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| Motto | To Know God and to Make Him Known |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1978 |
| President | Markus Steffen [1] |
| Provost | Thomas A Bloomer [2] |
| Location | Global , 600 campuses in 142 countries |
| Affiliations | YWAM |
| Website | www.uofn.edu |
The University of the Nations (U of N) is an unaccredited Christian university. The University of the Nations operates under the umbrella organization of the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) network.
The institution was founded in 1978 as Pacific & Asia Christian University (PACU) by Howard Malmstadt and Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth with a Mission, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. [3] As other locations were established around the world, PACU was renamed the University of the Nations in 1989.
University of the Nations is not accredited by any recognized accreditation body. As such, its degrees and credits may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degrees from schools without accreditation from a nationally recognized accrediting agency may be illegal in some states unless the school is approved by the state licensing agency. [4]
University of the Nations asserts that other institutions have accepted and continue to accept transfer credits, [5] including Houghton College, [6] and the South African Theological Seminary.[ citation needed ]
Australia's higher education and training system lists University of the Nations' affiliated Institute for the Nations and Youth With A Mission programs in five locations as registered training organisations authorized to provide certificates and diplomas in several specified fields. [7]
In January 2018, Pablo Rivera, the chief financial officer for University of the Nations in Kona, pled guilty to wire fraud. [15] Rivera embezzled nearly 3.1 million dollars, amounting to $50,000 per month. [16] Before the fraud was exposed, the school's financial situation was critical, increased charges were applied to volunteers and students. [17]
In October 2020, University of the Nations in Kona was associated with the largest single day increase of COVID-19 outbreak on the Island of Hawaiʻi up to that date. [18]
A diploma mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees. The term diploma mill is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low admission and graduation standards, low job placement rate, or low average starting salaries of its graduates.
Hamilton University was an unaccredited institution based in Evanston, Wyoming. According to the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, it was first established in Hawaii as American State University. It has since been closed by court order in Wyoming and has relocated to the Bahamas under the name Richardson University.
Youth With A Mission is an interdenominational Christian training organization.
Central Bible College (CBC) was a private coed Bible college affiliated with the Assemblies of God. It was founded in 1922 with the main campus located in Springfield, Missouri. The campus closed in May 2013 when the school consolidated with Evangel University and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. All three institutions were located in Springfield and owned and operated by the Assemblies of God. The consolidated university officially began operating with the Fall 2013 semester and is known as Evangel University.
Loren Duane Cunningham was an American missionary who was the founder of the international Christian missionary organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and the University of the Nations. Cunningham founded YWAM in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1960 with his wife, Darlene Cunningham, at the age of 24. They resided in Kona, Hawaii, and were members of the YWAM Global Leadership Team.
David L. Cunningham, born in Switzerland and raised in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, is an international filmmaker. Besides his documentary credits in more than 40 countries, Cunningham has also directed several feature films including To End All Wars (2001) and the TV miniseries The Path to 9/11 (2006). Cunningham is represented by the United Talent Agency.
The University of Northern Virginia (UNVA) was an unaccredited for-profit private undergraduate and graduate university in Annandale, Virginia, The university offered bachelors, Masters and doctoral degrees. Although UNVA was not well known within the United States, it called itself the most popular American university for students from India.
Pacific Western University (Hawaii) was an unaccredited university that closed in May 2006 following a lawsuit filed by the State of Hawaii a year earlier.
Name It and Frame It? is a 1993 book, written by Steve Levicoff, about unaccredited Christian colleges and universities, exploring the accreditation process and the nature of legitimate and illegitimate unaccredited institutions of higher learning. The fourth edition contains updated information and responses from some of the surveyed schools. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the National Center for Science Education, the Palm Beach Post, the Seattle Times, and the New York Post have mentioned the book as a resource. Additionally, it has been cited by numerous authors, including Julie Anne Duncan, Douglas Flather, John Bear and Allen Ezell.
Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation.
Columbia State University was a California-based diploma mill that operated from the mid-1980s until its court-ordered closure in 1998.
Washington International University is an online unaccredited institution of higher education founded in 1994 and currently incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. It describes itself as a "cyberspace university" and a "university without borders", serving clients from around the world online. The university website states that WIU's graduates have come from 112 countries.
Diploma mills in the United States are organizations that award academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without academic approval by officially recognized educational accrediting bodies or qualified government agencies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.
The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (IASHS) was a private, unaccredited, for-profit graduate school and resource center for the field of sexology in San Francisco, California. It was established in 1976 and closed in 2018. Degree and certificate programs focused on public health, sex therapy, and sexological research.
Warren National University, previously known as Kennedy-Western University, was an unaccredited private distance learning university that claimed to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States from 1984 to 2009. It has been described by federal investigators and news sources as a diploma mill, a designation it has disputed. Its administrative offices were located in Agoura Hills, California.
The Management Institute of Canada or Institut Canadien de Management (MIC) is a Canadian professional school based in Montreal, authorized by the government of Quebec. MIC is an unaccredited non-degree business school in Quebec, offering online programs in business administration.
Atlantic International University, Inc. (AIU) is an unaccredited private for-profit distance learning university based in Honolulu, Hawaii. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees including doctorates. It is widely described as a degree mill. AIU degrees are unrecognized in Oregon, illegal to use in Texas, and unsatisfactory for fufilling civil service requirements in Michigan as they are considered substandard or fraudulent.
Brian Brennt was an American preacher, author and teacher. He cofounding Circuit Riders and The Send.
Andy Byrd is an American pastor and missionary, born and raised in California. He co-founded International House of Prayer University, The Send, and worked with a number of organizations and ministries, like Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Fire and Fragrance, and Circuit Riders. He lives in Kona, Hawaii, with his wife Holly, and their five children, Asher, Hadassah, Rhema, Valor and Chanel.
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