Webster University a "diploma mill"?

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dtaai-maai
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by dtaai-maai »

For anyone interested in this topic, there's a surprising amount of info about Webster on this forum.
Do a search for 'Webster' and there are a number of threads going back as far as 2003. If you sift out the accommodation queries, you'll find a lot of input from Webster students - most of it negative and along the same lines as the article in this thread, but from several years ago.
Quite an eye-opener for anyone looking into the possibility of studying there.
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JNT
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by JNT »

Students both past and existing and also faculty members, both past and existing have already been interviewed last week by a few thai newspapers and TV networks, expect a blow up in the thai media next week and then lets see what happens. Should be fun.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by Big A »

I did find this Website called Collegetimes.tv that is just hammering away at Webster Thailand on corruption, but it seems like it is mainly disgruntled former employees and students. They are lumping whoever is the new ho/Romanian business/ head-giver in with the other dregs.

The official word I am getting privately, is St Louis management is still bent on wanting to back the losers... Ratish and company, and so let things drift along in the usual substandard way, rather than step up and clean house.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by JNT »

If people want change at the Webster University Thailand, send complains to the Bangkok Post, Nation, Thairath, Matichon newspapers and also sent complain letters to the Office of Higher Education, Ministry Of Education, Thailand and also To The Office Of The Prime Minister....continued pressure will get the results of removing the people you want. Also, do not stop complaining online so that potentail students know what they are heading to. Lobby for companies to stop recognising graduates from all Webster Universities .
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by LolaBeltran »

"disgruntled former employees" . . seems to be the key phrase in all of this ruckus. Perhaps a grain of salt might not go amiss in reading the sophomoric, racist comments that have surfaced in the referenced blogs.

I want to add that I found this by John the most useful bit of information in the entire sorry saga. . .links and all . . .
"The article in CollegeTimes was written by someone who worked for WUT for less than a month, and definitely has an axe to grind. I never met him. Some students and some faculty apparently have grievances, but I can only report that I have been treated fairly in the year I have worked here. I focus on doing my best to teach my students and get very good student evaluations, and I have published two research papers over the last year. We are hoping to grow our student numbers in psychology so we can hire additional faculty. We are one of the few places in Thailand where a student can earn a BA degree in psychology, and because we are an accredited American university our students actually have an easier time being accepted into graduate degree programs in the US than do students from Thai universities. Our students also have the opportunity to study abroad, either at our St. Louis campus or one of seven other campuses, including London, Geneva, and Leiden in Europe. So, overall, I would report we are making positive progress and this is a good place to study, particularly in psychology!"
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by JNT »

Also start an online petition for all students, ex-students and employees and ex-employees to be sent to the Office Of Higher Education and also The Prime Ministers Office. If you have doubts about qulaifications of the administration and faculty staff, send complain letters to the same places. The reporters at the 4 media above are interested and are compiling information.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by LolaBeltran »

JNR Why on earth would I want to do this? Why should we, the general public, have doubts or care enough about WUT faculty qualifications to start a petition or to write letters of complaint? Isn't this something for people directly involved. .current students, staff and faculty? I would leave it up to them and just get on with life.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by StevePIraq »

Another way to look at it, if you think WU is a Diploma mill does anyone make you send your children there? so send them somewhere else.
There are countless operations all around the world offering fake diploma's, degrees etc. no one makes you use them. If everyone just stops using WU it will either have to come right or close shop.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by Keith22 »

I taught in the Arts and Sciences program for three years at the Cha-am campus, and found [personal details edited] to be the most tyrannical, hypocritical, and fundamentally loathsome boss I’ve ever worked for, which is saying a lot, as I’ve worked for more A-1 a-holes since my first paycheck back in 1977 than I care to remember.
He regularly made threats against staff in the so-called faculty “meetings,” which were not meetings in any sense of the word, since everyone knew of his penchant for firing anyone and everyone he perceived to be challenging him in the slightest. I was there, as well, when he advertised some threat against the Thai government agency which certifies (or not) schools in the country.
He’s a hideous runt, but he carries on like a big bully whose power has never been effectively checked.
I never personally doubted for a moment the stories of the Rectum’s death threat against one activist study-abroad student back in 2011 or ’12, as, to reiterate, I witnessed him repeatedly making threats to the faculty in general.
Yes, it’s a depressing thing that the people with the most power at the main campus in St. Louis have apparently done nothing but enable, defend, and promote this scoundrel.
Regarding the facilities available to students, the quality of the computers and equipment for showing videos, the book-ordering “system,” if you can call it that, and the general, pervasive lack of care for the welfare of the students’ whose parents are shelling out no small amount of money to get this bogus “American-accredited degree in Thailand” for their daughter or son, everything that’s revealed here is accurate.
As concerns the matter of the Indian junta in charge of the Cha-am joint, it is of course not their Indianness per se which is the problem, but the undeniable and deeply disturbing fact that the man in charge ONLY recruits and preserves fellow Indians to the top positions. It’s essentially a radical, warped system of “Affirmative Action” in the boondocks of Cha-am.
Transparency is exactly what’s needed. How much does the [personal details edited] trio take home on a monthly basis? What are their actual degrees? How did they get them? Who holds these individuals accountable?
Right before the beginning of each term, the Wrecktum gives his standard, mind-numbingly boring speech to new students, making his pitch about “the Webster family,” how they should “never hesitate” to go see him if they ever have any problems, and suchlike vomit-inducing vacuity.
The “Webster family” includes the three Indians in power, and, at most, one Philippine lackey in the business division who’s been carrying water for the [personal details edited] for so long that he wouldn’t know integrity if it appeared to him in the form of Pope Francis himself, pleading with him to be just, to get out of the proverbial bed he shares with Beelzebub.
[personal details edited] (the second-in-command within the cabal which runs that supposedly “American university” in Cha-am) attempted to [personal details edited] — from me. My contract always ran from August 15 of one year to the same day in the following year, and I always taught four classes in the Fall and four in the Spring semester, fulfilling my required eight classes each year. Thus, in each of the three years that I taught there, I actually completed my teaching duties at the beginning of May, and was still paid through mid August.
In May of 2013, when I could no longer stand being in that spiritually cancerous environment, I gave notice that I would not be returning to teach in the Fall, 2013 term.
Webster was contractually obligated to pay me through August 15, but [personal details edited], and of course with either the consent or prompting of the demonic [personal details edited], maneuvered to deny me my last two and a half months of salary. She shamelessly and speciously claimed that, since I’d given my notice in May, I should receive no salary after May.
But, thanks to [personal details edited], who was then in charge of the Finance office, I was able to get the pay I’d earned. He insisted, against the criminal shenanigans of the higher-ups, that my contract had to be honored.
Left to their own devices, [personal details edited] would’ve stolen about $4000 dollars from me. One can only assume, based on all that is so widely known about them, that that stolen money would have ended up in their own pockets.

[Admin edit: slander is a serious crime in Thailand so unless you are willing to provide YOUR personal details and evidence when making these allegations we have edited those of others in your post.]
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by Norseman »

Thailand PM Prayuth Unleashes Article 44 to Sack Key Education Ministry Six

By Chutima Sidasathian
Friday, April 17, 2015
PHUKET: Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha used his Article 44 special powers today to remove the Permanent Secretary of Thailand's Education Ministry and five other key officials.

The officials oversaw policies covering education from universities to kindergartens.
The prime minister has made his contempt for education standards in Thailand plain. It's generally acknowledged that Thailand's standards are among the lowest in South East Asia.

Social media was filled with people congratulating PM Prayuth on the move this afternoon.

The prime minister has spoken about the lack of research and development in Thailand.

His precedent-setting use of Article 44, which gives him exceptional powers, followed a nationally telecast speech earlier today assessing his six months in government.

While a few universities in Thailand are highly regarded, some universities are allegedly hotbeds of corruption where degrees and PhDs can be bought.

Parents are also often asked to pay extra for their children to be placed in public schools.

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/prayuth-un ... six-22279/
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by Stratoko »

Thought this might interest some people;

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special ... ppointment
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by LolaBeltran »

It might be interesting but it is filled with inaccuracies especially with regard to the Cha-Am campus. It is an older campus and the buildings are not the latest in architectural design but it compares very favorably with nearby Silipakorn. The Webster campus is clean and beautifully maintained, with attractive plantings, gardens and fountains. Some offices and parts of the library were rebuilt and repainted over a year ago, new furniture in the public areas came in about three semesters ago, classroom furniture was replaced several semesters ago and technical classroom facilities upgraded over the past semester. They just finished a large new parking shed and paved the parking lot. To say that the only improvements in the last four years were the smoking gazebos (as the article quotes students as saying) is just incorrect.

Interesting to see that so much of the criticism of this university seems to be coming from disgruntled ex-employees the likes of Keith22 who posted above and whose sophomoric rant should give any rational person pause to consider that his termination might have been fully justified.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by dtaai-maai »

LolaBeltran wrote: Interesting to see that so much of the criticism of this university seems to be coming from disgruntled ex-employees
If they weren't disgruntled they'd presumably have nothing to complain about, and if they weren't former employees or students they'd have no interest in or knowledge of the matter.

Speaking of interest, that's your 3rd post in support of Webster, and I note you were similarly supportive of them in another thread. Do you have some kind of connection with or personal knowledge of the place? You seem to be very familiar with the campus.
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by LolaBeltran »

I do have knowledge of the place and count as dear friends quite a few good people out there ( staff and faculty) working hard to make Webster Thailand successful . . .and I have visited the campus often over the years. You know Dtaai maai, I just hate to see decent, honest people having to deal with all the lies and general negativity floating around. Yes there are problems . . .no place on earth is without them. . . but 80% to 90% of what I have seen reported as problems is grossly exaggerated, downright lies or references to things and situations from years ago and long since addressed. I also know enough of the behind the scenes situation to say that several of the ex-faculty so keen on tearing the place down were let go for good reasons ( false credentials, abuse of students, inattention to classes, failure to complete grades etc etc. . .whatever you might imagine a poor teacher to be capable of.)
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Re: Webster University a "diploma mill"?

Post by dtaai-maai »

Fair enough, Lola, thanks for the explanation. :)
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