Is this a scam? Laureate Online Education & University of Liverpool MSc programmes

A question about : Is this a scam? Laureate Online Education & University of Liverpool MSc programmes

Hi there,

I've enrolled in one of their MSc programmes, but I have concerns and I am worried if this might turn out to be a scam!?

Most of the so called faculty staff I have deal with seem sales and definitely not based in the UK! None of the issues raised are being resolved or looked at, but in the same time they are being pushy and auto-enrolled me in further module, without asking for my consent and I have expressed no intention of enrolling in these etc.

I guess I am looking for views on their legitimacy or past experiences...

Thanks

George

Best answers:

• Hi
  If you check out the University of Liverpool website and in the A-Z search Laureate this will give you more information.
  Hope this helps
• They have become partners with an American provider for their online distance learning Masters.
  The degree is accredited by Liverpool so in theory it should be to a high standard but essentially Liverpool is just a vehicle through which Laureate sell their courses. It is all about sales and volume. In the past some good universities have accredited other degrees from external parties and lived to regret it as they have bad headlines in the press. (courses have passed everyone cos they needed the money etc)
  You may get some support from Liverpool student services as part of the deal, or you may not bit it is worth checking.
  Personally I would look online and see if you can take the same qualification elsewhere. One that provides good online support or where you have telephone support from your tutor.
  I would also suggest that you look at how easy it is to get accepted? If they only give your degree certificate a cursory glance and will take you with a third or without a personal statement then I would be suspicious.
• I suggest you read the forum rules about posting as a company representative:
  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sit...faqs#companies
• This is in reply to one of the course leaders who posted but I see that post has now been deleted.
  This was my reply (you never know, it might be useful)
  I did recently show some interest in one of your courses so I will tell you of my experience.
  I would have preferred to go for an open day but instead your system forces people to go to an online form to get further information about the course. This form has required fields so you have to give your email and a contact phone number.
  Within an hour or so of submitting the form I was contacted by phone despite ticking the box which said I would prefer to have email contact. I explained to your "Consultant" that I did not take phone calls at work but I still got the hard sell. I then did get an email and having looked at the course, decided it was not suitable. Despite my earlier discussion to ask for no calls to my mobile phone I was then rung on a number of occasions and left "urgent messages" on my voicemail to get in touch. I also receive emails. I responded to these by declining your course. (I already have a deferred place on another MSc)
  I don't think it helps much when the number phoning me is an international one and the "Consultant" speaks in an American accent and is frankly just there to push a sale. He had no interest in whether the course would suit me or not. I personally get very put off when pursued by sales people. Others may respond differently.
  I was also shocked by the cost. The minimum fee for an MSc via your online system is about Ј12,000 and that was only if I paid up front. Don't forget this is online; there is no physical teaching going on.
  If I chose to pay by instalments it would cost even more, roughly Ј14,000.
  There is also a note at the bottom of the fees sheet that points out that "Use of physical facilities at the University of Liverpool" is not included.
  I take that to mean no support from any of the student services or from say the Careers Service. This is something that would normally be offered as standard alongside a DL programme or physical part time study at a UK university.
  Just to note my deferred MSc will cost me less than Ј5,000 and I get all the support I need as part of the deal.
• Hi
  Laureate Online Education has asked us to post a response.
  The University of Liverpool is the largest provider of 100% online postgraduate degrees in Europe. In partnership with Laureate Online Education, the University offers programmes in Management, Medicine, IT and Law, designed to meet the needs of working professionals in a demanding global marketplace.
  There are currently 8,000 students studying for a University of Liverpool degree online in 175 countries around the globe. All online degrees are fully accredited by the University and quality assured by the QAA.
  For further information please visit: https://www.liv.ac.uk/study/online/index.htm
  For more information about our accreditation, please visit: https://www.liverpool-degrees.com/Onl...editation.aspx
• I worked for a university that was bought out by a major online "diploma factory" who sound very similar, they were all about the sell, and once they'd got your money there was little to no after care. As a prof it was utterly frustrating as we had too many students to teach, told to teach them less hours which saved money, and it was all sell-sell-sell. A proper university (possible Liverpool's real side as opposed to the virtual) would advise you on a proper course. I think universities do this in order to make money, and it's such a shame. The company who took us over were in the States, and we had ridiculous meetings about how to sell courses, and very few meetings on how to teach them, except for meetings where they'd suddenly announce massive changes as if we could just completely change a syllabus at the drop of a hat. Oh and we also had students accepted who spoke hardly any English, making classes online a nightmare.
• Thanks to all of you who replied.
  I attempted to escalate my concerns and on the 4th of July 2012 it was suggested by a Student Advisor from Laureate Online Education B.V. that this might be escalated - this is what he wrote:
  Quote:
• They are a complete waste of money. It's true they just want to SELL SELL SELL.
  The courses is all about reading articles and watching videos, then they ask you to write an assignment and you and other students need to comment on each other's assignments and the prof just comments with a line or two.
  They are a diploma factory and when I realized that I stopped the courses but they continued to enroll me in courses and they sent me to collection agency for none payment. They will screw your credit at credit bureaus and will take you to court. It's been a 10000 eu nightmare.
  Avoid Laureate and university of liverpool at ALL COSTS and save yourself from hell. They are scam just to sell you a diploma.
• Hi,
  I applied for further info. I have been contacted twice by a lady in Holland. I answered all her seemingly relevant questions about my education & work experience but am left with a lot of doubts as to the validity & genuineness of the way it is supposed to work.
  Why Holland? Why a non-native English speaker (although her English as good)
  I don't have a good feeling about the way this is unfolding and doubt that I will be taking my application any further.
• Yeah, this is increasingly common in the UK, universities putting their names out to Diploma mills.
• So, its a degree that the University of Liverpool do not teach, you cannot make "Use of physical facilities at the University of Liverpool", you don't get to speak to a tutor or lecturer, its being "sold" by salesmen in Holland and the USA, and there are currently 8,000 students studying for a University of Liverpool degree online in 175 countries
  Are any of those "facts" in dispute Spiny?
• My experience of this university is not good. The University of Liverpool link is tenuous, so when things go wrong the UoL claim they cannot do anything. I can only assume that they provide the brand of the UoL to the Laureate degree programmes, Masters and DBA to give it local credibility.
  They are not cheap either so if you can afford them, you can afford to study at a university with say - its own long standing research, its own name (rather than needing to borrow one) and a tutor student relationship that is attentive. Many universities have strong reputations and online programmes. Ask also what the Quality Control and Assurance is... do not be fobbed off! Who credits the degree programmes and what quality standards do the follow from which country? If the answer is the UoL then you would expect them to follow up on complaints and yet many people here say that is not the case including me.
  As some one else has said, when things go wrong it is not easy to know who to talk to as the Laureate is so dispersed. Holland , the States and the UK. Accountability in such an organization with an unclear HQ and a customer service that disappears when you make a complaint or query but is oh so present when they are looking to recruit you....
  Any University that hard sells has to to make you think. I just think that, as it is your money and your time, WHY RISK IT? Go to a university that either has a physical presence you can visit or a long term reputation in academia in your country or in one country such as the USA or the UK and which uses its own name.
  If looking for a degree why not try the Open University that has always worked online. Look too for accreditations for the programme. The Cranfield DBA for example is accredited by AMBA whereas the Laureate programme has NO accreditations so no external QA or QC.
  Look for the top uni you can for your money
• I have been enrolled in the online MPH program at Liverpool since May 2013.
  I should preface this by saying that I'm an American, more specifically a Californian, and while I don't consider Liverpool a top-ranked university, I did attend a top-ranked university for my undergraduate degree. I graduated three semesters early with a 3.75 GPA from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology. (As an aside, Randy Schekman, one of the winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology was one of my professors (Fall 2009 MCB 130 Cell Biology). In case you are wondering, he is a superlatively nice guy, but couldn't teach to save his life; as one of my classmates in MCB 130 put it, he could make 2 + 2 = 4 difficult to understand).
  While UC Berkeley also offers an online MPH, I chose Liverpool for two reasons: international faculty & student body, and cost. In U.S. dollars, the MPH at Liverpool will end up being cheaper than my B.S. at Berkeley, that is, it will be under $18,000 USD, compared to UC Berkeley's MPH which at last check was $42,000 USD.
  I will concede that before I started the program I had reservations and was apprehensive that it may be a scam, and may not even be affiliated with the University of Liverpool. But after enrolling in the program, I can say with absolute certainty that I have a received a very rigorous education hitherto, and that I have learned more in the past 8 months than I did in the 2.5 years I spent at Berkeley (sad but true).
  My academic writing has improved by leaps and bounds since I entered the program. I actually should be working on my IP for my management of health systems' class right now! But I wanted to take some time to post a rebuttal.
  Some of my professors are based in the UK, others are internationally based, and it's true that I always have at least one student in each module whose grasp of English is questionable at best. However, the vast majority of the students are competent and capable, and many are as articulate as I consider myself to be, which again, is more than I can say for the time I spent at UC Berkeley. In each class or module, as they are called, I typically have fewer than 10 classmates, except for the first class when there were twelve of us. Either way, enrollment is capped at 20.
  The grading system is very rigorous, although that may just be the UK system in general. In the US, if you meet all the requirements, you receive an A. In my online courses through Liverpool, if you meet all the requirements, you receive a C. To receive even a B, you have to go above and beyond those requirements, to receive an A you basically have to write something worthy of publication in a high impact journal like NEJM or BMJ Pardon the hyperbole, I'm just not used to getting B's on written assignments, and it's perturbing but it pushes me to be more thorough in the construction of my arguments.
  Anyway, I routinely write upwards of 3500 words per week, although with the due date of my IP swiftly approaching (the 31st), that number is now closer to 4000 words.
  Finally, the discussion forums with the students are far more useful than an in-class discussion; in the online forums, there is an expectation that you cite pretty much every other sentence with peer-reviewed literature. In an in-class discussion, you are expected to share your opinion, but you are not necessarily expected to support those opinions with outside research of published, peer-reviewed literature by beginning each of your sentences with, "According to Girotra et al. (2012)..." Even if you did, your classmates would not have the time in the context of an in-class discussion to read your outside readings such as the Girotra et al. (2012) paper and compose a cogent rebuttal, by pointing that Girotra et al. (2012) actually stated x, not y or z.
  To that end, I do not think that Liverpool online is a diploma mill per se, at least not more so than any other brick and mortar university in the US, where the tuition fees are significantly higher, and student evaluation is sketchy at best.
  As to other criticisms, I would say, don't knock it until you've tried it, or at least until you know someone who actually has. If you want more information from an actual student, feel free to private message me. By the way, there are no weekends in the program, it runs Thursday through Wednesday, so I better get back to work!
  Regards,
  Leona
• Hi There,
  I am applying for UOL distance learning and now i am getting doubt in this program. I need some information such as:
  1. In admission process, it seems very easy to get the acceptance letter. Even for other university, we need to proof such as TOEFL, TOEIC or any equivalent language proficiency level. Do you have any comment on this part?
  2. In learning process, who actually teach the students? the lecturer from Liverpool or Laureate's people?
  3. Why they don't have physical visit to Liverpool to just give us the legitimation in this program?
  Thank you very much to share your experiences.
• Its nothing to do with Liverpool, other than using their name, and sending them a cheque each month for use of the name. Using Liverpool's physical resources would be very costly.
  The previous poster seemed to think the course was OK.....I cannot comment.