Dear Victims & Public,
The whole story started with an article (Attachment01) which was published in the Sunday Leader news Paper dated November 5th , 2006 about the Institutes of Technological Studies (ITS) and the American University of Asia (AUA) which was an affiliated university.
It’s true that AUA was closed in 1998, hence ITS had to stop enrolling new students for the AUA MBA. But the funny part is at the end of the MBA program (after over 4 years), all the students received an original SIGNATURED certificate from AUA which was not exists at that time. This was discussed in detail in another article which was published on the same news paper dated December 31 st 2006 (Attachment01.2)
*** Then who signed these certificates if AUA was closed 5 years before??!!
Then ITS started another MBA program with another university called American City University (ACU). This is the best fraud happened ever. ACU is just a name and an office in a closed building. The attached article ( Attachment02) about the ACU will give you a better understand about the quality of the university in Wyoming. http://www.cheyenneherald.com/articles.asp (February 27, 2006 articles).
(This was confirmed by the US embassy that there is no such registered university call ACU)
As a response to the article which was published in the Sunday Leader, ITS has put a quarter page advertisement on the November 19th 2006 ( Attachment03). If you notice in the article, you will never find the ACU university logo other than the TROY University logo, which ITS is trying to emphasize.
*** Are they trying to hide something??!!
In the paper article it was mentioned to refer the ACU website for authenticity. What is the point of checking the authenticity of ITS in the ACU web site as the ACU itself is a fake university. ACU London branch was dissolved recently; in fact the web link to the London branch in the ACU web site has been removed.
After all these incidence ACU has changed their website recently. They have replaced the image of the headquarters building with another image. The original image can be seen in the attached document. (Compare Attachment02 with the present web site).
*** How many times a university HEADQUATERS can be shifted from a place to a place per year? Is it a caravan??!!
Misleading students
In the application form (Attachment04) of the ACU MBA program given by ITS, in the first page it is clearly mentioned “Private University Approved under the amended university Act”. Earlier it was mentioned in the UGC web site that ITS is registered to conduct “Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and in Computer Systems Design” programs only. You don’t find these details in the UGC web site any more.
*** Can anybody point a valid reason for using such a statement other than trying to mislead the public??
ITS management commented regarding articles published in the Sunday Leader News paper, saying that this is a personnel issue between ITS and the Press started with not giving advertisement to the news paper.
*** Do you really want to believe that??
Dear members of UGC, this is over to you. As a responsible government regulatory body you have to be more selective and careful when registering these types of degree sellers so called universities.
ITS Education Quality
After the article about ITS which was published in the Sunday Leader (5th November 2006) news paper, certain employees were fired/resigned charging allegations against academic misconducts. More academic misconducts and personnel favors has being done by the MBA course coordinator who is another lecturer employed at ITS. This person has given final results for certain subjects for certain students without even conducting final exams. So far two students have agreed to disclose their names. All details will be published as soon as other students agreed to disclose their details with evidence.
Some other unacceptable qualities and standards of ITS institute can be listed as follows.
1. Submissions of assignments can be done any time (no deadlines)
2. Attendance for lectures are not counted at all
3. If the student is unable to sit for the exam, the exam paper (same paper) will be emailed to the student after few days
4. No entry qualifications for the MBA are required (Students who just did A/L are there)
5. Not even a single printed or photo copied note is distributed by the university
6. Coordination is done by students (No designated coordinator from ITS)
7. No matter what your effort is, the student will receive good results
It is worthwhile to mention that some of the reputed lecturers are not promoting above inferiorities. Some of the lecturers have already discontinued their contracts with ITS due to above mentioned reasons within last couple of months.
Please do understand that THIS IS NOT AN EXECISE OF MUD SLINGING. It’s just an effort of saving your money and time from these types of degree sellers.
Good luck,
The Investigator
ACU Investigator [acu.its AT gmail.com]
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Dear ACU Investigator,
Thank you for the detail up date on the issue & it is very much appreciated !!!
How ever authenticity of your information may be challenged due to following reasons
1. Who is ACU Investigator
2. Are you a registered body then who are the members 3. What prevents from identifying you ??? please take the Sunday Leaders approach its clear & transparent
You have copied this note to several professional bodies if you think that those will believe your side of the story on these conditions (mentioned
above) ,
will reflect your rate of professionalism of your side.
I need to highlight few areas in terms of quality of education
All what you have mentioned is totally wrong and misleading , we have never delayed assignments , examinations were conducted as per the normal adult learning way , no exam paper was sent on e-mail , printed materials are not commonly used in todays world ( you need to wake up ) , If you have gone through exam result sheets guarding vary from goo to worst . Student coordination is a good sign of positive learning process remember we are not in the “OLD SCHOOL MASTERS” era , ACU has challenged entry qualifications of many students.
My advice to you is please report truth do not mislead people , if you have 1% back born come up and identity your self without hiding around the bush , be a True Sri-Lankan !!!
As a student of ITS my request for the other professional bodies : please come to ITS and witness reality
All the best for 2007 !!!
Arjuna Abeysinghe
0777-579250
MBA Student at ITS
Comment by Arjuna Abeysinghe — January 11, 2007 @ 4:36 am
There is a real need for some regulation in the education business. Most of the universities offering education here are little more than tutories.
Comment by Jack Point — January 11, 2007 @ 9:46 am
The author’s surprise that “ACU is just a name and an office in a closed building” probably means he hasn’t quite done his research. Academic fraud is quite commonplace and sometimes very difficult to tell apart from the real thing.
But seriously, ‘American City University’? How much more fake sounding can you get? It shows up on a list on this page. The warning that precedes that specific list states:
Comment by JL — January 11, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
Check it out! “New” ACU just appear!
Comment by Anonymous — October 8, 2009 @ 2:18 pm