It’s time to take down another legislator for overstating their qualifications. Readers may recall that in 2005, Webb-site asked LegCo’s Committee on Member’s Interests to investigate the degree-mill qualifications of “Dr” Philip Wong Yu-hong. They decided that the matter was outside their jurisdiction, and that the Advisory Guidelines on Matters of Ethics are unenforceable. However, as a result of our complaint, the Committee did eventually amend the guidelines in 2005, so that the current version states:
“A Member should ensure that the personal information (e.g. qualifications) he provides to the Council (including the Legislative Council Secretariat) is correct and true.”
Now, fast forward to 2014, and “Dr” The Honourable Elizabeth Quat Pui Fan, JP of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of HK, claims on her LegCo biography page to be a “Doctor of Philosophy (Management)”. In biographies elsewhere on the internet, in her election biography for the Chief Executive Election Committee, she also claimed a “BBA and MBA in Marketing”. But nowhere could we find a statement of where these qualifications were obtained. So Webb-site wrote to her office, and her assistant replied that the degrees were:
1993 Bachelor in Business Administration (Greenwich University, Hawaii)
1994 Master of Business Administration (Greenwich University, Hawaii)
1996 Doctor of Philosophy, Management (Greenwich University, Hawaii)
Ah yes, Greenwich University, Hawaii. We can tell you a thing or two about that. In no way is it related to the legitimate University of Greenwich (formerly Thames Polytechnic) in England. Greenwich University, Inc. (GUI) was incorporated in Hawaii on 2-Feb-1990. It never received any accreditation from an accreditation body recognised by the US Department of Education. That makes it a degree mill by our measure. Its officers included Marjorie Fishman, Pauline Butler and one “John Walsh of Brannagh” (John Walsh). It operated out of this bungalow at 103 Kapiolani Street, Hilo, Hawaii, then home of Douglass L Capogrossi, President of Greenwich University (yes, that’s Douglass with two esses).