A foreign degree acts as a magical gate pass like Ali Baba's key word "Open Sesame" to a world of treasures. The fascination for degrees from abroad is naturally total in this land. But not all foreign degrees are recognition of academic excellence. How sham such degrees at times can be has been brought to the fore by the BBC Newsnight of Britain. It has exposed the racket now going on in the name of conferring academic degrees on anyone, no matter if the candidate is a member of the canine species. Recently, the American University of London (AUOL) has awarded as highly coveted a degree as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) to a dog.
Named Pete, the canine MBA-holder was unaware of the scheme the BBC Newsnight devised with the sole purpose of testing the authenticity of degrees offered by the AUOL. The Newsnight created a fake resume for Pete along with an application for the degree. In the test the AUOL failed miserably. It did not bother to do a background check if the resume submitted was a fake or genuine one. A cheque of $7,300 sent to the university account on behalf of the dog to cover the fee of the MBA programme did the trick.
When a dog can obtain an MBA degree from a university based in London, if of course there is someone to pay for its programme fee, one can imagine how questionable the process of issuance of certificates can be in some countries with further lax regulations. The university in question here admits that it is not an accredited one but claims it is perfectly genuine. However, this 'genuine' university has reportedly been blacklisted in five states in the United States of America (USA) and Texas has made it illegal. But it is not the only such degree-spinning facility, the bona fide of which is doubtful.
The extra mania for foreign degrees simply makes a face of the long list of such meaningless abbreviation physicians mostly use in order to impress and attract patients. They say such so-called degrees are distributed like hot cakes in exchange for a few bucks. There is no problem as long as such unintelligible degrees are obtained and exhibited to falsely show the weight they carry. At least that is how the holders of such degrees view the entire matter. They do not miss the target altogether. At least some half-educated people are impressed by the long tail. Aghast, a handful of highly renowned doctors therefore have opted for only one degree like FRCS.
The problem however arises when degrees like MBBS (bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery), MBA, MA, MSc (Master of arts, science), PhD (doctor of philosophy) are obtainable in exchange for money. That a physician with no genuine MBBS degree could hold the senior position of a professor at a reputed private medical college hospital located in Dhanmondi area is an indication that he produced a fake certificate at the time of his appointment. Universities including the premier one in this country also detected a number of such fake degree holders -quite a few of whom produced like-alike certificates abroad. Those were redirected for checking and the duplicity was detected.
Obtaining an MBA degree by a dog is the height of mockery people could do with education. Random commercialisation of education is to be blamed for this. In the past educationists viewed their profession as a noble one. Now institutions have turned into grocery shops at the hands of greedy and deceitful teachers.
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