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A startup Ottawa business college that took down much of its website last week after this newspaper wrote about its irregularities is back online, but glitches remain.
The Ottawa School of Business and Economics is an online-only private college with about 20 students. Until last week, it claimed to be accredited with Ontario’s Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, which oversees colleges and universities.
But when we checked, the ministry said it was never accredited. This newspaper also found that the school’s website had listed people as teachers who in fact did not even know the school existed.
The little college took down much of its website Friday. It has no physical location — just a Dymon Storage mailbox.
Now it’s back with new claims, this time saying on its website that its teaching is “authorized” by the ministry.
But once again, the ministry says a firm No.
“All private career colleges offering vocational training in Ontario must be registered with the Superintendent — and have all vocational programs approved by the Superintendent,” the ministry said in an email.
But there are exceptions — schools that charge less than $1,000 for a program can operate without approval. Under this rule, the Ottawa business school doesn’t need to be approved.
“This does not mean they are registered with the ministry. This just means that he is running a business that does not require approval or registration from the ministry (or the Superintendent),” the ministry said.
“The Ottawa School of Business and Economics (OSBE) is not currently a registered institution under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005. It is just a private business.”
In the meantime, its economics journal reappeared on the school’s website. The online journal has only five articles, and its ISSN number — an identifier used by publishers worldwide — was issued in a provisional form but never validated according to Libraries and Archives Canada. That means no one can look up the journal with it.
As well, people can’t actually read the articles. There’s a table of contents, but the journal stops there.
A list of lecturers at the college had reappeared online as of Tuesday. All names had been taken offline earlier. And a series of stock photos intended to portray students and faculty has been replaced by new stock photos.
The website continues to offer enrolment in economics and business programs.
The school’s founder, Massoud Khazabi, said last week there are about 20 students enrolled. Khazabi is also an economic advisor at Transport Canada.
We reached out to Khazabi on Tuesday but hadn’t heard back.
Meanwhile, a second shadowy school with bizarre Ottawa connections has vanished entirely.
California South University existed only online, though it claimed on its website to cover 50 city blocks in Irvine. It listed Justin Trudeau as its president and said he was appointed by former governor general David Johnston. Most of its website was lifted verbatim from a Wikipedia entry about the University of Alberta.
The university never ran online courses. Instead, the site was dedicated mainly to describing brilliant work by a star researcher named Alireza Heidari, believed to be a junior academic trying to pad his reputation somewhere.
Now its website is gone, with no explanation.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
The Ottawa School of Business and Economics is an online-only private college with about 20 students. Until last week, it claimed to be accredited with Ontario’s Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, which oversees colleges and universities.
But when we checked, the ministry said it was never accredited. This newspaper also found that the school’s website had listed people as teachers who in fact did not even know the school existed.
The little college took down much of its website Friday. It has no physical location — just a Dymon Storage mailbox.
Now it’s back with new claims, this time saying on its website that its teaching is “authorized” by the ministry.
But once again, the ministry says a firm No.
“All private career colleges offering vocational training in Ontario must be registered with the Superintendent — and have all vocational programs approved by the Superintendent,” the ministry said in an email.
But there are exceptions — schools that charge less than $1,000 for a program can operate without approval. Under this rule, the Ottawa business school doesn’t need to be approved.
“This does not mean they are registered with the ministry. This just means that he is running a business that does not require approval or registration from the ministry (or the Superintendent),” the ministry said.
“The Ottawa School of Business and Economics (OSBE) is not currently a registered institution under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005. It is just a private business.”
In the meantime, its economics journal reappeared on the school’s website. The online journal has only five articles, and its ISSN number — an identifier used by publishers worldwide — was issued in a provisional form but never validated according to Libraries and Archives Canada. That means no one can look up the journal with it.
As well, people can’t actually read the articles. There’s a table of contents, but the journal stops there.
A list of lecturers at the college had reappeared online as of Tuesday. All names had been taken offline earlier. And a series of stock photos intended to portray students and faculty has been replaced by new stock photos.
The website continues to offer enrolment in economics and business programs.
The school’s founder, Massoud Khazabi, said last week there are about 20 students enrolled. Khazabi is also an economic advisor at Transport Canada.
We reached out to Khazabi on Tuesday but hadn’t heard back.
Meanwhile, a second shadowy school with bizarre Ottawa connections has vanished entirely.
California South University existed only online, though it claimed on its website to cover 50 city blocks in Irvine. It listed Justin Trudeau as its president and said he was appointed by former governor general David Johnston. Most of its website was lifted verbatim from a Wikipedia entry about the University of Alberta.
The university never ran online courses. Instead, the site was dedicated mainly to describing brilliant work by a star researcher named Alireza Heidari, believed to be a junior academic trying to pad his reputation somewhere.
Now its website is gone, with no explanation.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
