Saturday 29 September 2012

The university that wasn't.

The corner of Seven Sisters and Hornsey Road has a bike shop, a Chinese supermarket, and a pub that survived a Zeppelin attack.

It doesn't have a university. It never had a university. It is unlikely ever to have a university. 

The 'American University in London'

It does have a building with a plaque. The plaque, just about visible in the photograph above, says 'American University in London'. 

AUL was never accredited anywhere, and could no more confer degrees than I can (though if anyone's interested in a Hornsey Road MA my fees are reasonable and attendance requirements not onerous). 

Its website is still up. It shows good-looking young people smiling and skates over AUL's premises being a few rooms over a bookies. 

Note the crest with House of Commons-y portcullis

It recruited up to the 2011/12 academic year even though AUL was fined in 2006 for 'misleading prospective students by deceptively representing itself as a university in spite of lacking proper accreditation' and I can find no evidence that they became accredited after. 

The plaque's still there too. 

7 comments:

  1. I suppose this means my AUL degree in white shirt wearing and dog on a string handling is worth nothing. Nothing!

    I'm crushed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry to break it to you. It is vexing to think of these charlatans damaging the reputations of legit universities.

      Delete
  2. This really made me smile!

    There used to be a yoga/shiatzu place in the same building years ago which wasn't bad at all...

    Conny

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  3. is the pub that survived the Zeppelin attack the eaglet? what happened?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that's the one. If you click on the word 'pub' in the story above it takes you to my post about it, but the short version is that the Imperial War Museum has photographs of the Eaglet looking structurally sound but with its insides smashed up.

      Delete
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