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Coordinates: 47°10′39″N 8°30′58″E / 47.1774159°N 8.5160639°E / 47.1774159; 8.5160639
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ISSEA
Logo Politecnico di Studi Aziendali
Other name
many
Former name
Politecnico di Studi Aziendali and others
TypeUnaccredited
Established1987 (1987)
Parent institution
I.S.S.E.A. SA
Officer in charge
Massimo Silvestri
RectorNone (previously: Fausto Cardano, Gregory Overton Smith)
DirectorMassimo Silvestri
Location
Zug (previously: Lugano, Agno, Roveredo)
,
Switzerland

47°10′39″N 8°30′58″E / 47.1774159°N 8.5160639°E / 47.1774159; 8.5160639
CampusNone
LanguageItalian
Websitewww.ateneosupdi.ch and many others

ISSEA is a group of unaccredited for-profit diploma mills owned by Massimo Silvestri, which use many invented names and originated from the now defunct Politecnico di studi aziendali di Lugano Unipsa (Polytechnic University of Business Studies). The goal of the organization is to sell unaccredited Italian online degrees; however, since unaccredited degrees are illegal in Italy, the sole trader usually operates from bordering Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland.

Due to court orders, some of ISSEA's websites may now be offline, permanently or temporarily.

Parent company: I.S.S.E.A. SA

I.S.S.E.A. SA, "Istituto superiore di scienze economiche e aziendali" (Higher institute of economics and management), is a sole proprietorship owned by Massimo Silvestri, which claims to operate on the basis of the economic freedom and scientific freedom guaranteed in Title 2 of the Swiss Federal Constitution (art. 27 and art. 20), but it is not accredited[1][2][3][4][5][6] by the Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS).[1] It was established in 1987,[7] offering unaccredited degrees through its Politecnico di studi aziendali Unipsa (Polytechnic University of Business Studies, Unipsa) in Lugano and Agno.

Despite being based in Switzerland, with an alleged branch in San Marino, the organization has Italian landlines and the owner only speaks Italian because the degrees are offered to Italians from Switzerland, as unaccredited universities are illegal in Italy.[8]

Although the director/founder/owner Massimo Silvestri (also going by Massimo Maria Pietro) is not a current member of the Swiss Bar or Italian Bar, he introduces himself as an attorney, using the Italian "avv." title.[9]

Degrees

The organization has no campus, no professors and no staff, and issues degrees based on life experiences and optional online learning courses, namely Bachelor's,[10] Master's,[11] and even Doctoral degrees.[12]

ISSEA and the Politecnico di studi aziendali of Lugano were also not accredited by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports of Ticino.[3][5] ISSEA SA has been denied accreditation by the Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland, too.[13] The same federal court permanently banned ISSEA and its Politecnico di studi aziendali from the European Erasmus Programme because of their unaccredited status.[14] Since January 1, 2015, the usage of the words "polytechnic" and/or "university" by unaccredited institutions has been declared illegal by the Canton of Ticino, which is why the Politecnico di Studi Aziendali and ISSEA had to leave Ticino and moved to Roveredo.[15]

In 1993, the Italian Ministry of Education included the Politecnico di studi aziendali in a list of private institutions which are not allowed to issue valid academic qualifications.[4]

In 2007, the Italian Competition Authority convicted ISSEA and Massimo Silvestri in absentia of deceptive advertising.[16]

ISSEA used to be a member of the general assembly of EMUNI University so it could receive European public funds, such as €50,000 in 2012 through INPDAP,[17][18] although Switzerland is not in the European Union.

In 2016, the Canton of Grisons' parliament asked to stop the company from operating even in the new location of Roveredo.[19] A few months later, the unaccredited school moved to the Canton of Zug.[20] During this period, the organization created a website called SUPDI, which claimed to be a university, very similar to the name SUPSI of a real Swiss university located in Ticino.

In the same year, in the tribunal of the Canton of Ticino, the company was convicted of unauthorized use of protected names ("university", "polytechnic" etc.).[20]

In 2018, a final ruling of the Italian Council of State held that ISSEA SA and all its alleged universities are not recognized in Italy or in Switzerland and their degrees have no value.[21] ISSEA had taken a legal action against the Ministry for University Instruction and Research and against the Ministry of the Interior, which would not let ISSEA create an Italian branch — called "ISSEA Campus Italia" — of the alleged Swiss university. The court stated that ISSEA is not allowed to purport to be an academic institution.

In 2021, a Neapolitan court found out that a student who was going to receive a master's degree from the University of Naples Federico II had a bachelor's degree issued by one of ISSEA's institutions: since the bachelor's degree was invalid, the court revoked his graduate and undergraduate careers and stopped him from defending his thesis.[22]

Other names

After the Swiss authorities declared the name "Politecnico di studi aziendali" illegal, the institution's ads started to use different names as well, such as Polotecnico di studi aziendali (only one vowel was changed) or Polo Tecnico di studi aziendali (literally: Technical research center of business studies) www.unipsa.net/www.uni-psa.ch, Unipsa, I.S.S.E.A. sa Scuola Universitaria Privata a Distanza, C.I.S.M.A.D. (Centro Italiano Studi Multidisciplinari a Distanza) www.cismad.it, unisupdi.ch/unipfh.ch or SUPDI—not to be confused with SUPSI, an accredited Swiss university (only one letter has been changed).

An old website called "Private University Consortium" (www.umc-puc.edu),[23] created in 1999 and deactivated in 2006, also sold degrees from Gibraltar under the name of "Università Mons Calpe", from Colorado under the name of "American Business School LLC", and from Panama under the name of "University Europanamense". The consortium was supposed to be headquartered in the same office as the Politecnico di studi aziendali in Ticino. All the institutions were unaccredited and all the offices no longer exist.[24][25]

Ateneo SUPDI

SUPDI, also known as Ateneo Supdi (literally: Supdi Athenaeum), was created by Massimo Silvestri in 2018 cloning the website of a real Swiss university named SUPSI. It has an alleged registered office in Baarerstrasse 82 6300 Zug, which is actually a PO box shared with other diploma mills owned by Silvestri. The first websites supdi.ch and unisupdi.ch were later shut down by a court ruling; however, the website is now online again using the new domains unisupdi.education and ateneosupdi.ch. SUPDI also claims to have a branch in San Marino — although the University of the Republic of San Marino is the only recognized institution — and another branch in Milan, Italy in the form of an unaccredited folk high school, according to the websites unigui.it and uni-issea.ch (the latter is now inactive).

Univolta Università Telematica Privata Alessandro Volta and others

As of 2017, the institution is also being advertised as Univolta Università Telematica Privata Alessandro Volta (Online Private University Alessandro Volta) www.univolta.ch, using the same address and/or P.O. box in Zug and the same domain name as the Politecnico di Studi Aziendali www.unipsa.ch—whose name has been declared illegal by Swiss authorities—as well as Atena Unitelematica scuola universitaria www.uniatena.ch (Telematic university Athena), Hochschule Nikola Tesla (Nikola Tesla University) www.unitesla.ch/www.uniteslaweb.net, Unitelematica Leonardo da Vinci (Telematic university Leonardo da Vinci) unitelematicadavinci.ch, Unitelematica Ginevra Institut D'études Académiques HEPG www.unihepg.ch. The website www.unipsa.net, which was used by the aforementioned "Polo Tecnico di studi aziendali", was also used by SUPDI.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Recognised or Accredited Swiss Higher Education Institutions". swissuniversities.ch. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Swiss Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education (OAQ)". Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Area degli studi universitari della DCSU" [University studies office of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports] (in Italian). Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  4. ^ a b Benedetto Coccia; Carlo Finocchietti (2009). "Le politiche di contrasto" [Policies against frauds] (PDF). Le fabbriche di titoli [Degree mills] (PDF) (in Italian). Rome: Cimea. pp. 158–159. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Elenco delle scuole universitarie riconosciute, accreditate o in via di accreditamento" [List of universities that are recognized and accredited or will be accredited]. Republic and Canton of Ticino (in Italian). Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Bocciatura per l'ISSEA, che vede l'università sempre più a distanza" (in Italian). Switzerland: Ticinonline. March 1, 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  7. ^ "I.S.S.E.A. SA - scuola universitaria privata a distanza". chregister.ch. Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  8. ^ Fittipaldi, Emiliano (21 March 2012). "La casta beffata dal falso rettore" [The political caste deceived by a fake rector]. L'espresso (in Italian). Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Il benvenuto del direttore" [Welcome from the director]. unisupdi.ch (in Italian). Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Facoltà di Scienze Aziendali" (in Italian). Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  11. ^ "Master a distanza" (in Italian). Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  12. ^ "Dottorato di Ricerca" (in Italian). Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  13. ^ "Vuoi iscriverti a medicina senza il test di ammissione? Facile" [Do you want to avoid the mandatory admission test for medical school? Easy] (in Italian). 25 April 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  14. ^ "Tribunale amministrativo federale, Sentenza del 13 agosto 2013" (PDF). Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland (in Italian). 13 August 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  15. ^ Moles, Diego (16 December 2014). "Atenei sui generis nel mirino: In Ticino le università sono solo quattro – Chi abusa del nome sarà denunciato penalmente" [Unusual universities in the line of fire: Ticino only has four universities; the false use of the name will be prosecuted] (in Italian). Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  16. ^ Bollettino (PDF) (Bulletin 21, Ruling 16880) (in Italian). 11 June 2007. p. 45. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  17. ^ "Borse di studio Master INPDAP Certificate" (in Italian). 30 April 2005. Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  18. ^ Ilarietti, Davide (18 June 2015). "Lauree sotto inchiesta: "Ci insegnavano a pulire le cozze"" [Degrees under investigation: «They taught us how to clean mussels»] (in Italian). Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  19. ^ "Grigioni, università fantasma" [Ghost university in the Grisons' canton] (in Italian). Radiotelevisione svizzera. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  20. ^ a b "Abuso di denominazione" [Unauthorized use of protected name] (in Italian). Radiotelevisione svizzera. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  21. ^ Ruling 06849/2018 (in Italian). Council of State (Italy). 3 December 2018. Archived from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  22. ^ Ruling 0035/2021 (in Italian). Regional Administrative Tribunal of Campania. 15 January 2021. Archived from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  23. ^ "Private University Consortium". Archived from the original on 14 October 2006. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  24. ^ "CIMEA against the mills" (PDF). Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  25. ^ "Fabbriche di titoli" [Diploma mills] (PDF) (in Italian). Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  26. ^ "Scuola Universitaria Privata a Distanza | Supdi -". unipsa.net. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
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