Jeff Wooller's dodgy university
Jeff Wooller, that arch critic of the ICAEW over the years, finds himself at the centre of an expose by the BBC of a ‘dodgy’ university. To say finds himself is a little generous. Thrusts himself might be more appropriate. The establishment in question is the Irish International University, which over the course of two prime-time programmes last night and the night before, the BBC accused of being bogus. The university claimed it had a Dublin campus, which the BBC alleged does not exist, and that its qualifications were accredited by the Quality Assurance Commission – but the body is owned by the IIU's boss.
Wooller himself told BBC reporter Angela Saini the university was ‘dodgy’. Which wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t its honorary chancellor.
Holding that position makes Wooller’s further statements simply astounding. He admitted to an actor employed by the BBC that the university’s website was an illusion: ‘When you look at the website, it's a figment of someone's imagination. Someone's dreamt up what a university should look like, and that's what's on the website.’
And despite the exposure he refused to quit as honorary chancellor stating that most IIU students were happy and that the university was good value for money.
Presumably he will retain the title Baron Knowth, which he uses for university business and, he told the BBC, he bought.
I should point out that Wooller defends his position. ‘By being with them, I thought I could improve things,’ he told Accountancy Age. ‘I said I would resign unless [they] made the changes, which they did.’ The university has made changes to its website and no longer refers to a Dublin campus for instance. Are these changes the ones he was referring to? Are they enough?
Wooller also added that thousands of people were happy with their degrees and that he was not involved in the UK operation, ‘where there are half a dozen people not happy’. Nevertheless he also told the BBC that the university was ‘not accredited, so it's not recognised’ before adding of the students:’ There's a lot of convocations and they pay a lot of money to go to the convocations ... if you can mention Oxford or Cambridge then the whole world thinks that it must be a good university ... it's very misleading.’
I’m glad he mentioned the students. The BBC’s Angela Saini writes in The Guardian of one of their cases: ‘In 2006, Sounak Halder, a student from Kolkata, applied to do a course through the IIU. A one-year master's cost him £4,500; at a recognised UK university he would have had to shell out upwards of £7,000. It was only after arriving in England that Sounak discovered his college was a tiny office block in east London with no library and a handful of students. "I tried to contact the university [IIU] but they didn't pick up the phone," he explains. "They are cheating innocent guys." He ended up going back home in serious debt.’
The Irish Independent, which first raised concerns about the university in 2006, reports that The Department of Education and Science has written to it several times instructing the owners to stop using the word university as their use of it was against the law. The department's legal section was still examining the options with regard to IIU, it says.
So what does this say about Wooller? Well it doesn’t reflect well on him. To me, the look on his face during the covert filming suggests he knows that.
What’s certain, however, is that given their battles over the years (not least during recent merger attempts) there will have been little attempt to conceal the smiles on the faces of Moorgate Place’s upper ranks.
How much longer is this upstanding Chartered Accountant going to be allowed to remain a Member?
Posted by Michael Smith | January 9, 2008 10:20 AM
What does he mean by being with IIU so he can help them changes? How can you changes bogus university? He is there to help them marketing so they look more real/less bogus to potential students/victims. Look at at the uni's website, only stupid people can not notice it is dodgy, there are no evidences of academics, library facilities and other contacts (other than admin) and they don't even have uni's server. I managed to look at all the stored images of IIU and their student database (all stored on net of course). This uni offer varieties of courses ranging from English Literature, Automative Engineering to Islamic studies (PhD)!!!!. It seem this uni is the most grand uni on this whole planet.
Posted by sha | January 9, 2008 12:22 PM
What does he mean by being with IIU so he can help them changes? How can you changes bogus university? He is there to help them marketing so they look more real/less bogus to potential students/victims. Look at at the uni's website, only stupid people can not notice it is dodgy, there are no evidences of academics, library facilities and other contacts (other than admin) and they don't even have uni's server. I managed to look at all the stored images of IIU and their student database (all stored on net of course). This uni offer varieties of courses ranging from English Literature, Automative Engineering to Islamic studies (PhD)!!!!. It seem this uni is the most grand uni on this whole planet.
Posted by sha | January 9, 2008 12:22 PM
What does he mean by being with IIU so he can help them changes? How can you changes bogus university? He is there to help them marketing so they look more real/less bogus to potential students/victims. Look at at the uni's website, only stupid people can not notice it is dodgy, there are no evidences of academics, library facilities and other contacts (other than admin) and they don't even have uni's server. I managed to look at all the stored images of IIU and their student database (all stored on net of course). This uni offer varieties of courses ranging from English Literature, Automative Engineering to Islamic studies (PhD)!!!!. It seem this uni is the most grand uni on this whole planet.
Posted by sha | January 9, 2008 12:23 PM
I'm afraid some people have taken it to offer more than it perhaps does, unfortunately. It highlights the need for reform of the system in terms of which institutions are able to call themselves universities.
Posted by Damian Wild | January 9, 2008 2:06 PM
Is he in any way connected to Jeff Wooler college?
Posted by Chris | January 14, 2008 4:23 PM
There's an update on the story here 'College distances itself from founder' http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2207404/college-distances-itself-3754055
Posted by Damian Wild | January 17, 2008 2:01 PM
Jeff Wooller acts like a fox caught unexpectedly in someone's headlights. His self-admitted dodgy university, Irish International University, and the Irish Business School, with which he was connected, are figments of the imagination, but figments which have made those connected as senior staff with the university multi-millionaires. Jeff had an honest period in his life, so it is a pity he had now become a sad laughing stock, including having a paid for title as Baron Knowles. He seems to have no remorse for what he has done, stating that students are happy with the deception. This is certainly not the attitude one expects of a member of the ICAEW. One wonders what standard to expect of those who claim to have studied accountancy. A curriculum seems to be missing. I am sure we will not be looking to IIU's accounting students to do our accounts!
Posted by Professor Gerald Vinten | January 19, 2008 5:11 PM
I feel I should add some links to the coverage elsewhere, since Googling "Jeff Wooller" doesn't find them on the first page of Google results, whereas this blog post is the second result!
BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/features/my_london/bogus_education
Roundup of BBC television coverage. With videos!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7175730.stm
The main bbc.co.uk news item
The Guardian
http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,2236683,00.html
Jeff gets called a "Del Boy of higher education".
The Times
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/graduate_management/article3142514.ece
With the unfortunate story of Mary Chapman.
The IIU now has the honour of a Wikipedia page, too, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_International_University
Posted by Tom | January 23, 2008 5:43 PM
Is there anyway or tracking all of the institutions that Jeff Wooller/Baron Knowth is linked with. I came across, Institute of Professional Financial Managers (http://ipfm.org/index.php).
Posted by Stephen | January 29, 2008 1:28 PM
PLEASE SIR,I WANT YOU TO SEND ME YOUR PROSPECTUS TO ENABLE ME TO MAKE A FIRM DECISION ON WHAT COURSE TO BE CHOICE.HOPING TO HEAR FROM YOU.
Posted by KWASI SAKYI | August 5, 2008 11:33 AM