What we know about online universities under investigation for the credit and qualification market
The Flc Cgil denounces a real "credit and qualifications market" which is allegedly "governed by some universities, in particular online ones, and by fake training associations". The union then speaks of "serious responsibility of the Ministries of Education and University who have not been able, or wanted, to guarantee an effective and quality initial training system for teachers". The numbers of the phenomenon and the entities involved
The real emergency for the government in the delicate issue of online universities now seems to be the need to proceed with a serious and decisive clean-up of the sector, which has turned out to be infested with a large number of mysterious and suspicious organisations, while until yesterday it seemed it wanted to give priority to any rules in favor of virtual universities in order to fully equate them to physical universities.
An equation that the latter have never hidden that they experience with annoyance mixed with embarrassment, just look at what Giovanna Iannantuoni , rector of the Bicocca in Milan, as well as president of the Crui, the Conference of Rectors of Italian universities, told Repubblica
(“Telematics are […] united in claiming their social function, the fact that they do not cost the State and that any training they offer is still an advantage. This argument, however, is false. The screen of a computer cannot be enough PC to form brilliant critical consciences. You have to give a boy who lives in a remote area of the country a scholarship and have him study at a high-quality university. Instead you tell him to stay at home and I'll do you a favor if you get a degree digital . Telematics are not a social elevator, they only create students of a different type").
At the basis of the new tribulations for the world of online universities, once again, those lack of controls documented a few months ago, in other areas, including by Report . And who knows, perhaps RaiTre's popular investigative program may not be in some way connected to the work of the Prosecutor's Office, which according to what has filtered through is moving to verify not only the existence of procedures for issuing fast and out-of-control certifications, but also on the possibility that some structures operate without having the right, in total illegality.
THE UNION'S COMPLAINT
More than easy degrees, the new affair reported by Flc Cgil concerns real "fake training associations" that offer invalid qualifications and qualifications. A distortion that could be much broader and deeper than what was envisaged, if we consider that around the current framework – which provides for the annual achievement of a certain number of points for the professional development of teachers to demonstrate the passing of training exams – it seems to have germinated a real "market" of credits and qualifications "governed by some universities, in particular online ones and by associations", they always say from Flc Cgil.
QUALIFICATIONS AT 7500 EUROS
“It also appears that language certifications or the acquisition of qualifications/specializations abroad are guaranteed for the modest sum of 7,500 euros, bypassing entrance selections, internships, final exams and – 'it is not even necessary to fill in the crosses of an online questionnaire' – it ensures the operator of one of these universities interviewed by an aspiring teacher”, continue from the union.
“A shameful situation that we have been denouncing for some time, reporting to the two ministers the shameless advertising of an online university that guarantees online qualifying courses of 30 CFU for secondary school with a duration of only 17 days. To date, we have not yet received any feedback on this report to ministers Valditara and Bernini." The Flc Cgil comments.
FARLOCCHI TRAINING COURSES
Here are some strategies implemented by the online universities that ended up at the center of the scandal. “Some temporary teachers – reports the newspaper directed by Marco Travaglio – pretended to be interested in the training courses and recorded their conversations with the tutors made available by the training centres”.
11 THOUSAND QUALIFICATIONS OBTAINED ABROAD
“In those interviews, the representatives of the online training centers reassure potential customers: they do not need to know the language or participate in the online course; the exam will be taken by a school representative who actually speaks the language (Romanian or Spanish); once the qualification has been obtained, it will be sufficient to request recognition, on the basis of European law. According to an estimate by the unions, compared to 26 thousand people regularly qualified to access the rankings, there are another 11 thousand qualifications obtained abroad."
THE EMBARRASSMENT OF THE MINISTERS CONCERNED
A story which, according to Il Fatto , would also embarrass the current majority ( which on several occasions has supported rules in favor of online universities ) but above all the executive itself: "The Ministry of Education had questioned what written by Fatto , and confirmed by the CGIL, also passing the responsibility for any controls onto another ministry, that of University and Research".
“The denial of the first – we read again in the newspaper – was followed by a note from the second, announcing the start of checks also on the training credits provided by online universities which do not concern support: “Mur has already started several weeks ago and on the basis of reports – they write from the department in a press release – the necessary in-depth information on the activation of the 30 CFU qualifying courses by universities, asking for clarifications regarding the methods of delivery of the courses and the completion of the training period".
THE MANY EMBARRASSMENTS FOR TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES
But the government is not usually embarrassed. In fact, this is yet another botched episode that concerns the very poorly regulated world of online universities which recently had to suffer the attacks of Anvur (which, let us remember, certainly did not give the category a positive review ), i.e. the National Agency for evaluation of the university and research system, signatory of a long series of very important findings regarding the current educational quality guaranteed by the sector.
But this story – it must be clarified – does not concern these limits, but rather the lack of transparency and the presumed market of qualifications, credits and professional qualifications. In short, the investigation by the Ministry of University and Research includes a bit of everything: universities without accreditation for the issuing of academic qualifications, others that promise subsidized and illicit procedures, as well as companies that intend to operate in person. And according to what was denounced by the unions, in the midst there are also unidentified completely "fake" "associations". Therefore full-blown scams, even for members.
TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES UNDER THE LENS
“Out of 10 online universities that the Ministry of Education has decided to keep an eye on and also report with complaints – informs PalermoToday – two are located in Palermo. These are Harris University and Reald University, with offices also in Termini Imerese and Misilmeri". In both cases, online universities have websites rich in information on the marketing side, to encourage enrolments, but poor in information about their real structure.
THE UNIVERSITY DOWNLOADED FROM ALBANIA
Furthermore, Reald University had already ended up in the center of the news at the beginning of the year when the Kolegji Universitar Reald, the university of Vlora, in Albania, had to intervene in embarrassment to reiterate that "it has no headquarters in the Italian State nor any connection with other subjects, probable procurers".
“As regards the people who have used our name, we have already started legal action to report it to the competent Italian institutions,” the administrative director of the Kolegji Universitar Reald, Serrik Muskaj, later wrote to Repubblica , pointing out that “it was unfairly tarnished the name of the university by associating it with offices and individuals involved in the situation relating to Jean Monnet". “Moreover, another institute that also operates in the city, the Gorazde-Jean Monnet, has already been reported in the past – as reported by the LaPresse agency.”
SOME CURIOUS ELEMENTS OF THE WEBSITES OF TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES
Among the other online universities on which investigations are underway there is also the UnideMontaigne University of Milan whose website, we report as a side note, regarding the Lazio branch releases the following information: a long and distressing sequence of " -” and “#” instead of the indication of the General Director, the Head of the Secretariat and the Academic Secretariat.
And it is not the only bizarre element that emerges when sifting through some of the websites of the digital universities that have come under the scrutiny of the Prosecutor's Office. The one at the Popular University of Nutrition Sciences in Florence, for example, welcomes the visitor with a mobile phone number in large letters in the foreground. Is it possible that the secretariat doesn't have a landline? That despite so many students the line is unique?
On the Leonardo da Vinci Popular-Unitelematic University website, if you click on "Who we are" you will be taken back to the top of the home page. Even more mysterious is the Anglo-Catholic University of San Paolo Apostolo in Rome, which manages to be online without even appearing on the Internet. The ways of San Paolo are apparently infinite. Traces of it can be found on the LobbyFacts website, and the Rai3 program Report also set out on its trail, due to entirely different events, not even managing to identify its headquarters (the doorman to whom the journalist asked if the university was in the building hearing St. Paul replied if they were looking for a bank).
Also under investigation, as PalermoToday reports, are the Popular University of Social Studies and Tourism in Naples, the Koiné Europe+ study center in Lecce, the Uniaccademia-Westbrook University and the Selinus University of Science and Literature in Ragusa and Bologna.
As we have seen through some eloquent examples, in several cases these are digital universities which, despite basing their raison d'être on the Web, present rather evanescent sites lacking information. In others it is even impossible to find traces of them on the Internet. What is surprising is that at least a couple of institutions continue to operate despite various types of inconsistencies having already emerged in the past.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/cosa-sappiamo-sugli-atenei-telematici-sotto-inchiesta-per-il-mercato-di-crediti-e-abilitazioni/ on Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:26:17 +0000.