California Miramar University
(
CMU), is a nationally
accredited private proprietary institution of higher
learning offering programs through both
distance education and classroom
instruction.
The university is based in San Diego
, California
. The school was named
Pacific
Western University (California) (
PWU CA)
from 1977 to 2007.
Pacific Western University was also the name
of a once affiliated, now defunct, university in Hawaii
(Pacific Western
University ).
Accreditation status
On June 6, 2009, California Miramar earned
DETC accreditation.
DETC is recognized by
CHEA and the
United States
Department of Education as an official accrediting body.
Prior to 2007 CMU received approval to operate from the
California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational
Education (BPPVE), . After the sunset of the BPPVE legislation
in July 2007, the university submitted a voluntary compliance
letter to the department of Consumer Affairs. The letter ensured
that the university would continue to uphold all student consumer
protection provisions and to remain in full compliance with the
state of California law as it existed on the date of the sunset of
the legislation.
Degree programs
California Miramar University currently offers seven degree
programs, three at the
undergraduate level and four at the
graduate level.
Undergraduate programs
School of Business and Management
•
Associate of
Business Administration (ABA)
•
Bachelor of
Business Administration (BBA)
•
Bachelor of Public
Administration (BPA)
Graduate programs
School of Business and Management
•
Master of Business
Administration (MBA)
•
Master of Business
Administration (MSSL)
• Master of
Taxation and
Trade for
Executives
(MTTE)
•
Master of Science in
Telecommunications (MST)
History
California Miramar University was established as Pacific Western
University in February 1977.
Pacific Western University operated in the
Brentwood
, California suburb of Los Angeles
for its first twenty years, and then moved to
Westwood
, California where it remained until relocating to San Diego, California in January 2006.According to
Inside
Higher Education, the school changed its name to distance
itself from past controversies. The 2006 article also states the
university had changed its ownership, management and location and
had filed for national accreditation. The name change to California
Miramar University happened in approximately March or April
2007.
PWU California and (
Pacific Western
University ) were separate entities that, prior to sometime in
2004, had the same ownership. For details on the history of PWU
Hawaii visit (
Pacific Western
University .
In 2006 a PWU California official told a journalist that PWU
California had been under new ownership since 2004 and had no
connection with PWU Hawaii. The university also made reference to a
change in ownership and management on their website in 2007. The
California Post-Secondary Education Commission lists CMU's date of
establishment as 2005.
Controversies prior to 2006
Pacific Western University, prior to an ownership change, changing
its name and becoming accredited, was the subject of criticism
concerning its unaccredited nature and quality of its
programs.
In May 2004 the US
Government Accountability
Office presented the results of an eight-month examination
titled "
Diploma Mills: Federal
Employees Have Obtained Degrees from Diploma Mills and Other
Unaccredited Schools, Some at Government Expense" to the
U.S.
Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. According to the
report the investigation was conducted to determine whether the
federal government had paid for, or governmental officials
possessed, degrees from unaccredited schools. After the passage of
the
Homeland Security Act,
Section 4107 of tile 5, U.S. Code was amended. After this act
became law in 2002, the federal government could pay for the cost
of academic degree training for federal employees only if the
college or university providing that training was accredited by a
nationally recognized accrediting body. As the basis of the report,
the GAO searched the Internet for nontraditional, unaccredited
post-secondary schools that offered degrees that met their search
criteria. Pacific Western University in Los Angeles was one of the
unaccredited schools on which the GAO found online and mentioned in
the report. Of these schools mentioned in the report,
California Coast University and
Pacific Western University - California, were California State
Approved institutions at the time this report was presented.
Although unaccredited at the time, both of these Universities have
gone on to gain national accreditation since the report was
originally submitted.
Later that
year, investigative
reporters from television station KVOA
of Tucson
, Arizona
, stated that
PWU was one of seven schools identified as diploma mills by the GAO
report. The station reported that
Pima Community College in Tucson had
reduced the salaries of two faculty members who previously had been
paid at the Ph.D level based on their degrees from PWU.
In a
subsequent clarification of the original article KVOA reported
that one of the two professors contacted the station and disagreed
that PWU was a diploma mill. The professor did not feel
misled by Pacific Western, as the station reported, because the
professor said it was approved by the California Department of
Education to be an educational institution and to award
degrees.
Internationally, the media responded similarly to Pacific Western
University and the GAO Report.
It was reported in the Irish Independent on 9 October 2005
that the Chief Science Advisor to the government of Ireland
, Barry McSweeney, had been found to have
advanced his career using a degree obtained from Pacific Western
University. The newspaper report stated that McSweeney had
obtained his
Ph.D. in
biotechnology and
biochemistry from PWU in 1994 after just 12
months of study. The article went on to say "There is no question
that Mr McSweeney has anything other than a distinguished track
record in business. He has a degree in biochemistry from UCC and a
Masters degree in clinical biochemistry from TCD. He was also in
charge of the Marie Curie Fellowships, an EU-wide programme which
has been credited with helping more than 35,000 scientists develop
their careers. Mr McSweeney has been widely praised for his role in
expanding this programme." It further described PWU as having "no
merit or standing in the academic world" and having been "the
subject of numerous official investigations, state bans and media
exposés" during its 28 years of operation. McSweeney was forced to
resign his position as a result although the article stated that
McSweeney had made no attempt to conceal the details of his
education and that he was "proud" of his doctorate and "stood over
it" and that he considered PWU California to be a "respected" and
recognized body." Mr McSweeny's spokesperson went on to add: "Barry
stands over his doctorate.....He has a degree from UCC, significant
life experience, and was the director-general of the Joint Research
Institute. I can't believe you're writing this." In
Australia, a lecturer at the
University of Southern
Queensland was banned from using the title of "Doctor" after it
was discovered that his Ph.D. had been obtained from Pacific
Western University. This article also noted that PWU was listed as
approved on two California state websites.
Notable alumni
The following are among the notable people who hold degrees from
Pacific Western University. It is unclear if these alumni are from
Pacific Western University (California), from
Pacific Western
University or from PWU before the Hawaii campus was
established. CMU alumni would only hold degrees in the disciplines
in the degree programs section of this article listed above. CMU
does not currently offer
doctorate degree
programs.
References
- DETC 2009-2010 Directory of Accredited
Institutions, DETC
- California Miramar University in Guide to
California Colleges and Universities, California Post-Secondary
Education Commission (accessed June 7, 2008)
- http://www.bppve.ca.gov/forms_pubs/voluntaryagreelist.pdf List
of Signatures of the voluntary agreement
- History, Pacific Western University website,
archived May 17, 2007
- State of Hawaii v. Pacific Western University
(Hawaii) Inc., aka American PacWest International University,
Complaint (Sec. 8), count VI, count VII.
- Office of Degree Authorization, Oregon
- Diploma Mills: Federal Employees Have Obtained Degrees
from Diploma Mills and Other Unaccredited Schools, Some at
Government Expense, United States General Accounting Office,
Testimony before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Senate, May 11, 2004
- http://www.bppve.ca.gov/forms_pubs/voluntaryagreelist.pdf List
of Approved Schools prior to 2007
-
http://www.cpec.ca.gov/CollegeGuide/AdvCollegeSearch.asp?InstType=StateAppr
BPPVE Website showing Approved Institutions prior to sunset and the
date each is established/approved
-
http://www.detc.org/downloads/publications/2009-10%20DETC%20Directory%20-%20June%2015%202009.pdf
DETC 2009-10 list of Accredited Schools
- Investigators: Degrees for Sale, KVOA News 4,
Tucson, Arizona, November 16, 2004
- Clarification, KVOA News 4, Tucson, Arizona,
December 13, 2004
- Stephen Phillips, A stress-free PhD? A snip at $250,
Times Higher Education, 25 November
2005
- David Nason, Uni can't find any record of Einfeld, Australasian Business
Intelligence, Aug 27, 2006
- Donal Lynch, eircom net Degree of doubt for Bertie's boffin,
The
Irish Independent, 9 October 2005
- Gov must respond to bogus PhD claim on science
adviser, The Irish Labour Party press release, 9
October 2005
- Scandal forces out Irish science head, The
Scientist, 6(1):20051121-01, 21 November 2005
- Accredited or Unaccredited?, by Martin Kiely,
National Guild of Hypnotists
- www.calmu.edu
- Phone Sex Therapy drsusanblock.com
- The
Buffalo News (March 1, 1995) Author covering O.J. Trial to
Speak. Local section, page B6.
- Biography of Mutharika on Official Website of the
Government of Malawi, accessed May 16, 2008
- Biographical Sketch: David C. Reardon, Ph.D., Elliot
Institute website (accessed June 7, 2008)
- Chris Mooney, Research and Destroy, Washington
Monthly, October 2004
- Emily Bazelon, Is There a Post-Abortion Syndrome?, New York
Times Magazine, January 21, 2007
- Eddy Shell Obituary ShreveportTimes.com
- Biography of Dan Voiculescu (in Romanian),
website of Dan Voiculescu Foundation for Romania's Development,
accessed November 20, 2008
External links
, received a
Ph.D. in development economics from Pacific Western University in
California
educator and Bossier Parish
Police Jury member
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