More dubious "Dr.s" in KMDC

This topic has really intrigued me and our readers as well. We had tons of comments in response to Tony's recent post on dubious faculty members in private colleges in Malaysia and it has already had an effect. The three names from the KDU Management Development Center (KDMC) which Tony highlighted - Dr James Chong, Dr. Ragunathan and boy genius, Dr Jacky Chin Yew Sin - have already been taken down from the webpage featuring the program's facilitators' profile.But other names remain on the same webpage and I thought it would be fun running through the profiles of some of the other facilitators.

Apologies for picking on KDMC (most other private colleges do not feature their faculty in such detail) but some points need to be made.

Firstly, some dubious "Dr.s" still remain:

Dr Lee Kean Thong
Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons) (M’sia, 1980)
MBA (Louisiana, USA, 1984)
Doctor of Business Administration (Louisiana, USA, 1989)

Academic and Professional Qualifications
• Qualifications: Master of Business Administration from University of Hull, United Kingdom.
(Sept 1999-Sept 2000)
• Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Business Administration University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
(Sept 1997-June 1998)
• Certificate in Human Resource Management, Australian Programme
(June 1995-December 1996)

Academic and Professional Qualifications

• Qualification : Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons)
• Institution : Univerisity Sains Malaysia
• Duration : 1976 to 1980

• Qualification : Master of Business Administration
• Institution : Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA
• Duration : 1982 to 1984

• Qualification : Doctor of Business Administration
• Institution : Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA
• Duration : 1985 to 1989

Does this mean that Dr. Lee obtained his MBA and Doctorate in Business Admin from Louisiana Tech in 1989 and then went back to school to obtain another BA and MBA from a UK university 10 years later? Was it because the business environment had changed so much that he had to go back to school to obtain a Bachelors and MBA in a field in which he already had a doctorate in? Does this mean that if I do get my PhD from Duke (eventually) that I need to go to another school to get another PhD or Masters 10 years from now?

We move on to Dr. Tay Jon Jon:

Dr Tay Jon Jon
Ph.D(h.c.)in Business Administration (Marketing) -
(Calamus Extension College, UK-2004)
MBA in International Management -
(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia-1998)
BSc in Business Studies (University of Buckingham, UK-1990)
Post Graduate Diploma (Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK-1991)

While RMIT and the University of Buckingham are legit universities, Calamus Extension College, supposedly in the UK, is most definitely not. It is NOT listed as a degree granting university in the UK but is an internet extension college based in the West Indies. You can read about a 'professor' from Calamus in this quite hilarious post.

We move on to Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil.

Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil
PhD
MSc HRM (UK, 1998)
PG Dip, HRM (1996)

It doesn't say where he got his doctorate from. Anyone who doesn't list where he or she obtained his doctorate but still calls himself or herself a "Dr." immediately calls suspicion onto himself or herself.

It's a pity that Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon, the only genuine Dr in that list, gets his name associated with the other dubious "Dr.s" since he's legit.

Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon
PhD (Finance, USM 2001)
MBA (Finance, UK 2004)
ACIS (UK, 1997)
MCSM (M)
DipComm (TARC, 1993)

If by spending about half an hour, I can call into question the credentials of 3 of the 4 remaining "Dr.s" still listed on KMDC's webpage (as of today), why couldn't the management of KMDC do the same when vetting through these candidates as 'facilitators'?

In addition, I'm disappointed that the webpage of a management development center can be so unprofessional in listing the academic and professional qualifications of its trainers and program leaders.

Mr. Thomas Kok is listed as a course instructor / program leader and the following is his brief CV.

Mr. Thomas Kok
MSc ITB (UK, 2001)
Honours Diploma (NIIT, 1996)
IDPM (Parts 1-V) 1990
City & Guildes – 418

"Thomas holds a Master of Science Information Technology in Business from the University of Lincoln, where he researched and wrote extensively on “Customers’ Reaction and Usage of Electronic Banking in Malaysia”. He has experience facilitating executive education in the areas of Information Systems and Business Data Communications."

Is it just me or does anyone else not understand what "City & Guildes - 418" represents? Does IDPM represent the "Institute for Development Policy and Management" which is based in Manchester, UK? What does Parts 1-V mean? What is the NIIT? Is it the NIIT which is based in India or the one based in Mauritius?

Finally, I'd encourage our readers to read the bios of the individual trainers in greater detail. I'm sure that some of you would find the standard of English, "interesting", to say the least. One last example, under Dr. Lee Kean Thong again:

"Working as the programme consultant with KDU College from May 2001, handling the masters programme of University Lincoln, UK and Deakin University, Australia. Besides that, in charged of MA Work Based Learning Programme with Middlesex University."

Spelling and grammatical errors abound in the bios. While Tony and I are often guilty of such errors in our posts, we don't charge people thousands of dollars to attend executive training or MBA type programs nor do we run our blog as an educational institution. If I want to part with thousands of dollars (or ringgit) to attend these programs, the least I can expect is for the people who run these programs to be able to spell or write proper bios.

Even if the bios of some of the facilitators are genuine and they are top notch people in their respective fields, the fact that the program uses or recruits other dubious facilitators cast an overall negative light on the quality of the entire program.

Will the management of KDMC remove more facilitators or perhaps clean up some of the bios after reading this post? Let's wait and see.