DL Truth: Distance Learning Truth

From the BONUS (or was that bogus) JB Report on "DIPLOMA MILLS OF THE WORLD", published in 1984:

LONDON INSTITUTE OF APPLIED RESEARCH
Bureau for Degree Promotion, Laan van Meerdervoort 1348-Z, 2555 CH Den Haag, Netherlands.
An impressive looking fake certificate awarding the honorary Doctorate of L.I.A.R., which has been officially stamped in some manner by the Dutch government, for $100. Here is the odd history of this endeavour, In 1973 a group of serious academics decided to start a serious alternative school in London. To raise money, they created s blatantly fictitious entity, L.I.A.R. solely to sell honorary Doctorates for $25, all proceeds to go to the legitimate school. L.I.A.R. upset a lot of people by doing openly what universities do secretly; exchanging a meaningless honorary credential for a donation. When plans for the serious school fell through, all the money was donated to scholarship funds in Europe, Africa and the US. I was one of the founders of L.I.A.R. which was traded, in 1974, to a man in Holland, for (would I be making this up?) 1,000 Ethiopian metal ear pickers. The Dutchman operated L.I.A.R. for profit, and added the fake degrees of Brownell University and the California Institute for Higher Learning.

Does anyone know the name of the 'serious alternative school', or whether such a proposal ever existed?

LONDON INSTITUTE OF APPLIED RESEARCH
Bureau for Degree Promotion, Laan van Meerdervoort 1348-Z, 2555 CH Den Haag, Netherlands.
An impressive looking fake certificate awarding the honorary Doctorate of L.I.A.R., which has been officially stamped in some manner by the Dutch government, for $100. Here is the odd history of this endeavour, In 1973 a group of serious academics decided to start a serious alternative school in London. To raise money, they created s blatantly fictitious entity, L.I.A.R. solely to sell honorary Doctorates for $25, all proceeds to go to the legitimate school. L.I.A.R. upset a lot of people by doing openly what universities do secretly; exchanging a meaningless honorary credential for a donation. When plans for the serious school fell through, all the money was donated to scholarship funds in Europe, Africa and the US. I was one of the founders of L.I.A.R. which was traded, in 1974, to a man in Holland, for (would I be making this up?) 1,000 Ethiopian metal ear pickers. The Dutchman operated L.I.A.R. for profit, and added the fake degrees of Brownell University and the California Institute for Higher Learning.

ham Wrote:http://www.dltruth.com/showthread.php?tid=33

Thanks Ham.
Does anyone know the name of the "serious alternative school in London" or whether such a proposal ever existed?

Quote:serious alternative school in London

hmmm
i guess that was still up the old man's a$$.

Serious Alternative School to me means a school that someone would be willing to stand by and recommend to friends and relatives. Would John Bear have done such an effort in London? not likely. None of his family or close friends used any of his schools....CPU-Greenwich-Fairfax-IIAS, and certainly not L.I.A.R or Millard Fillmore. They seem to have met Bear's standards for selling to others but not for close associates and family.

Better that this unborn school never saw the light of day. It would have put more money into Bear's pockets and more degrees on the street that Bear and the gang could laugh at and ridicule today.

if "alternative" got the same sense as when coupled with "lifestyle"...

Quote:L.I.A.R. upset a lot of people by doing openly what universities do secretly; exchanging a meaningless honorary credential for a donation. When plans for the serious school fell through, all the money was donated to scholarship funds in Europe, Africa and the US. I was one of the founders of L.I.A.R. which was traded, in 1974, to a man in Holland, for (would I be making this up?) 1,000 Ethiopian metal ear pickers. The Dutchman operated L.I.A.R. for profit, and added the fake degrees of Brownell University and the California Institute for Higher Learning.

what a joke!
and another version still...here he said "a portion (roughly 10%) of the monies went DIRECTLY to some UK children charity"...we discussed the "10%" and the "directly" elsewhere...


In the quote above, the keynote speaker spins the truth some more, and charities multiply to include a few more...
What a joke!

Face it, there is no "need" for alternative schools unless one's chosen field lays beyond the usual academic boundaries...ballistic proctology is an example, but three years subscription to Thomas Chip White gay teen porn sites might help.
Some professions (EG engineers, physicians, experimental variety of sciences such as chemistry, biology, geology, whatever ) are very hard to fit in the DE/DL frame anyway.
There are more already good standing, established, chartered DE/DL schools than one might imagine.

Of course when push comes to shove, details matter less than substance. And substance tells us how DE/DL good standing (EG no Phoenix, no Capella ) established/accredited universities can be as fussy as brick&mortar ones.
What the person might want, then, is more leniency...much more.
At which point, my private guess is that buying a $100 B.A COD might save lots of money and hassle.
Sure, the intended shall know he might be called to defend his position again & again; and that to most his position will appear indefensible no matter what.
But the same applies to schools with more substance, yet unaccredited...hell, even accredited institutions in bad standing can attract lots of question...
Of course I mean here by those who can part wheat from chaff...
Most employers are clueless, but more than this.
I contacted several NACES evaluators to have my brick&mortar, State-university, 110% accredited degree evaluated.
To my surprise, some did not even know my university (hint: some of its faculties are the biggest in north-america! ); some mistook it for another university with a similar name...

Randall Flagg Wrote:Serious Alternative School to me means a school that someone would be willing to stand by and recommend to friends and relatives. Would John Bear have done such an effort in London? not likely. None of his family or close friends used any of his schools....CPU-Greenwich-Fairfax-IIAS, and certainly not L.I.A.R or Millard Fillmore. They seem to have met Bear's standards for selling to others but not for close associtates and family. Better that this unborn school never saw the light of day. It would have put more money into Bear's pockets and more degrees on the street that Bear and the gang could laugh at and ridicule today.

I very much suspect that neither the ‘serious alternative school’ nor any of the charities/scholarship funding ever existed, and that JB and his ‘business’ partner simply took the $50,000-$100,000 and ran! If this is not the case perhaps JB could enlighten us?

I'm not sure that's possible, Neil. John prefers to shine the light of day on us, not on himself. He seems to like the fog, lots of it. We will never really know the entire truth about these mills as the miller is the main source of information we have and he's into denial these days.

Like you, I figure much of that $50,000 went into gas, rent, bills, cigars and maybe a few pints.

Randall Flagg Wrote:I'm not sure that's possible, Neil. John prefers to shine the light of day on us, not on himself.  He seems to like the fog, lots of it. We will never really know the entire truth about these mills as the miller is the main source of information we have and he's into denial these days.  Like you, I figure much of that $50,000 went into gas, rent, bills, cigars and maybe a few pints.

Other questions worth contemplating - Did JB operate from a private dwelling when he ran L.I.A.R, Fairfax, Greenwich, etc.? Has anyone ever read JB's dissertation, or was that as fake as L.I.A.R?