Tuesday, November 28, 2006

More dubious "Dr.s" in KMDC

This topic has really intrigued me and our readers as well. We had tons of comments in response to Tony's recent post on dubious faculty members in private colleges in Malaysia and it has already had an effect. The three names from the KDU Management Development Center (KDMC) which Tony highlighted - Dr James Chong, Dr. Ragunathan and boy genius, Dr Jacky Chin Yew Sin - have already been taken down from the webpage featuring the program's facilitators' profile.But other names remain on the same webpage and I thought it would be fun running through the profiles of some of the other facilitators.

Apologies for picking on KDMC (most other private colleges do not feature their faculty in such detail) but some points need to be made.

Firstly, some dubious "Dr.s" still remain:

Dr Lee Kean Thong
Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons) (M’sia, 1980)
MBA (Louisiana, USA, 1984)
Doctor of Business Administration (Louisiana, USA, 1989)

Academic and Professional Qualifications
• Qualifications: Master of Business Administration from University of Hull, United Kingdom.
(Sept 1999-Sept 2000)
• Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Business Administration University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
(Sept 1997-June 1998)
• Certificate in Human Resource Management, Australian Programme
(June 1995-December 1996)

Academic and Professional Qualifications

• Qualification : Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons)
• Institution : Univerisity Sains Malaysia
• Duration : 1976 to 1980

• Qualification : Master of Business Administration
• Institution : Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA
• Duration : 1982 to 1984

• Qualification : Doctor of Business Administration
• Institution : Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA
• Duration : 1985 to 1989

Does this mean that Dr. Lee obtained his MBA and Doctorate in Business Admin from Louisiana Tech in 1989 and then went back to school to obtain another BA and MBA from a UK university 10 years later? Was it because the business environment had changed so much that he had to go back to school to obtain a Bachelors and MBA in a field in which he already had a doctorate in? Does this mean that if I do get my PhD from Duke (eventually) that I need to go to another school to get another PhD or Masters 10 years from now?

We move on to Dr. Tay Jon Jon:

Dr Tay Jon Jon
Ph.D(h.c.)in Business Administration (Marketing) -
(Calamus Extension College, UK-2004)
MBA in International Management -
(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia-1998)
BSc in Business Studies (University of Buckingham, UK-1990)
Post Graduate Diploma (Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK-1991)

While RMIT and the University of Buckingham are legit universities, Calamus Extension College, supposedly in the UK, is most definitely not. It is NOT listed as a degree granting university in the UK but is an internet extension college based in the West Indies. You can read about a 'professor' from Calamus in this quite hilarious post.

We move on to Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil.

Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil
PhD
MSc HRM (UK, 1998)
PG Dip, HRM (1996)

It doesn't say where he got his doctorate from. Anyone who doesn't list where he or she obtained his doctorate but still calls himself or herself a "Dr." immediately calls suspicion onto himself or herself.

It's a pity that Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon, the only genuine Dr in that list, gets his name associated with the other dubious "Dr.s" since he's legit.

Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon
PhD (Finance, USM 2001)
MBA (Finance, UK 2004)
ACIS (UK, 1997)
MCSM (M)
DipComm (TARC, 1993)

If by spending about half an hour, I can call into question the credentials of 3 of the 4 remaining "Dr.s" still listed on KMDC's webpage (as of today), why couldn't the management of KMDC do the same when vetting through these candidates as 'facilitators'?

In addition, I'm disappointed that the webpage of a management development center can be so unprofessional in listing the academic and professional qualifications of its trainers and program leaders.

Mr. Thomas Kok is listed as a course instructor / program leader and the following is his brief CV.

Mr. Thomas Kok
MSc ITB (UK, 2001)
Honours Diploma (NIIT, 1996)
IDPM (Parts 1-V) 1990
City & Guildes – 418

"Thomas holds a Master of Science Information Technology in Business from the University of Lincoln, where he researched and wrote extensively on “Customers’ Reaction and Usage of Electronic Banking in Malaysia”. He has experience facilitating executive education in the areas of Information Systems and Business Data Communications."

Is it just me or does anyone else not understand what "City & Guildes - 418" represents? Does IDPM represent the "Institute for Development Policy and Management" which is based in Manchester, UK? What does Parts 1-V mean? What is the NIIT? Is it the NIIT which is based in India or the one based in Mauritius?

Finally, I'd encourage our readers to read the bios of the individual trainers in greater detail. I'm sure that some of you would find the standard of English, "interesting", to say the least. One last example, under Dr. Lee Kean Thong again:

"Working as the programme consultant with KDU College from May 2001, handling the masters programme of University Lincoln, UK and Deakin University, Australia. Besides that, in charged of MA Work Based Learning Programme with Middlesex University."

Spelling and grammatical errors abound in the bios. While Tony and I are often guilty of such errors in our posts, we don't charge people thousands of dollars to attend executive training or MBA type programs nor do we run our blog as an educational institution. If I want to part with thousands of dollars (or ringgit) to attend these programs, the least I can expect is for the people who run these programs to be able to spell or write proper bios.

Even if the bios of some of the facilitators are genuine and they are top notch people in their respective fields, the fact that the program uses or recruits other dubious facilitators cast an overall negative light on the quality of the entire program.

Will the management of KDMC remove more facilitators or perhaps clean up some of the bios after reading this post? Let's wait and see.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon
PhD (Finance, USM 2001)
MBA (Finance, UK 2004)
ACIS (UK, 1997)
MCSM (M)
DipComm (TARC, 1993)

Hhhmmm... seems like this Dr got his PhD in Finance first (2001) then his MBA in Finance (2004)???

As for City and Guild, is a professional E & E Engineering course, (equivalent to Diploma), which is similar to courses like CIMA, ACCA etc.

Anonymous said...

hey all,

Is the Dr James Chong highlighted in the other post the same Dr James Chong working Part-Time in Segi College teaching the masters programme?

Anonymous said...

Normally, when you have degrees as your tail, you bracket the university, not the city or country, that awarded you the degree.

For example,
Dr. Pean Lan PhD (Harvard, 2005), MBA (MIT, 2002), BA (Cantab, 1999)
Mr. Yao Low Kui MA (Oxon, 2006), BSc (UiTM, 2005)

Many ada PhD (UK, 2006)? Nak tipu ke?

Anonymous said...

Right!!


Just the abbreviation of the university and not even the year or specialization

Ini gara2 nak menipu!

clk said...

Usually, the degree awarding school does have rules and regulations on how to state tje awards behind your name. I have so far not seen countries stated there except for professional designations like CA or CPA(M) for example.

I believe good schools have chosen names/abbreviations which are unique enough to be recognised. Many older schools could be names of states, cities or towns; e.g. Cambridge, Manchester, UNSW, UWA etc. but seldom countries except like maybe NUS, ANU etc. which again does not state S'pore or Aust....

clk said...

Also DBA is NOT PhD....some Dr are PhD whilst some are DBA and some are from bogus degree mills.

With this posting, habislah KDMC/KDU list of profiles...

Anonymous said...

"Dr." James Chong is not with segi college. He's a moonlighter teaching in almost all mbas in town. Believe he was at kemayan atc, help, unity college and many more.

Heard students love his classes...coz he spoonfeeds *sighs*

Anonymous said...

This is atrocious. Instead of posting on this blog and informing a limited few, perhaps you should expose these quacks in the mainstream media by writing in to our newspapers. We should not allow our nation's education system to be pillaged so wantonly by these unscrupulous merchants.

I'm sure it will create a huge outcry if the general public got wind of this.

Anonymous said...

I am working at I?TI (Guess where). For our lecturers teaching undergraduate programmes, all of them will hold a masters degree.

I noticed there are lots of DBAs in some private colleges. They are lucky. At I?TI, if you have a DBA, you are not even allowed to call yourself a "Dr" or get the pay of a doctorate holder simply because LAN does not recognize DBA.

When submitting documents for LAN approvals, we actually need to submit lecturers' CV. So I don't understand how some of these colleges have FAKE doctorates.

By the way, check out this site:

www.breyerstate.com (IT looks so real that when I asked my colleague, a doctorate (graduated from USM by the way) with many years of experience in distance learning to check it out, he actually thought it is genuine distance learning provider...

By the way, I bought a book few years back to check on whether which unis are degree mills and actually spent more than 100Rm to buy this book

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Earning-Degrees-Distance-Learning/dp/1580082025

It is pretty good. Second hand book for sale!!!!!!

Kian Ming said...

Just a note as a follow up to a previous comment. If you meet someone who says that he or she has an MA (Masters of Arts) from either Oxford or Cambridge, remember that this is not equivalent to a taught or research Masters. Cambridge and Oxford has a tradition of conferring MAs to those who have graduated with a BA from these two schools. It gives you certain rights within the context of these two universities but is not a postgrad qualification. You can read more about it here (http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/degrees/ma/) and here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_the_University_of_Oxford). There's nothing wrong, in my opinion, with listing an MA (Oxon) or MA (Cantab) as part of your credentials but one should not give the false impression, especially to employers, that this is a postgraduate qualification. The only thing you have to do to get it is to live more than 7 years after you obtain your BA and pay a nominal fee.

If you meet someone who lists both a BA and an MA from either Oxford or Cambridge, be careful. There's no need to list your BA after you've obtained your MA (unlike if you've obtained a taught or research Masters from the same university). If this graduate of Oxford or Cambridge doesn't know this practice, then you might want to question if this person is really from that particular university.

Anonymous said...

Many years ago, Dr Ch'ng Huck Khoon won the Securities Commission Capital Market Award for his outstanding research on the Malaysian Capital Market (How many securities made an efficient portfolio? - or something like that). Given this recognition by the SC, his credential looks solid, or is it?

Anonymous said...

I know of one lab asst who doesn't have a basic degree but obtain Masters in Finance ( from dubious university?) I guess teaching finance at Olimpia College...If Im not mistaken

I wonder if this IPTS has gone to the dogs??!!!

Anonymous said...

I do not know whether to laugh or cry after browsing the website of KDMC, including the facilitators' profiles. If they can't write proper English can't they at least hire someone who can?

The funny thing is that the program is supposed to be targeting executives, who surely must have higher expectations than a young naive kid fresh out of school. Either the courses are so dam good or the executives are rather stupid themselves, no?

~

Anonymous said...

I used to lecture in a few private colleges a few years ago and was able to see at first hand their marketing strategy vis-a-vis their staff.

There was one college that went overboard in taking a full page ad listing every PhD they had, never mind if they were academic staff or not, as long as they worked in the parent company and affiliates that was good enough.

Then there was another college with a Ph. D. whose talent was wasted as he was used for admistrative purposes. It was all a joke. He didn't lecture a stitch.

Many colleges stuffed their part time lecturers' names in their staff list to pad up the numbers.

World class education? The so-called college libraries looked more than school libraries and yet the colleges claimed to prepare their students for masters degrees etc.

It's all in the name of making money. Academic excellence took a back seat, sad to say.

Anonymous said...

Erm, I already got the fishy feeling just by knowing their names:

Dr. Tay Jon Jon ?
Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil?

Jon Jon? Ah Chil?

hmmm... hmmm...

Anonymous said...

Finally, KMDC has removed everything from the webpage. Where will those "Dr.s" go? May be other IPTS, we will meet them again.

Is Me, The Student

Anonymous said...

To an anonymous poster above,

The Dr. James Chong mentioned in this post is the same Dr. James Chong teaching MBA courses part-time at SEGi College.

I'm currently on an Australian MBA programme at SEGi and had Dr. Chong as lecturer for Economics and Finance.

Sincerely,

HKC

Anonymous said...

As for Calamus Extension College you can check with their legitimacy with the Ministry of Education in the UK. They are certainly allowed to operate. Do check the facts before you blog them to the whole world.

Anonymous said...

By the way guys check Calamus with their link to the Department of Education of the UK. They are now legitimate so becareful of what you blog you might be held libel especially with all the insults.

Anonymous said...

I can't find Calamus listed as a legitimate UK recognised degree-awarding body with the Department for Education & Skills (to give its correct title) - if you have the link to it, please post it.

Anonymous said...

Bloody hell, we are being conned. Now I am also going to call myself a 'dr'.

Anonymous said...

Calamus Extension College Ltd.



Calamus Extension College Ltd. is a registered learning provider with the UK Register of Learning Providers (see www.ukrlp.co.uk ) - registration number 10001088. The UKRLP is a learning portal set up by the UK government's Department for Education and Skills, in association with the National Learning Directory. The UKRLP does not itself evaluate the quality of courses


UKRLP UKRLP Home 18 February 2008 UKRLP ProjectWant a more in depth insight into the UKRLP project? You can find out all you need to know at our project site:

http://project.ukrlp.co.uk/ External LinksBelow is a list of external links to provider information:


DCSF
DIUS
LSC
National Learning Directory
QCA
Ufi
More links
Provider Search ResultsYour search brought back 1 provider matches, of which 1-1 are displayed below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Search CALAMUS EXTENSION COLLEGE LIMITED
UKPRN: 10001088Contact details for Calamus Ex..

Wickford, Essex, SS12 9HA
Primary Contact Address: London, WC1N 3AF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anonymous said...

Obviously you guys are going to be open to libel and law suits again.

Anonymous said...

Dear Kian Ming please state your address and postcode, maybe you would like to receive a letter from a solicitor

Anonymous said...

Kian Ming reveal your address as it would justify yourself as a savior and vilify those that you call conmen. After all who is the joker if you don't reveal your address and be transparent as you profess to be.

Anonymous said...

Kian Ming have you ever heard of the word "DEFAMATION!" Please look it up in the dictionary.

Anonymous said...

Kian Ming have you ever heard of the proverb "Those who laughs laughs laughs last!" I am sure you find personalities that you have mentioned hilarious highly entertaining. Kian Ming if you were put in the place of these men and women what would you do. Surely, you would have to have evidence and proof of wrongdoing. Have they ever hurt you, defamed you or caused injury to you? Think before you blog all these malicious lies that may not apply to all concerned. Kian Ming do you have a heart????????????????

Anonymous said...

Dear Kian Ming I can see you are pursuing political science and would like to be a politician. Is this the way you would like to reach out to people by incriminating them and defaming them before they have even been given a chance to rebuke and justify what and why they were there in the first place? What gives you the authority to find them as guilty before proving them to be innocent or has America taught you that one is innocent until proven guilty? What gives you the right to place the law under your own hands and past judgement to these people as being in the grey zone before looking at your own back yard and please don't call the kettle black when you should be looking at your own pot. People may not have been as lucky as you to have gone to Ivy League universities as you deem them to be but at least they don't condemn you to silence and never ending illgotten justifications.

Anonymous said...

Dear friends, only the privileged have had the opportunity to further their studies in foreign established universities. These individuals with dubious and fake credentials have not had the opportunity.Lets offer them our sympathies but not condone such lies.

Anonymous said...

Dear Tony,

I know you are aspiring to be minister of education when and if the opposition gets in, but you are victimising your own kind by incriminating innocent Chinese people. Is this your way of fostering unity amongst the Chinese people?