Is this a scam? Laureate Online Education & University of Liverpool MSc programmes

I have spent three years on an MSc course at the University of Liverpool and I can suggest one to enrol in a physical university rather than these diploma mills. I had doubts about this course and I soldiered on. Big mistake and a waste of my life.

My reasons are many:
1. They do not offer the same advanced courses as the actual university
2. You are not taught by the same lecturers at the university
3. The lecturers have dubious qualifications
4. You are taught with outdated an outdated curriculum
5. If you run into any problems, the university will take forever to hear your case citing that the board is yet to sit down to assess your situation.
6. They are very expensive and you might as well spend that money going to the actual university.
7. With the UK leaving the EU, the degrees are no longer worth as much as one obtained from an EU country as you will have to go through credential assessments to work with those qualifications in Europe's mainland.
8. You do not feel you have gained any skills.

I could go on. Advice: Steer clear!

I registered just to answer this thread.

First of all, please let me make several statements which are crucial before discussing it at all:

1) At postgraduate degrees, you do not have teachers.
2) The people who are your "instructors" during UoL online course aren't lecturers. They are instructors, simple as that. They merely check your submissions and sometimes foster discussion at the forum. They do not teach, they do not lecture. That's why I do not see any problem with them being not directly from Mersey banks.
3) Online education is not about attending classes via Skype and such. It is about instructor- and curriculum-lead self-education and getting a paper from an institution with a big name that all you did yourself qualifies as a Master or whatever you're up to.
4) Most unhappy people at the forum have attended a couple of weeks of the first module before jumping off. Well, there's a reason why the first module is 12 weeks long and not 8, like other modules. The first few weeks are merely a super-cushioned boot camp so that you get an idea what is it all about. You don't even get proper grades there. It starts to get real with the further modules.
5) The whole course isn't Laureate curriculum sold via UoL web facilities. It is quite the opposite. Truth to be said, the weekly Key Concept Overviews are made by Laureate, but they make up a tiny percentage of your overall readings. And I agree, their quality is inconsistent.
6) You get the diploma from UoL, not Laureate. That's the most important part, by far.

Now, it is all about the choice. There are other online courses which are just as good if not better, the prices are comparable, although UoL is certainly not the cheapest of them all. By the way, I have attended two different online universities (UoL including) and, in my opinion, UoL is allright in comparison.

There are problems, of course. Some instructors are uninterested at best. Some have very interesting grading policies. But most are outstanding scientists, with genuine interest and profound knowledge in the field. Also, It can be troublesome to file complaints against UoL, but it is not impossible either. They are usually attentive when they know how to help immediately and try to burrow their heads when they don't. That's, well, is a common human thing, I think but clearly, an area to improve.

Finally, all the UoL online courses (except the first, probably) are grave serious and quite hard to accomplish. There are many people who drop out. It requires time. You cannot pass just by watching videos, writing some garbage as your KCE and respond a couple of lines at the forum. Grading is quite rigorous. You'll get C if you make it up to requirements and it is hard to get A, you need to put up some serious effort to do that. Ultimately, the whole course makes you a better human being, because you learn to write, read and think critically on a whole new level, plus, you do indeed become an expert in your field. If you learn, of course.

Calling it a diploma mill is an overstatement if not an insult. It's just an online degree with its pros and cons and you do not get it just by attending. You need to learn by yourself, no one will push in the back like it was in the school.

Oh, nearly forgot to add that UoL is breaking up with Laureate. It will be just UoL from now.

I decided to sign up to this forum to post my response on some of the utterly unbelievable rubbish that's been said about University of Liverpool's online program on here.

I started my program in 2010 and completed in 2012, it was a LOT of work; an average of 20 hours per week of reading, writing, discussion and preparing for materials and research papers. It was not easy, and the quality of the program was very high.

Some of the instructors I had were Dr Dimitrios N Koufopoulos, Dr. Eileen Wibbeke, Dr. Laura Poluka, and others. To say that they were mere 'tutors' is an insult to their accomplishments and their capabilities, and to have this being said by anyone who did not attend the program is an absolute joke.

Furthermore, I read some ridiculous comments about not being able to use the university facilities.. the entire point of the program is its designed for people who cannot physically attend the school. However, I had a University of Liverpool student number, and I had access to their online database of journals. I also have a UoL email address and all of my work was submitted to UoL, not Laureate. The University itself checks on the quality of the work to ensure it is up to their standards. Laureate simply provided the online system to access it.

I was able to have discussions with colleagues - some of whom are now holding very senior places within their respective organizations - and professors. Some people complain about the lack of continuous follow up -- uh, this is a Masters program, you either do the work or you get lost if you aren't up to the challenge of self-dedicating 20-25 hours per week. This is not a walk in the park, and those who complain clearly were not up to the challenge.

I do not care if someone claims to be a former Laureate employee and says it was a scam; because of my Masters I was able to elevate my education within the domain of Human Resources and it has served me quite well. I, and I am sure all of my colleagues, could care less about being able to use any of the physical spaces in the university -- I did not even bother to attend the graduation as I only needed the paper which had my name, my designation and the name of the university on it.

Seriously people, do not come on here talking smack about the University's online program when you did not use it or benefit from it. The few students who actually commented on here are saying it was not easy, it required work, the research was time consuming and the degree was certainly worth it. Diploma mill it certainly is not.