Bahrain Mirror: The "Lahaye" International University has become a refuge for every failure and disappointed in Bahrain. Ambassadors, Parliamentarians, clerics and journalists rush to purchase "fake" educational qualifications from the alleged Dutch university, which claims providing online education whose qualifications are recognized in any state in the world, including its host country, the Netherlands. This university doesn't have any accreditation from any genuine authority formally authorized to rely on academic accreditation.

The university doesn't deny this. It says in its official website that it is a Dutch legal institution and that the Netherlands Ministry of Education doesn't recognize its certificates as equivalent. How then does it hunt its customers? Simply, according to its website too, it is a member in the World Association of Universities (WAUC). However, what is this association exactly? Simply, it is nothing. It is nothing but another fake website to an association unknown by any scientific party in the world. World Association of Universities and Colleges was established for the purposes of accrediting unaccredited university degrees widespread on the Internet. These uncredited universities usually supervise this website. However, even this website was recently closed. It is not no longer on the Internet. Meanwhile, the said university continues to "brag" on its website as an accredited party to its qualifications.

The process is as follows: establish an unaccredited university. Then establish, by yourself, a party that accredits the unaccredited university degree. This only requires reserving space on the Internet for the fraudulent university and for the fraudulent accreditation party too. This is the whole story; two websites on the Internet. As a continuation to fake the well-known methods of academic accreditation, Lahaye International University resorts to the other complementary ploy, the "notary's" ploy.

It convinces its victims that they can attest their degree at a notary in Germany and Netherlands. It also confesses that this is the highest attestation they can get. What is a notary? The notary's mechanism is to validate a procedure that was done in front of him rather than content of papers. His attestation doesn't include a confession or accreditation to the content of degree. Thus, the granted degree remains unaccredited and not recognized as a degree issued by any education institution.

Despite this, Lahaye International University, Lahaye International Academy, Lahaye University for Information and Press, Lahaye Applied Science University and Al-Hurra University in Netherlands that provide distance education in a directed way to the Arabs, specially, continue to hunt students seeking qualifications through Diploma Mills and who are able to pay the tuitions. These fake universities are run by one network made up of Iraqis residing in Netherlands. These universities yield millions, in return for granting the victims degrees that are unrecognized by any party. They also don't allow their holders to pursue their studies in any government education institutions or in those that are internationally recognized.

An Office that is but a name and free email

US Department of Education defines the degrees that are granted by the "Diploma Mill" way as "offers, for a fee, degrees, diplomas, or certificates, that may be used to represent to the general public that the individual possessing such a degree, diploma, or certificate has completed a program of postsecondary education or training; and requires such individual to complete little or no education or coursework to obtain such degree, diploma, or certificate." These programs or degrees are given by institution that "lack accreditation by an accrediting agency or association that is recognized as an accrediting agency or association of institutions of higher education."

If we want a detailed description for activism of Lahaye's university and its other affiliations, we'd simply say it is exactly the mentioned description on the US Department of Education.

Lahaye International University's address in its official website on the Internet refers to an apartment building in southern Netherlands (photo from Google). The building doesn't bear any banner or sign indicating that its comprises the headquarter of a scientific institution that brags in granting " academic diplomas starting from the two-year diploma after the secondary school degree, Bachelor degree, higher diploma, master's degree, PhD, vocational and training diploma certificates." It also has, according to its claims, representatives and offices in about 12 countries, including Djibouti, Mogadishu, Somalia, Berlin, Kurdistan, Iraq, Jordan, Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and Kingdom of Bahrain.

Maybe it has an apartment in this building, or it may be only a room, in order to meet the requirements of having an address to the commercial register.

When reading the page on the offices network and representations of Lahaye International University in the Gulf States, it is noticed that all of its addresses are personal emails. They are not even e-mails registered in the name of a paid domain to an academic institution, including the university's own approved scope. They are free emails attached to the names of people who are not known whether they are real or spoofed names. There is no land title in real estate or a registered telephone number that can be traced; only a name and free email. In this simple way, there has become representatives and offices for the university office in Dubai and in Sharjah, for example.

The university didn't even put name and emails in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It only put the names of the two states among the list of states in which it has representatives and offices, while leaving the address empty.

Phd in distance learning and in real universities are the same

Lahaye International University does not indicate in its granted certificates the teaching method the student followed to acquire his qualifications, namely distance education or e-education, which is usually limited to a few weeks, not exceeding a total of two or four months at the most (see the qualification image). It merely grants him a general qualification such as a doctorate or a masters equivalent to the same qualification as a serious regular student at a prestigious university where he spent years of his age.

The Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq was alerted early to the gravity of these universities, which claim to be located in Britain, Netherlands and Malaysia, and provide distance education by Iraqis. It warned its citizens against being captured in its fraudulent traps. It also addressed the federations of Arab universities about these universities which some of them are registered in. However, in Bahrain, that is another story.

This fraudulent university, in all of its above-mentioned noxious sins, has become the method of scientific advancement approved for state officials who have failed to study. People who suddenly appear on the media and in their workplaces with their names preceded by "Dr." between day and night. When did they do that?! No one knows. The Ministry of Education that is responsible for the educational system could identify by one click in the search engines the background and full story of the university, with numerous advertisements in newspapers for Bahraini students graduating from it. The ministry, however, remained silent as if the whole thing doesn't concern it.

How can we Believe them while this is the effect of their pipes?

Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa is now leading the scene as the highest official to issue a decision ordering the parties responsible for education to investigate the fraudulent certificates campaign following the resounding scandal that started from Kuwait and then reached the rest of Gulf States. However, he forgets that until recent times, he, along with other official parties, has been the first to congratulate those who receive forged certificates.

The awarding of "honorary doctorate" to public officials and personalities is one of the methods of fraud used by all fake and non-accredited universities to cover their lack of academic accreditation. In 2012, Lahaye International University awarded the honorary doctorate in law to the speaker of the Bahraini Parliament Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Dhahrani. The Prime Minister himself was the first to congratulate him. He said in a congratulatory message "We are pleased to extend to you our congratulations on your honorary doctorate in law from Lahaye International University (...).

Also in 2012, the same university "Lahaye" awarded a member of the Bahraini Chamber of Deputies Sheikh Jassim Al-Saidi a doctorate degree. Once again, he was congratulated in the press. However, this time he was congratulated by Minister of Interior Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, who congratulated Al-Saidi on receiving "this high scientific degree". Perhaps it was just like the pleasantries between politicians who are fighting among each other. It was noticeable here the hosting of the "Kingdom's University" in Bahrain to a session to discuss his thesis presented to Lahaye University. How did a licensed Bahraini university, operating under Bahraini law, host a scientific thesis presented in a fraudulent university that Bahrain does not recognize? Is the "Kingdom's University" the representative headquarters office of Lahaye International University which has left its area blank on its site? These riddles should be solved by the Ministry of Education.

Here's another example. In 2018, the director of the Office of the Ombudsman in the Royal Court Mohammad Abdulkadir Khanji became a doctor also. He was given his fake degree by the same university "Lahaye". Instead of being held accountable with the rest of officials, the Royal Court Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, greeted him in his office with words of praise and compliments.

In 2011, the university granted Ahmed Al-Saiti who was only a regular person who had acquired high-school a Masters degree. The world soon smiled at him; he became a deputy in the Parliament, a member of the Council of Human Rights commissioners and finally the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to Moscow, the capital of the Federal Republic of Russia.

These are just examples. Every new certificate received by a senior official in the government was granted by Lahaye. Expect for the PhD and Masters holders, only graduates of this university are the only ones who pass all the procedures of the Higher Education Council of the Ministry of Education. They are also the only ones congratulated by the officials and official media outlets. The coincidence is that all these officials want to fight the forged certificates now. How can we believe then while this is the effect of their pipes?

Arabic Version