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| '''Louisiana Baptist University''' is a degree mill. | |||
| | image = ] | |||
| | established = 1973 | |||
| | type = ] / ] | |||
| | president = ] | |||
| | city = ] | |||
| | state= ] | |||
| | country=] | |||
| | enrollment = 1,100 undergraduate <br>and graduate | |||
| | faculty = 44 | |||
| | campus = | |||
| | website = http://www.lbu.edu/ | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Louisiana Baptist University''' ('''LBU''', originally called '''Baptist Christian University''') is a conservative ] university, founded in 1973, with the physical campus located in ]. LBU is ] by any recognised accreditation body. As such, its degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions. | |||
| LBU has an on-campus program, as well as an extensive ]/] program, which enrolls students from all over the world. LBU offers a curriculum of over two hundred on-campus courses, with approximately ten different courses made available to students each semester and lists over 400 distance courses; mostly in subjects pertaining to the ] and ] theology. | |||
| ==Accreditation, licensing, and approvals== | |||
| On December 10 1998, the ] ] unanimously voted to deny the University an operating license for its business programs, required it to cease admitting students, and cease advertising.<ref> December 10, 1998 Orders LBU to stop admitting students.</ref> Students matriculated at the time were allowed until December 31, 1999 to finish their degrees. Meanwhile, on April 22, 1999, the Board exempted the University from licensing requirements under a "religious institution exemption."<ref> April 22, 1999 Allows it to operate only as a religious institution.</ref> | |||
| LBU is one of six approved colleges and universities of the ], an organization with over 4,000 churches in the United States and several foreign countries. Students who complete their degree in missions through LBU and meet other requirements may be approved as fellowship missionaries. Louisiana Baptist University also has the approval of the ] (ACCTS), a Christian, non-governmental agency involved in approving Christian schools. ACCTS is not a recognized accreditor<ref></ref> and Louisiana Baptist University does not represent these memberships as accreditation and they should not be taken as implying any independent academic credibility. According to ], ACCTS is among a list of unrecognized accreditors, which are "meaningless."<ref name="credentialwatch"> by ]</ref> | |||
| Although the school is unaccredited, the web site address contains the .edu domain. This may mislead some to think the school has some standing with US government approval. However, the US Department of Education has said, "Before the U.S. Department of Commerce created its current, strict requirements, some questionable institutions were approved to use an ]. The current requirements allow only colleges and institutions accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to use the .edu."<ref> explanation of ]</ref> | |||
| The university web site lists 44 faculty, but it is unknown to what extent they are full or part-time instructors or if Louisiana Baptist employs the ]. Only six people on the staff are known to have earned a ] or other ] from an accredited institution.<ref> See faculty listings.</ref> The majority of the faculty listed did graduate work from LBU itself, <ref></ref> while even more have degrees under its previous name Baptist Christian University and Baptist Christian College. | |||
| == Diploma mill allegations == | |||
| Louisiana Baptist University is alleged to match several of the criteria for ]s, as defined by the ] (USDE).<ref>Greg Neyman. . ]''.</ref> Primarily, if a university is accredited, but not by an agency recognized by the ] (CHEA), then it may not be a reputable institution.<ref> by ]</ref> LBU and the Association of Christian Colleges and Theological Schools are not listed by CHEA, and Louisiana Baptist University does not claim accreditation by this agency nor does it make any claims of accreditation.<ref> website and database</ref> In the United States associations as ACCTS are without value to the academic community.<ref name="credentialwatch" /> | |||
| The USDE has warned to, "Beware of institutions that offer college credit and degrees based on life experience, with little or no documentation of prior learning" as a sign of a suspect school.<ref> ]</ref> Like some accredited schools, LBU will accept a limited amount of three types of non-traditional credit: experiential learning credits, military experience credits, and credit by examination. Also by purchasing and reading a book by ] one can "receive college credit from Louisiana Baptist University upon completion of the book."<ref> by Chuck Missler</ref> Assist News quoted Missler as explaining LBU "has offered course credits for those that do a 'reflective paper' on what they got out of it" besides the three semester hours credit, people "also get a certificate for it."<ref> Dan Wooding. ASSIST News Service. Garden Grove, CA April 3, 2001</ref> Also according to Missler's website the university allows people to "transfer credits from" Missler's unaccredited Koinonia "Institute" for "up to half of the credit hour requirements for a graduate degree" at Louisiana Baptist University.<ref> by Chuck Missler</ref> | |||
| The ] noted, ] has a PhD from the unaccredited Louisiana Baptist University in Islamic Studies, but the school does not have an islamic studies program.<ref name="OCweekly"> ''] March 2, 2006 </ref> The Weekly described that Morey told the Christian news service ASSIST that there are three nuclear terror devices in U.S., but "no mainstream journalist reprinted Morey’s claim—despite the fact that Morey pitches himself as one of the country’s leading experts on Islam."<ref name="OCweekly" /> | |||
| LBU has been criticized for not making graduate student research easily available for the academic community. At accredited schools, master's ] and doctoral ]s are microfilmed and made available for loan; and since 1940 these universities have deposited their dissertations in the United States ] (LOC)<ref> from ]</ref> becoming available to the public. Some universities require students to submit their original dissertation and abstracts to the ] (UMI)<ref> from ]</ref> who then submits them to the LOC.<ref> ] January 22, 1999</ref> LBU does require dissertations to be professionally bound and a hardback copy submitted to the LBU library for public viewing.<ref></ref> However, due to the fact that LBU policy does not require submission to the LOC or UMI, it is relatively difficult to determine the quality of instruction and graduate work at the university. LBU does not have a communications school or a history of communications research. | |||
| == Alumni == | |||
| Note: LBU's degrees are unaccredited. | |||
| ===Seminary=== | |||
| * ] - Th.D. (2005) - author and president of the ] (an unaccredited institution) | |||
| * ] - Th.D. - author and president of ] (an unaccredited institution) | |||
| * ] - D.Min. - author, activist, and founder of ]<ref name="visionbio"> Vision America</ref> | |||
| * ] - D.Min. - current Louisiana Baptist University president | |||
| ===University=== | |||
| * ] - Ph.D. (2005) - author and director of the ]. | |||
| * ] - Ph.D. (2004) - director of the ] | |||
| * ] - Ph.D. - author and director of the Pre-Trib Research Center | |||
| * ] - M.A., Ph.D. (1999) - author and teacher | |||
| * ] - Ph.D. - president of Clovis Christian Schools and a director of ] | |||
| * ] - Ph.D. (1999) - author and founder/operator of Koinonia Institute (an unaccredited institution) | |||
| * ] - Ph.D. in Islamic Studies (2003) - author, founder and sole faculty member of the ] (an unaccredited institution) | |||
| == See also == | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==References== | |||
| <references /> | |||
| == External links == | |||
| * – Official website | |||
| * – Information on PhD dissertations | |||
| * Lists ACCTS as suspect agency. | |||
| * Cites ACCTS as unapproved. | |||
| * Cites ACCTS as unapproved. | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 03:40, 23 September 2006
Louisiana Baptist University is a degree mill.