California Miramar University

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California Miramar University (CMU) is an unaccredited proprietary institution of higher education located in San Diego, California. From 1977 to 2007 it was known as Pacific Western University of California (PWU). ^[1]^[2] Pacific Western University was also the name of a now defunct university in Hawaii (Pacific Western University (Hawaii)).

1 Accreditation status
2 History
- 2.1 Controversy
3 Notable alumni
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Accreditation status

California Miramar University is not accredited^[3]^[2] by any higher education accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (agencies that recognize the accepted higher education accreditors in the United States). As such, its degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions. In some jurisdictions the use of degree titles from the university may be restricted or illegal. ^[1]^[4] Jurisdictions that have restricted or made illegal the use of credentials from unaccredited schools include Oregon ^[2]^[5], Michigan^[6], Maine^[7], North Dakota^[5]New Jersey^[5], Washington^[2]^[8], Nevada^[2], Illinois^[2], Indiana^[2], and Texas.^[1]. Many other states are also considering restrictions on unaccredited degree use in order to help prevent fraud. ^[9]

California Miramar University received state approval to operate^[10] from the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education. State approval should not be confused with accreditation; regionally or nationally accredited institutions were not required to seek California state approval.^[11]

History

California Miramar University was established as Pacific Western University (California) in February 1977.^[12] 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. .^[13] The name change to California Miramar University happened in approximately March or April 2007.

PWU California and PWU Hawaii^[14]^[1] were separate entities that had the same ownership.^[2]^[13] PWU Hawaii was sued in 2005 by the State of Hawaii. ^[14] On 9 May 2006, the First Circuit Court of Hawaii entered a Default and Final Judgment against PWU Hawaii.^[15] The judgment dissolved the university's corporate status and effectively forced it to cease operations. ^[15]^[16]

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.^[13] The California Post-Secondary Education Commission lists CMU's date of establishment as 2005.^[10]

Controversy

As Pacific Western University the institution was criticized on multiple occasions as a substandard educational institution or diploma mill. ^[17]

In May 2004 the US General Accounting Office presented the results of an eight-month examination of diploma mills and other unaccredited schools and federal employees holding their degrees to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.^[18] Pacific Western University in Los Angeles was one of the six schools on which the investigation focused.

Later that year, investigative reporters from television station KVOA of Tucson, Arizona described the Los Angeles campus of Pacific Western University: "We don't find students, classrooms or professors. Only a small office with two receptionists and a man who introduces himself as the dean."^[19] KVOA noted that federal investigators had identified PWU as a diploma mill.^[19]^[20] 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.^[19]

Internationally, Pacific Western University has a similar reputation. 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 suspect degree obtained from Pacific Western University.^[21]^[22] 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. It 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.^[21] McSweeney was forced to resign his position as a result.^[23] In Australia, the Brisbane Courier Mail reported on 6 January 2004 that 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.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

The following are among the notable people who have received degrees from Pacific Western University (some may actually have attended the Hawaii PWU) or California Miramar University:

Susan Block - sexologist
Marcus Einfeld, Australian judge, claimed a Ph.D. from Pacific Western University ^[24]
Earl Ofari Hutchinson - journalist, author, and broadcaster ^[25]

Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi, received a Ph.D. in development economics from Pacific Western University in California^[26]
David Reardon, biomedical ethicist known for his opposition to abortion who identifies himself as holding a Ph.D.,^[27] has been reported to have obtained his Ph.D. in biomedical ethics from Pacific Western University ^[28]^[29]
Eddy Shell - Louisiana educator and Bossier Parish Police Jury member^[30]