California Miramar University

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California Miramar University
Seal of California Miramar University
Motto	Scientia Potentia Est "Knowledge is Power"
Type	Private
President	Dr. Dominic Mwenja
Dean	Dr. Bijan Massrour
Location	San Diego, CA, USA
Campus	Urban
Colors	Dark Red      Blue      Gold
Website	http://www.calmu.edu

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 (Hawaii)).

Contents 1 Accreditation status 2 Degree programs 2.1 Undergraduate programs 2.2 Graduate programs 3 History 4 Controversies prior to 2006 5 Notable alumni 6 References 7 External links

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.^[1]

Prior to 2007 CMU received approval to operate from the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE), ^[2]. 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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5] The name change to California Miramar University happened in approximately March or April 2007.

PWU California and (Pacific Western University (Hawaii)) ^[6] were separate entities ^[7] that, prior to sometime in 2004, had the same ownership.^[5] For details on the history of PWU Hawaii visit (Pacific Western University (Hawaii).

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.^[5] The university also made reference to a change in ownership and management on their website in 2007. ^[4] The California Post-Secondary Education Commission lists CMU's date of establishment as 2005.^[2]

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.^[8] 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^[9][10] at the time this report was presented. Although unaccredited at the time, both of these Universities have gone on to gain national accreditation^[11] 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.^[12][13] 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.^[12] 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.^[13]

Internationally, the media responded similarly to Pacific Western University and the GAO Report.^[8][14][15] 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.^[16][17] 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.^[16] 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." ^[18] 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.^[19]

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 (Hawaii) 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.^[20]

• Susan Block - sexologist^[21]
• Earl Ofari Hutchinson - journalist, author, and broadcaster ^[22]
• Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi, received a Ph.D. in development economics from Pacific Western University in California^[23]
• David Reardon, biomedical ethicist known for his opposition to abortion who identifies himself as holding a Ph.D.,^[24] has been reported to have obtained his Ph.D. in biomedical ethics from Pacific Western University ^[25][26]
• Eddy Shell - Louisiana educator and Bossier Parish Police Jury member^[27]
• Dan Voiculescu - Romanian politician and founder of the Conservative Party (Romania).^[28]

References

External links

• Official CMU website
• CMU Alumni News website
• Official PWU website (archived June 27, 2007)
• PWU news website (archived August 11, 2007)