Universidad Azteca's new doctorate programs

[Kalas]

Now that the dust has settled with UCN, Azteca has new doctoral offerings! Unfortunately, the cost has skyrocketed while ROI has declined. In addition, you now need to be a Mexican citizen for Azteca's education doctorates to be a tutulo oficial. It's hidden in the fine print somewhere I don't remember off the top of my head. All foreigners will recipe a propio.

https://universidadazteca.net/european-d...al-degree/

Partnership #1: DTI University in Slovakia

There are two programs available.

PhDr. Doctor of Philosophy in Management
PaeDr. Doctor of Pedagogy

A master's in administration/education is required, not just any master's. The master's has to come from a "recognized institution." You will have to get permission from DTI to defend the dissertation online. You'd like to think that's a rubber stamp, but you never know.

A degree from DTI only is 8900 euros. Interestngly enough, these degrees are not offered by DTI directly, only through Azteca. Getting a Doctor of Education or DBA from Azteca in addition to DTI brings it to 10800 euros. DTI claims to be accredited. I couldn't find by whom with 3 minutes of Google searching. Unirank puts the school at #9213 in the world.

Partnership #2 - Collegium Humanum – Warsaw Management University

This is only offered as a dual degree, tipping the scales at 9800 euros. I could not find any ranking information about this school, but it is a private school. From what I've read, that equates to not being very good in Poland. The degrees offered are:

Education:
Collegium Humanum – Warsaw Management University will award the (Dr.edu.) Doctor of Education degree
Universidad Azteca will award the Doctor (Dr.) in Education.

Psychology:
Collegium Humanum – Warsaw Management University will award the (Dr.Sc.) Doctor of Science in Psychology degree
Universidad Azteca will award the Doctor (Dr.) in Social Sciences.

Sociology and Cultural Studies:
Collegium Humanum – Warsaw Management University will award the (Dr.Sc.) Doctor of Science in Sociology and Cultural Studies degree
Universidad Azteca will award the Doctor (Dr.) in Social Sciences.

Business Administration:
Collegium Humanum – Warsaw Management University will award the (Dr.oec.) Doctor of Economics in Business Administration or the DBA Doctor of Business Administration degree
Universidad Azteca will award the Doctor (Dr.) of Business Administration.

Legal Studies:
Collegium Humanum – Warsaw Management University will award the (LLD) Doctor of Laws degree
Universidad Azteca will award the Doctor (Dr.) in Laws.

I came across this on the sister forum. This sounds like a more expensive version of the degrees issued by Akademia Jagiellońska W Toruńu to me.

The "university" is not on the list of universities in Poland, because it is not...um...a university. In Poland, it is considered to be an accredited non-state higher education institution, which can grant European ECTS-credit approved degrees in the more practical and applied subjects.

Secondly, the name Warsaw Management University can indeed suggest that it is comparable to university-type institutions....to someone who doesn't know about how the Polish higher ed system works. I can assure you that it is not a university under Polish law. The term "uniwersytet", "akademia" and "politechnika" cannot be used by any non-doctoral degree-granting institutions. In fact, it is absolutely illegal to use such terms in the case of higher schools. That's why the school isn't called university in Polish. It is called "Collegium Humanum - Wyższa Szkoła (higher school in direct translation of the name) Menadżerska." The school markets itself as a university, but it only does so in English. There's nothing illegal about that, as the aforementioned law does not forbid such loose usage in another language, although one could question whether this is fair. It might simply be a way to attract foreign applicants, who might be confused by the term 'higher school'. Again, it is not wrong to employ such language in another language. It is non-issue, as it is not breaking any Polish law.

Oh...and don't be fooled by their "Doctor of Business Administration" title. It is not a degree in Poland. The "MBA" isn't a degree either. It is a "Certificate of Completion of Postgraduate Studies" (Studia Podyplomowe), a valuable credential for people who already have a Bachelor's or Master's degree upon application to the post-grad program.

I am simply trying to communicate that the school ought to be compared to an applied college with degree-granting powers instead of a university. That would be a fair comparison.

https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?thr...ity.56413/

Azteca seems to agree with that assessment.

The Polish degree is a university own postgraduate further education course and the qualification is offered and awarded acc. to Art. 160ff of the Polish University Law 2018 as a partial EQF Level 8 qualification requiring at least 120 ECTS credits.

Partial Level 8 = not a real doctorate. That sounds like a $2000-3000 qualification to me. Expecting it to evaluate as anything better than ABD status is probably hoping for a bit too much. That may or may not be worth the asking price to you.

[Tomas]

Regarding DTI University, someone is making nice profit on that.
You can get same degree from DTI directly, for EUR 700. (Well, in Slovak language - I don't know if it's possible in English too).
It is not equivalent to Phd, there was a discussion here in the past regarding how PhDr is evaluated in other countries so anyone interested better search for that thread first.

DTI is a relatively new private university (since 2006), they are a higher level uni - they have doctoral level study and can even grant professor titles, so yes it seems to be ok from that point of view ("regional accreditation" by government of the Slovak republic).

[Kalas]

Interesting. On the English site the only doctorate is Didactics of Technical Vocational Subjects under the umbrella of Teaching and Educational Sciences. https://www.dti.sk/en/p/64-university-profile I didn't notice any mention of price on the English site either. I'm curious if the 700 euro price is only for people living in Slovakia and/or the EU. There's usually a caveat like that with cheaper European programs. If those programs could be done in English by Americans for 700 euros that would be an interesting opportunity.

It's good to know that their PhDr is not the equivalent of a PhD. Given the other partnership Azetca has, that makes a lot sense. Both are relying on Azteca's credibility to offer "real" (propio) doctorate degrees. Oh irony, thou art so ironic.

[Tomas]

English info for DTI is on https://www.dti.sk/en/studium/22-rigorous-procedure and way more info in Slovak language at https://www.dti.sk/p/62-rigorozne-konanie
Also it would be good idea to check whether it can be done online, if directly through DTI.

[cacoleman1983]

I'm glad I got my Azteca/UCN PhD out of the way.  I was likely in the last batch of graduates if not the last graduate of that partnership.   As far as the PhDr. degree goes,  IEE will evaluate it as Doctoral level coursework but not a completed degree.   Many other evaluators, including WES, will typically evaluate it as a Masters that requires a Masters. The pricing for Azteca's other dual programs have been what is stated at the beginning of this forum for about two years now. I got in at UCN right before the increase at just around $6000 but their pricing went up for the Azteca/UCN partnership as well to roughly the same prices as the other partnerships.

Also, Azteca's propio degrees are evaluated by IEE as regionally accredited institutions / unaccredited programs. A hand full of other NACES evaluators have given close to full recognition as well. AICE evaluators have been known to give Azteca full recognition and Validential has given Azteca full recognition. Azteca also grants validation degrees for other partially accredited / legally authorized degree granting schools by application for a fee.

[cro-magnon]

In Poland, Collegium Humanum is widely considered a diploma mill affiliated with the former ruling political party. I'd advise against giving them money, since with the competing party now in power the school's future is very unpredictable, and you might end with nothing but wasted time.

As far as I know it is currently not possible to get a degree from a legit Polish university through online learning, all degree programmes require attendance in person at least a few times throughout the academic year. This does not apply to 'studia podyplomowe', which is a local variant of postgraduate (non degree granting) course, something that people in Poland mostly use to either tick the box if their employer requires them to learn something, or when transitioning to another career.

[openair]

In Poland, Collegium Humanum is widely considered a diploma mill affiliated with the former ruling political party. I'd advise against giving them money, since with the competing party now in power the school's future is very unpredictable, and you might end with nothing but wasted time.

As far as I know it is currently not possible to get a degree from a legit Polish university through online learning, all degree programmes require attendance in person at least a few times throughout the academic year. This does not apply to 'studia podyplomowe', which is a local variant of postgraduate (non degree granting) course, something that people in Poland mostly use to either tick the box if their employer requires them to learn something, or when transitioning to another career.

I've posted this latest news item on the sister forum the other night:

Charges against the rector of a Warsaw university

"The Silesian division of the National Prosecutor's Office has brought charges against six people, including Paweł Cz., the rector of the Warsaw private university Collegium Humanum, the prosecutor's office said on Friday."

"The issue of irregularities in the functioning of the Collegium Humanum, including trade in diplomas, was widely described by "Newsweek". The weekly's investigation showed that the university not only issued MBA diplomas on a massive scale, which entitle individuals to sit on management boards and supervisory boards of state-owned companies , but also quickly and cheaply educated an army of future psychologists. After the arrest of Paweł Cz. his duties were taken over by the vice-rector for teaching and quality of education."

CHARGES AGAINST PAWEŁ CZ. AND COLLEAGUES

"Six people were charged with participating in an organized criminal group aimed at committing crimes involving issuing false documents confirming the completion of postgraduate studies and accepting material and personal benefits in connection with this."

"As for the head of an organized crime group, Paweł Cz. in connection with his public function as rector of a non-public university, the prosecutor charged him with committing a total of 30 crimes, consisting primarily in accepting financial benefits in exchange for issuing false documents in the form of postgraduate studies certificates, as well as committing crimes of abuse of the relationship of official dependence and causing other persons to have sexual intercourse or submit to other sexual activities, as well as to make threats against witnesses in order to influence their testimony in the case."

Source: PAP [Polish Press Agency], "Newsweek"
Link: https://www.onet.pl/informacje/onetwarszawa/zarzuty-dla-rektora-warszawskiej-uczelni/m9k4sx7,79cfc278

[bjcheung77]

Interesting news and turn of events... I would really be on the lookout and research any type of degree and the institution beforehand.

[Messdiener]

English info for DTI is on https://www.dti.sk/en/studium/22-rigorous-procedure and way more info in Slovak language at https://www.dti.sk/p/62-rigorozne-konanie
Also it would be good idea to check whether it can be done online, if directly through DTI.

Thank you for the links. The procedure seems fairly straightforward: submitting previous diplomas, writing your thesis of 90-120 pages, etc.

The one major issue I could see for non-Slovak students is the final requirement to submit an 8 to 10-page resumé of their work in Slovak. Surely, this could be done with the help of a translation service, but it does complicate things ever-so-slightly.

I'm not yet at the right point in my career or studies to be able to apply for this program, but it does seem quite interesting. If the price point is right (even if double, triple, or quadruple what was mentioned above), it could be quite the adventure for someone here or on the sister forum to undertake.

At the very least, I'll be bookmarking this for the future. Thanks again!