Should I said something? (Bogus PhD)

[MrPanda]

I´m teaching 2 courses at an institute at a poor region of Peru (remote).

Here institutes teach 3 years careers (technicians), but then they can go to university if they want, but they would usually need to study 3 more years (6 in total, instead of the normal 5 years bachelor degrees).

And they started hiring a person to talk about "Transformational Leadership".

Okay, not my favorite topic, but I can listen and try to learn.

But the lady started talking about how she was an example, since she studied so much and got certifications, and then she also mentioned: "I have a Doctorate in International Business".

Even in the cover picture of her Linkedin profile, it says "Ph. D". Really big.

However, there was no Ph.D. at all in the national registry.
And her Ph.D. at linkedin was listed as lasting for 1 year.

When I looked up the "school", it was obviously a non-accredited Florida "school".

Should I call my superior to tell them that they should look it up?

Maybe it doesn´t matter, since the topics of the conferences are so soft, and the PhD is not a requirement at all, but if she´s is putting herself as an example about what the others can do. I don´t know if that´s correct.

Maybe I shouldn´t say anything. Who knows the correct answer.

[davewill]

There's no single right answer. It's not your responsibility to vet their credentials, so you have no obligation to report it.

However, is there any chance of speaking up causing you problems? If not, I say you should point it out.

[MrPanda]

No, it probably won´t cause me any problem.
They already told me that they want to hire me again for next term.

I didn´t mention it directly: these "Transformational Leadership" talks are directed to teachers, I don´t know if they are also hiring her to talk to students.

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, If I was in your shoes, I would be anonymous in regards to this, you can inform them, but using another email that doesn't point to you. I have 3 email address, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo... Yahoo is what I use for receipts, "signing up" things and hold the bulk of my junk emails. Outlook is for alternative/personal use (their Onedrive, Office, etc), Gmail is more for alternative/personal use (Google Drive, Docs, etc)...

[MidLifeCrisis]

If you can let it go, then I think you should. I can't see how bringing it up works out particularly well for you, and it could end badly.

If you must bring it up, then the call above about doing it anonymously is a good one, I think there is merit in doing it via letter (typed and printed on a computer not at the institution and posted from somewhere generic, not your local) is a good one. EXCEPT you have to be prepared that nothing will happen. That could mean either what happens is unknown to you, or that the institution either is in on it, or doesn't care and literally nothing happens.

In either case, to not out yourself you have to be able to be ok with that. You have to be able to post the letter/send the email and leave it. If you are going to have to do that anyway then why bring it up to begin with...

[Alpha]

Of course, I want to know "Which school?"

[sialiblo]

what is national registry? is it only for degree from Peru national/local university or degree from university overseas also must be listed there?

[MrPanda]

what is national registry? is it only for degree from Peru national/local university or degree from university overseas also must be listed there?

We have to get every degree recognized, in order to use it for teaching or government´s work.

Everything gets into a public database that everybody can check. (There goes a comma after database, or is not necessary?)

From the US: We can register regionally or nationally accredited Bachelors, Masters and PhDs.
From Spain: We can register "Título a nombre del Rey", not "Títulos Propios".

After reading your comments, I´m leaning to not reporting it.
I thought it was no big deal, but maybe it is.

---

Of course, I want to know "Which school?"

https://www.aauniv.com/s/preguntas-frecu...8f9f5-3c30

[carrythenothing]

Everything gets into a public database that everybody can check. (There goes a comma after database, or is not necessary?)

---

Of course, I want to know "Which school?"

https://www.aauniv.com/s/preguntas-frecu...8f9f5-3c30

"Everything goes into a public database that anybody can check" or "Everything gets added to a public database that anybody can check" would both work without a comma after database.

For what it's worth, that school is on Wikipedia's list of unaccredited institutions of higher education: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_un..._education

[Alpha]

I have an answer to the question asked by the original poster and I think I can articulate my reasoning.  Also, I think it is what I would do if I was in that position. The first piece is that money is being spent.  Perhaps it's more egregious that some of this money is coming from a rural Peruvian school district as I'm assuming that they don't have a lot of extra money to throw around.  What is being provided in return is some type of training and the trainers have been chosen, at least in part, based upon their own academic backgrounds.  False representation of her background is the reason she was chosen as a trainer.  In simple terms, it's fraud.  Because of your specialized knowledge of higher education/accreditation you are aware of this fraud.  I would bring it to someone's attention.  I would turn her in.  You might not have any control of what happens after you identify the problem but my guess is that people would like to be made aware of such things.  No one likes to be conned.