Patriot Bible University

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Patriot Bible University


Established	1979
Type	Not accredited
President	Lonnie Skinner
Location	Del Norte, Colorado, United States
Address	1135 French St.
Website	http://www.patriotuniversity.com

Patriot Bible University, formerly known as Patriot University, is an unaccredited religious correspondence school located in Del Norte, Colorado. Critics charge it is a diploma mill, lacking sufficient academic standards to award degrees.^[1]

Patriot is not accredited by any recognised accreditation body. As such, its degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions.

1 History
2 Accreditation
3 Controversy and criticism
- 3.1 Kent Hovind
4 Alumni
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Front view of Patriot Bible University taken on November 22, 2006.

It was established in 1979 as Patriot University in Dallas, Texas at the home of school founder Lonnie Skinner.^[2] He serves as instructor of school and at the time was a Baptist pastor.

Beginning in March 1988 the school was authorized by the State of Colorado Higher Education Commission to issue "religious degrees".^[3] In July 2004, the school changed its name to Patriot Bible University and moved out of College Heights Baptist Church and into a building in the small town of 1,700 people in Del Norte, Colorado. According to Patriot, this move was intended to give Patriot space for offices, a library, publishing center and classroom space.

It is listed as being operated by Hilltop Baptist Church, which Skinner serves as director.^[4]

As of 2007, Patriot's address is listed by Zabasearch.com as the residence of Lonnie Skinner and the Skinner family (Lonnie, Toni, and possibly Rachael).^[5] In 1997 Patriot's street address was the residential address of Lonnie Skinner.^[6]

According to Patriot's website it issues approximately 50 to 100 Christian religious degrees (Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorates) per year, and has about 400 active distance learning based students.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Accreditation

Profile view of Patriot Bible University taken on November 22, 2006.

Steve Levicoff's Name It and Frame It? New Opportunities in Adult Education and How to Avoid Being Ripped Off by 'Christian' Degree Mills (4th ed., 1995) listed Patriot Bible University as a degree mill.^[1] The college has varied its policies over the years, but it has been criticized for awarding students degrees based on questionable standards such "life experience" or "ministry evaluation" that lack academic rigour and merit. It also is criticized for issuing advanced degrees in months rather than years, and for charging a monthly fee (most universities charge a per-credit fee). The school's catalog contains course descriptions but no listing of the school's faculty or their credentials.

The university is not accredited by any recognized accreditation associations of higher learning. It is recognized by the American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions, which has no recognition from the United States Department of Education or any other government educational organization.^[7] The AAATI is itself considered an accreditation mill.^[1] The group provides approval to schools for a $100 charge.^[1]

[edit] Controversy and criticism

Close up profile view of Patriot Bible University taken on November 22, 2006.

Critics have charged that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme, among other issues.^[1] The college itself has claimed that it simply does not "choose" to be accredited by standard associations.^[3] The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $25 per month plus books. The university offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees.^[8] The school's catalog contains course descriptions but no listing of the school's faculty or their credentials.

[edit] Kent Hovind

Patriot University when it was originally founded.

Much of the criticism is leveled at Patriot's controversial, well-known graduate, creationist Kent Hovind, who received a Ph.D. degree in Christian Education from Patriot in 1991 (it no longer offers this degree).^[2]^[9] Hovind's use of the title "Doctor" in particular has provoked extensive scrutiny of his education credentials and his dissertation.

Patriot will not send copies of Hovind's doctoral dissertation except with his permission.^[10] Doctoral dissertations from reputable institutions are published by the awarding institution and generally lodged with university libraries, as well as being made available to other scholars conducting research in similar areas. Although one copy of the dissertation is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) the organization is not able to provide it on request because of copyright and distribution restrictions.

Various criticisms have been made of his dissertation, including charges of incompleteness, low academic quality, poor writing, poor spelling, and ungrammatical style.^[10]^[11] People who read his disseration say it is "incomplete," not of academic standard, poorly written, and contains the grammatical errors of a high school level student. The lack of quality was described, in part, by the fact that "the pages are not numbered; there is no title; of sixteen or so chapters in the index only the first four are finished; misspellings are rampant ("Immerged" for emerged and "epic" for epoch just as a couple of examples); and the single illustration was apparently cut out of a science book with scissors and fastened to the thesis with glue or tape." [2][3][4][5]

[edit] Alumni

Kent Hovind – (PhD 1991, MA 1989 in Christian Education) - Creationist, evangelist, and convicted felon who has many critics in both the scientific and creationist communities.