrees in return for a flat fee (rather than fees for individual modules and courses), and it awards substantial credit for "life experience". Both of these are common attributes of diploma mills. PWU was listed as number nine on The Irish Times' 1998 list of twelve famous diploma mills and was named as one of three unaccredited institutions which cooperated with an investigation into Federal funding inappropriately issued to recipients of unaccredited degrees, referred to in the text as diploma mills. Other evidence, however, calls this characterisation into question, stating that some courses at least offer adequate tuition and assessment.

In March 1980 PWU placed an advertisement in the Boston Globe offering its California degree awarding services to people in Boston, Massachusetts. In response to an inquiry to this advertisement, Lee Stallings of California's state education department stated that Pacific Western University was authorized under law to grant specific degrees in general studies, provided they give full disclosure to students and can show that they have at least $15,000 in net assets. She went on to state that credits earned at Pacific Western University are not transferable to accredited or approved institutions of higher learning, describing them as "practically worthless".

In late 1986, Pacific Western University was reauthorized by California to continue awarding degrees. According to the final report of the reauthorization evaluation team, there was ample evidence that adequate instruction was provided in some courses and "there is equally ample evidence that in other instances either inadequate or no instruction is given, and the degree is based entirely upon evaluation of the student's prior education and life experience and prior publications."

In 1988, PWU offered a "nine-months-to-a-Ph.D" degree for US$1,675. A California state committee investigated the University and found that some of the graduates completed a substantial body of new work before their degrees were conferred while other in other instances, either inadequate or no instruction is given, and the degree is issued based entirely on life experience and prior publications. In 1989, Pacific Western University agreed not to seek licensing for its doctoral program.

By August 1990, PWU set up degree programs in Louisiana and Hawaii.

In April 1994, Louisiana's state Board of Regents closed Pacific Western's leased office, asserting that PWU offered too many credits for a thesis, had too few teachers, and not enough courses.

On November 4, 1997, the State of Hawaii, Office of Consumer Protection (OCP), filed a lawsuit against Pacific Western University, seeking to prevent PWU from failing to provide mandatory state disclosures and from misleading consumers by asserting that Pacific Western University is registered with the State of Hawaii. On April 28, 1999, Pacific Western University entered into a stipulated permanent injunction where PWU agreed to provide mandatory Hawaii state disclosures and to not make any representations to the effect that PWU is registered with or authorized by the State of Hawaii to confer bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees, and or award academic degrees. Moreover, without an admission of wrongdoing, PWU also agreed to pay Thirty Thousand Dollars (US$30,000.00) to the Office of Consumer Protection, State of Hawaii for costs of investigation. . On March 28, 2005, the Hawaii OCP filed a further lawsuit against Pacific Western University seeking to prevent PWU from engaging in "unfair or deceptive acts or practices", seeking a court judgment that all contracts between PWU and its students are void, and seeking money. On May 9, 2006, the Hawaiian court entered a default judgment against Pacific Western University. According to the Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization, "degrees issued by the former Pacific Western University in Hawaii are not from the same entity as the current PWU of California. Employers should verify which entity issued any PWU degree." , but both Bear and Thacker note that both were operated out of the same building, by the same people.

Between July 2003 through February 2004, United States congressional investigators determined that at least 28 senior-level federal employees in eight agencies have "bogus" college degrees between three unaccredited schools. Among those individuals identified by the General Accounting Office review were three workers with emergency operations roles and security clearances at the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Department of Energy. The three unaccredited schools -- Pacific Western University, California Coast University, and Kennedy-Western University -- provided data showing that 463 of their students were federal employees, with most of those listed in the Department of Defense. Federal funding is explicitly restricted to accredited programs.

Trivia

 * Kolawole Tokunbo Iyanda, a former lecturer in the Department of Financial Studies, the Polytechnic Ibadan in the city of Ibadan in Africia, forged certificates which include a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration (Marketing) obtained in 1989, Master of Business Administration (Finance) allegedly secured in 1998 all from the Pacific Western University. Iyanda's deception was discovered since the documents listed Colorado rather than California as the location of PWU.


 * In August 2002, the Thailand Ministry of University Affairs took legal action against U-Net Centre, which claimed to be the postgraduate education representative for Pacific Western University Hawaii and authorized to issue postgraduate degrees after just four months of study.