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12-07-2003, 05:04 AM
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Kigezi is pure fraud !
Kigezi International School of Medicine is pure fraud !
I did a search on the internet and found a web site that describes Kigezi's history. It's amazing. Check it out at: http://******** ------------- /Edited by Moderator pending legal review on 12/7/03 at 2:54 pm EST.     
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12-07-2003, 05:26 AM
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re: Kigezi is pure fraud !
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What would Holmes or the little grey cells of Poirot say about this?
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12-07-2003, 05:38 AM
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Interesting... Webpage created today!
<o:TotalTime>73</o:TotalTime> <o:LastPrinted>2003-12-03T10:16:00Z</o:LastPrinted> <o:Created>2003-12-07T07:56:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2003-12-07T07:56:00Z</o:LastSaved>
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12-07-2003, 06:21 AM
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Official Response
Dear All:
The School is aware of the information contained within the new "website." Originally, this same information was sent in the form of anonymous letters, signed by at least two different fictitious individuals. These malicious and fraudulent letters, filled with libelous, inaccurate claims, are not new and first made an appearance in the latter part of 2001. After a thorough investigation, which resulted in the positive identification of the sender as a former student who had been dismissed for falsifying documents, formal legal action was taken. We will be contacting the administrators of ValueMD today, as well as our attorneys, to inform them that this libelous letter is now being broadcast on the internet, as well as this forum. We are not bothered by individuals posting negative things about Kigezi International School of Medicine, as we expect that, like any other forum, this will happen. However, in this particular case, the item in question has been the subject of formal legal action.
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12-07-2003, 01:12 PM
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re: Official Response
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First of all, and I think this is very important, truthbknown may not be the same student you think it is. The timing of this posting and the postings of The Messenger, I think, is not coincidental. The date of the website creation (see my post above) should be taken into account. You may want to read my attempt at storytelling in the Relaxing Forum. Having pointed out the above, I would like to point out a few observation: 1. You admit the info was sent in 2001. 2 years have passed. Do you know where every copy was sent to? And what happened afterwards to each of those copies? 2. If formal legal action was taken and thus the record may be on public record, are you not also accusing someone when you have not present proof that the person publishing this letter on the website is the same past student of yours? 3. Can you provide a concrete linkage between the author of the website and truthbknown? 4. truthbknown is smart enough to only post a link to the website. I do not believe valueMD can police action like this. If so, they will have to control postings of other links. Thus, they open themselves up to censorship and editorial control. If so, then they open themselves up to legal responsibility to determine the validity of all the links on the valueMD website -- and that's an onerous task. I believe your best bet is to counter the posting with accurate info of your own. Just my opinion (which means nothing much), dt
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12-07-2003, 03:50 PM
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Here's the first article from the Seattle P-I
UGANDA MEDICAL SCHOOL'S STATE LINK STIRS ALARM
CONCERN FOR PROGRAM'S QUALITY LEADS UW TO TURN DOWN LIAISON BY RUTH SCHUBERT P-I Reporter Wednesday, July 15, 1998 Section: News, Page: A1 The state's Higher Education Coordinating Board has granted a Ugandan medical school permission to set up shop in Washington. The two-year-old institution, which doesn't have to be accredited in the United States and accepts students who have only a high school diploma, plans to open a branch campus here. News of the foreign school's plans set off alarms at the University of Washington School of Medicine and at the agency that accredits U.S. and Canadian medical schools. ``This is a classic example of why we need some mechanism to evaluate what international schools are reputable and offer comparable basic science and clinical education to what we offer in the United States," said Dr. Harry Jonas, secretary of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. ``We have no mechanism to evaluate whether this is a totally fraudulent thing." The Kigezi International School of Medicine approached the UW to explore cooperative programs for Kigezi students in Washington. But the UW, concerned about the quality of the untested school, turned Kigezi down. ``I have reviewed your Web site and now see more clearly what your interests are in respect to the University of Washington School of Medicine," Dr. Daniel Hunt, associate dean for academic affairs, said in a letter to Kigezi's acting dean, Dr. Peter Geissler. ``I do not see any possibility of a liaison, and, to save you the journey, I must tell you that there is no need for us to meet." Geissler admits the education students get at Kigezi isn't up to the UW's standards, but he argues that the program is designed to give an international education to non-traditional medical students who are committed to practicing in underserved rural regions and developing countries. They are, in Geissler's words, what would have been called ``missionary doctors" in another era, literally traveling ``from village to village in a Land Rover." The emphasis is on such basics as physiology and anatomy, pharmacology and hands-on work with patients. Kigezi, which has since decided to locate in Bellingham, is chartered in Uganda but teaches students in Cambridge, England. It plans to set up cooperative programs in Washington, Kentucky and California. The students, half of whom are American, pay $24,000 a year in tuition. They would be able to practice medicine in Uganda upon graduation. To practice in the United States, graduates must take a series of tests from the Educational Commission on Foreign Medical Graduates, which certifies overseas graduates for three- to seven-year U.S. residencies. Getting a license to practice in the United States is done on a state-by-state basis. In addition to licensing exams, foreign-trained doctors must pass a Clinical Skills Assessment test and may need to do additional supervised clinical work. To get into Kigezi's five-year program, designed for students who didn't take pre-med courses in college, applicants need only a high school diploma with strong science course work. The Cambridge campus has no research facilities, and the faculty is drawn largely from the ranks of retired professors. Geissler says the clinical experience Kigezi students will get in Uganda, rural America and other locations is more appropriate to the kind of medicine they will practice. ``We are not equal to the University of Washington," he said. ``We're somewhat different, and we have a lower ultimate educational objective than the University of Washington." The fledgling school received permission to put a branch in Washington after submitting an application to the HEC Board that included a description of the course of study and the faculty, plus documents from the Ugandan Ministry of Education. The documents were not independently verified by the HEC Board, which approved the application March 12. Approval was based on a state law that governs foreign schools wishing to offer a limited study-abroad experience in the United States and requires that students receive degrees from the school's home campus. Cedric Page, associate director for minority affairs and academic programs at the HEC Board, said the Washington part of the school would be so limited that it did not warrant the time and expense to ``verify this operation." ``I think implicit in any decision to pursue higher education, there's that caveat emptor - let the buyer beware - that people have to keep in mind, but I'm comfortable with our due process," Page said. Kigezi's Internet Web site is already touting the new ``Washington Campus," which can accept 48 students a year, beginning in September 1999. The school's Cambridge campus accepts up to 24 students a year. At present, Kigezi has 30 students, half from the United States and four from Uganda, Geissler said. The Washington branch campus isn't subject to oversight from any U.S. agency. The HEC Board relies on the institution's home country to set quality standards, although Page said he did not know what those standards are in Uganda. Officials at the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits U.S. and Canadian medical schools, say they have no authority over Kigezi's Washington operation and there is no international organization that controls the quality of medical schools in other countries. The U.S. Education Department evaluates only foreign medical schools that apply to have their students receive federally funded loans; Kigezi didn't apply, said Geneva Coombs, a case management director in the Office of Postsecondary Education. Geissler says Kigezi didn't apply knowing that it would not meet Department of Education standards. The Education Department's reviews include verification that the chartering country has standards comparable to those of the United States and an oversight agency to enforce them. They were instituted after 1994, when a federal General Accounting Office investigation found that the department loaned $118 million to students in overseas medical schools over a five-year period without any assurance that the schools met U.S. standards. Skeptics of Kigezi's plan worry that American students who can't get into medical school here (the UW accepts only one in seven applicants) will see Kigezi as an option because the school has campuses in Washington and Cambridge, England. About two years ago, Kigezi was asked by administrators at Cambridge University to change promotional materials that made it sound as if it was part of Cambridge. Kigezi recently decided to locate in Bellingham, where it plans to provide pre-clinical course work with no hospital teaching, although Geissler said he will explore clerkships - short-term training with patients. That worries the UW's Hunt because he's afraid Kigezi's students might not be adequately trained to practice medicine, and that rural hospitals or clinics wouldn't know it. Hunt said: ``Who's to say that taking this certificate (from Kigezi) to a community hospital in some other part of the state won't get a hospital director to say, `OK, that's good, yes we can have your students. They can work with surgeons and they can work with delivering babies.' ``(That hospital) might end up with students that are not prepared to be in those clinical situations." Geissler acknowledges that Kigezi's curriculum doesn't include research or more advanced fields such as genetics that are taught in U.S. medical schools, and he admits that his students ``will not be able to compete for the top residency positions." ``But a student of ours will be confident and capable of dealing with emergencies," Geissler said. He noted that the school's curriculum has been reviewed by Uganda's Ministries of Health and Education and that students will be required to get satisfactory scores on the first two parts of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination. That will be the acid test, said Dr. Talmadge Hays, chief of surgery at Pineville Community Hospital in Kentucky. Kigezi students are set to undergo 16-week rotations at Pineville to learn such clinical skills as physical diagnosis, X-*** technology and surgical technology. Students will need to pass the first part of the licensing examination before heading to Pineville, and Hays is confident that they'll be up to the job. And, he said, the help is greatly needed. ``We are underpopulated by doctors here," Hays said. ``Our board of directors at the hospital is willing to be a part of the training process because we would hope that some of these students who come through here would be willing or be happy to find this to be a home for them professionally." Kigezi currently teaches students in England at the Cambridge Overseas Medical Training Programme, housed in space rented from Cambridge University. Kigezi has run afoul of administrators at the University of Cambridge, who complained that old promotional materials implied an official affiliation between the two institutions that does not exist. The university asked Geissler to change a number of statements in the prospectus it deemed misleading, said Nicholas Branson, deputy registrar at the University of Cambridge. ``We were concerned that the prospectus he was issuing could bring the good name of Cambridge University into ill repute," Branson said. ``He has complied with our requests. It's a pity we had to make the requests in the first place." Geissler said there was never any intentional attempt to mislead, but called the relationship between Cambridge and Kigezi ``essentially a parasite-host relationship." Kigezi's plans for the Bellingham campus include recruiting retiring faculty members from the UW. ``We're going to have some top-notch teachers that come from the University of Washington," Geissler said. He declined to name potential faculty members because they are still on staff at the UW. Kigezi also is working to establish a yearlong program through the University of California at Irvine Extension Office that would give students 15 pre-med courses taught by UC faculty members. The year would be in addition to a six-week summer course in dissection that Kigezi students are required to take. ``It's very different from our standard thoughts on education," said Jia Frydenberg, director of the education and social sciences division in Irvine's extension office. Classes at Irvine are planned for fall 1999. Geissler said students probably would go from a year at Irvine to a year at the Bellingham program. ``What we're doing is we're piecing together little bits of the puzzle," Geissler said. ``Even though the little bits and pieces may be very good individually, what ensures the overall quality of the program? I don't have a good answer for that." Even students admit that the proximity of Cambridge confers a degree of credibility on the new medical program. ``We are doing our pre-clinical work at Cambridge in the UK with faculty from that institution," said Deborah Wolfson, one of Kigezi's first students. ``That seems to ameliorate any real concerns on the part of anyone we've approached so far in terms of clerkships or preceptorships." Wolfson, 32, has a bachelor's degree in music history and was working at an insurance company in Oregon when she applied to Kigezi. It was the only medical school she applied to. While she admits that she was a bit nervous about the new school, she said she is pleased with her decision to attend. ``I think we're going to be extremely good clinicians," she said. ``I think we appeal to - and I think the school really endeavors to train - people who really want to practice medicine for the people who need it the most." Wolfson, who is a teaching assistant in the dissection course at UC Irvine this summer, said the clinical training she received during five weeks in Uganda recently was very hands-on. While there, she delivered a baby by lantern light after the power went out. ``We are what we are, and we like it just fine that way," Wolfson said. ``Don't write us off. I think we'll be a good addition to Washington." P-I reporter Ruth Schubert can be reached at 206-448-8130 or ruthschubert@seattle-pi.com
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Finally beat Super Mario Bros within 7 mins.
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12-07-2003, 03:51 PM
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Here's the 2nd article
NOT ALL STATES WOULD ACCEPT MEDICAL SCHOOL
BY RUTH SCHUBERT P-I Reporter Thursday, July 16, 1998 Section: News, Page: B1 A controversial Ugandan medical school that wants to open a branch campus in Bellingham wouldn't be able to set up shop in some other states. The Kigezi International School of Medicine, which recently received the state's permission to do business here, plans to offer a year's worth of courses at its Washington campus. Kigezi wouldn't be able to do the same in Texas, for example, because that state requires all schools to go through the same accrediting process required of Texas institutions. ``When you come into Texas you're subject to our law," said David Linkletter, associate director for institutional certification at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. ``The purpose of our law says it's in the state's interest to protect the public from fraudulent or substandard degrees," he said. Under the Washington law that governs foreign institutions that want to offer a ``study abroad" experience, academic credits must revert to the home institution and students must return to the home campus to complete their degrees. At least one state legislator is concerned that the application process here isn't rigorous enough. Concerns also have been raised that Kigezi's students might not be adequately trained to practice medicine, and that rural hospitals or clinics wouldn't know it. Kigezi, a two-year-old medical school started by two Americans, is chartered in Uganda but has been teaching students at a site in Cambridge, England. The school is not affiliated with Cambridge University. As an overseas medical school, Kigezi is not accredited in the United States and has not been reviewed by the U.S. Education Department. The sole oversight comes from Uganda's Ministry of Education. Kigezi's acting dean, Dr. Peter Geissler, who received a medical degree from Grace University in the West Indies, said his program is designed for non-traditional students committed to practicing in rural communities and developing countries. Application to the five-year degree program requires only a high school diploma with strong science course work. The students - half of whom are American - pay $24,000 a year in tuition. Washington's Higher Education Coordinating Board on March 12 granted Kigezi permission to operate a branch campus that would accommodate up to 48 students a year. Only three other foreign schools have set up branches in Washington under that law: The Russian Law School in America in Seattle; Mukogawa University in Spokane, a Japanese school that offers courses in English and American culture; and Trajal Hospitality and Tourism College in Edmonds, a Japanese school that provides technical training. Kigezi is the first foreign medical school to get state approval to start a campus in Washington. ``I think every state has been approached by some group that feels there is a market to supply medical training outside of the United States," said Cedric Page, an associate director at the state HEC Board who approved Kigezi's application. ``I don't have that sense of where (Uganda) falls on the scale of rigorous to very lenient (in terms of educational standards). . . . We don't have the resources to background every institution." Page said he is ``comfortable with our due process" for reviewing applications from foreign institutions that want to set up campuses here. Applicants must submit the proper documents from the home country's ministry of education as well as descriptions of the curriculum and potential faculty. Page said the state faces a lower burden for protecting the consumer when dealing with a foreign institution that can't grant degrees in Washington. But the ease with which Kigezi was approved has raised concerns on the legislative level. ``It doesn't seem that's there's any kind of safeguard built in here for our students," said Sen. Jeanne Kohl, D-Seattle, the ranking minority member of the Higher Education Committee. ``Here in an era of not only looking at quality, but also accountability. I'm just amazed." Kohl said she will look into the law to see if it should be stricter. But Rep. Dawn Mason, D-Seattle, the ranking minority member of the House Higher Education Committee, said she's comfortable that the permission granted to Kigezi follows ``the letter and the spirit" of state law. To gain approval in Oregon, Uganda's Ministry of Education would have needed to forward information directly to the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, said David Young, an administrator there. ``I would want to know the laws and the regulations of the government of Uganda respecting the formation of a degree-granting school and how those laws are actually carried out," Young said. Like Washington, Oregon does grant approval to foreign institutions who want to offer limited course work in Oregon to their students. In Texas, Kigezi would have to teach non-credit courses for two years before it could apply for a ``Certificate of Authority" to operate. It would have to get accredited from the same agency that accredits Texas institutions and would be subject to site visits and peer review. P-I reporter Ruth Schubert can be reached at 206-448-8130 or ruthschubert@seattle-pi.com
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Finally beat Super Mario Bros within 7 mins.
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12-07-2003, 03:56 PM
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Re:re: Official Response
First, we would like to point out that we will not make a habit of posting responses to everything that is written on this forum. As administration, we agree that these forums should be a venue for the free and open exchange of criticsm, opinion, questions, and kudos between students. However, this particular issue is one that we take very seriously and is one that we do not wish to burden our students with the task of defending or clarifying.
"First of all, and I think this is very important, truthbknown may not be the same student you think it is." We want to make it clear that we do not know who truthbknown is, nor were we trying to imply that it was the same student to whom we made reference. "1. You admit the info was sent in 2001. 2 years have passed. Do you know where every copy was sent to? And what happened afterwards to each of those copies?" We know where about a dozen have surfaced, but have always suspected that there may be more. The ones that we know about have been brought to our attention by the recipients, all of whom were officials of organizations or institutions with whom we are involved. We have successfully refuted the claims made in the letters to the recipients' satisfaction. "2. If formal legal action was taken and thus the record may be on public record, are you not also accusing someone when you have not present proof that the person publishing this letter on the website is the same past student of yours?" Again, to clarify, we are not making an accusation that the individual responsible for publishing the letter on the website is the same student to whom we made reference. "3. Can you provide a concrete linkage between the author of the website and truthbknown?" It was not our intention to either imply or provide any linkage between the author of the website and truthbknown. "4. truthbknown is smart enough to only post a link to the website. I do not believe valueMD can police action like this. If so, they will have to control postings of other links. Thus, they open themselves up to censorship and editorial control. If so, then they open themselves up to legal responsibility to determine the validity of all the links on the valueMD website -- and that's an onerous task. " We do NOT expect ValueMD to police every action at all. However, as this particular reference was made to a letter that is the subject of legal action, we believe it necessary to inform the administrators of ValueMD that it was made public on their forum, which we have done. You are indeed correct, it would be inconceivable and entirely unfeasible to expect anyone to monitor and verify every claim made on a site such as this, and we by no means expect the ValueMD administration to undertake such a task.
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12-07-2003, 04:27 PM
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saw this:
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Just curious. not that important to me. Interesting thing is happening to that website now. It was okay last night but has glitches right now.
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