EUCLID University?

[Stanislav]

Welcome, Fr. Laurent! It is nice to hear information directly from the source.

Greetings to all on the forum,

I rarely post here—I think my last message was many years ago and I had to create a new account. But since someone asked me to reply, I’m happy to provide updates and clarifications as of March 2026 (some interesting developments).

On EUCLID’s "US accreditation:" It is not and has never been a US institution... Therefore, it is not accredited by any CHEA-recognized US agency and does not claim to be (or need to be). EUCLID was not created to serve US students. We usually advise American applicants to explore US options first.
That said, we have enrolled several high-level US students, including a recent associate dean from a major university and the CEO of a major energy company.

All of this is good to know. Evan better would be seeing some independent evidence. Personally, I see no reason to doubt an Euclid degree would get a positive evaluation from at least one NACES member; receipts would lay this question to rest.

On UN status: EUCLID does not claim to be a United Nations body (obviously). See our clear statement here: https://www.euclid.int/un-status.asp
No one (except someone on this forum somehow) says that the UN “operates” EUCLID. It is an intergovernmental, treaty-based organization with a university mandate, recognized by the UN as such. As early as 2012, the UN treated such institutions as “accredited” due to their status. EUCLID holds intergovernmental observer status with the UNFCCC (COP) and is the only university with such status at the IPCC. We sent a head of delegation (with full intergovernmental observer credentials + an Oxford graduate and EUCLID professor) to the recent COP in Brazil. The Association of Caribbean States also granted us special “social actor” status after ministerial approval (we are currently doing a project with them).

Thank you for the clarification. Euclid is not a UN body, and neither does it claim to be.

To clarify: I am not EUCLID’s founder. Prof. Touadéra established it as an extension of the University of Bangui (2005–2008). Governments later transformed it via intergovernmental agreements. My role came through dedication to its vision, some IT expertise, distance education experience, and international networking (and prayer). That drove its technological success 20 years ago. Today, I still serve as international faculty coordinator and oversight council chair. I focus on academic quality, faculty, and AI integration—while generating lots of reports for stakeholders and agencies.
Our research output (e.g., on PubMed) speaks for itself.

See, here I feel like you understate your role in starting this thing - especially in the early days of the EUCLID Consortium and the prominence of something called "HBTO" (which, to me, reads like basically your project) in it. On the other hand, reducing this project to just you is reductive in the other direction.
The research output is, indeed, a strong argument for this school's legitimacy. Judging just from Google Scholar, it appears to be not world-shattering, but wholly adequate and even impressive for Euclid's actual relatively modest size. I am not aware of any degree mills with this kind of footprint; the number of papers with you as a second and third author suggests that you are, indeed, a rather active and effective faculty advisor. Well done. There are many clearly real schools with much more modest records in the world.
Let me make an obvious observation: here are two schools, Euclid and Euler-Frankener Memorial University. They are named after Euclid, arguably father of modern mathematics, author of a Geometry textbook that's in the "Great Books of the Western World" and is in constant use in education for 2000+ years; and after Johannes Euler, "Prince of Mathematicians", who have the distinction of being THE most productive math scholar IN HISTORY (by number of pages; Paul Erdos beats him by the number of individual papers). Yet none of them offers a Mathematics degree. What gives?

The old “double-wide in California” rumor is absurd and was somehow mentioned... With California real estate prices, I almost wish it were true. (I am back in the US by the way (Idaho) and still serving in the Orthodox Church (almost 22 years as an Orthodox priest...))

Since the "double-wide in California" post made a rather strong claim that you were, at the time, running Euclid by yourself, and that double-wide is somehow the bulk of its operations, I agree: it is strictly false. 
Good to know that you're back on US soil. I gather you now serve in the Serbian Archdiocese? As I am unexplicably following your career (after all, it's rare to see an interesting character in this field who's not an outright mill operator, like John Kersey), I was a little annoyed by you adopting a rather pretentious "de Kiev" postnominal while at the same time joining the Patriarchate of Moscow, by your own choice. I guess we'd have to agree to disagree on this.
My own assessment of Euclid stands. It's a real school, interesting to debate about, but too weird for most American students - at least if used for anything but personal interest studies. Good luck in your work!

[Sagan]

Excepting the U.S., what is and is not a university is typically decided by central governments, not treaty-based organizations.

Whether or not a degree from a non-U.S. school would be acceptable in the U.S. is left largely to foreign degree evaluations services.

The more complicated one's story must be, the more likely the degree in question will either cause problems or fail entirely.

[Stanislav]

Excepting the U.S., what is and is not a university is typically decided by central governments, not treaty-based organizations.

Whether or not a degree from a non-U.S. school would be acceptable in the U.S. is left largely to foreign degree evaluations services.

The more complicated one's story must be, the more likely the degree in question will either cause problems or fail entirely.

1. That's why Euclid worked hard to secure approval directly by a central government in The Gambia.
2. Agree on complicated story. This is why their strongest argument is "we are actually not for the US students, but rather for diplomats and government employees from the member states".

[EliEverIsAHero]

Assuming for a moment that it is real, but possibly not established enough for everyone's liking...
There were two flags for me. Call them orange if not red...

1) If the UN really operates the school, I figured it would be based either out of NYC where the headquarters is, or in Vienna where the backup site is located, or barring that in Nairobi Kenya, where the new UN Africa HQ is going up.

2) If the UN really operates the school, wouldn't they advertise the hell out of it, and by extension, wouldn't it be considered one of the best in the world... at least by a certain category of politicians?

The UN University HQ (the legit one, run by the UN itself) is in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several affiliate United Nations University programs, some of which are degree-granting. Others are simply think tanks focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

https://unu.edu/unu-system

[SteveFoerster]

Assuming for a moment that it is real, but possibly not established enough for everyone's liking...
There were two flags for me. Call them orange if not red...

1) If the UN really operates the school, I figured it would be based either out of NYC where the headquarters is, or in Vienna where the backup site is located, or barring that in Nairobi Kenya, where the new UN Africa HQ is going up.

2) If the UN really operates the school, wouldn't they advertise the hell out of it, and by extension, wouldn't it be considered one of the best in the world... at least by a certain category of politicians?

The UN University HQ (the legit one, run by the UN itself) is in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several affiliate United Nations University programs, some of which are degree-granting. Others are simply think tanks focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

https://unu.edu/unu-system

Fascinating!

[Sagan]

UNU partners with well-established universities to deliver their programs. They are not cheap and require a substantial amount of residency.

[Charles Fout]

So much fun!

This year my Basic Program seminar began with reading and discussing "Euclid’s Elements."

I suppose you could select any of the "Great Books of the Western World" authors for the name of a university.

Factoid: 

Euclid is Volume Eleven in the Britannica / University of Chicago Great Books of the Western World set

[NotJoeBiden]

So much fun!

This year my Basic Program seminar began with reading and discussing "Euclid’s Elements."

I suppose you could select any of the "Great Books of the Western World" authors for the name of a university.

Factoid: 

Euclid is Volume Eleven in the Britannica / University of Chicago Great Books of the Western World set

You being up an interesting point. Euclid is an odd choice of a name, seeing as Euclid was fundamental in the development of geometry, yet didn’t have anything to do with public health.

[SteveFoerster]

In fairness, though, we could have a whole thread on schools that are named for someone who while not objectionable is thematically incongruous. Many universities named for saints, for starters.

[cleenewerck]

Thank you all for the ongoing discussion...

Re: UNU - good relations between EUCLID and UNU https://unu.edu/ias/news/webinar-explore...management + at the risk of driving people crazy here, EUCLID now has stronger degree-granting and accreditation status than UNU which suffers from not being part of the national framework (Japan and Sweden). A UNU institute (IAS) does have full accreditation in Japan but not UNU as a whole, but in practice Japan treats UNU as "foreign/international and accredited." Sweden finally recognized the World Maritime University in 2022 but it was quite a journey for them as well since the 2012 letter by the United Nations Secretariat recognizing all 3 (actually 5 in total) as "accredited" (from a UN perpective).

Re: the UN, I think the connection (and to some extent lack thereof!) has been well clarified; I will add here that EUCLID is under consideration for formal UN intergovernmental observer status this spring (news forthcoming). EUCLID already has this pretty exclusive status with UNFCC and IPCC (EUCLID is in fact the only university for intergovernmental IPCC observer status).

Re: "de Kiev" for my dear colleague Stanislas, it actually came from my dear Archbishop VSEVOLOD of Scopelos who ordained me in 2004 and my subsequent US naturalization - it was long before the events in Ukraine; nothing to do with Moscow or the tragic war in Ukraine which breaks my heart (as someone whose life has very much marked by Ukraine since 1998 (my wife too)). I am happy to be serving in Sandpoint ID under Bishop Maxim. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss my thoughts on all this; I am easy to find!

Re: US equivalencies; it does not seem right to post those online but I can attest to 3 major NACES agencies who recognize EUCLID degrees are "equivalent to US regional accredited" - it took years to get there and as of 2026 it is done under the Gambia NAQAA full institutional accreditation rather than the CAR Ministry of Higher Education accreditation. It does not mean that EUCLID is now catering to US students but it is a reassuring development.

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PSS: the name EUCLID came from the fact that the two "founding rectors" (Faustin Touadera and Rodoumta Koina) were mathematicians; but I think that advanced mathematics (and related) are better taught on campus...