‘American universities’ not affiliated at all

American University of Malta to be the 28th American University of…

Despite the fact that the government earlier this week attempted to give the new ‘American University of Malta’ an additional sheen of respectability when a spokesperson told The Times of Malta that the institution will be run by the American University, as are other American universities in Cairo, Rome, Beirut, Paris, London, the Caribbean and Dubai, this is far from the truth. Research undertaken by this newspaper, backed up by a Maltese national and former American University of Cairo lecturer, shows that there is actually no tangible link between the world’s 27 different American universities. The American University of Malta will, in fact, be the 28th such university once it opens its doors. The original American University, founded in 1893, is located in Washington DC and has no affiliation to or academic partnerships with the world’s other American universities, and it certainly does not run any other American university. Nor will it run the American University of Malta. Anyone can conceivably call their school ‘American’ if it offers an ‘American-style’ education (which is being provided in Malta by Chicago’s DePaul University after the Jordanian investors contracted the university to draw up a curriculum), with classes taught in English and students earning degrees by accruing credits. American universities also tend to have a liberal-arts focus, broad academic majors, and a certain degree of faculty self-governance. Below is a list of the world’s America Universities, which range from the highly respectable, such as the American University of Paris, to the far less respectable American University of London, which was exposed as a fraud by the BBC’s Newsnight in 2013 for selling MBA degrees for thousands of pounds with no academic work having been required: American University (Washing

ton DC) American University of

Afghanistan American University of Antigua

College of Medicine American University of Arme

nia

American University of Asia American University of Beirut American University of Bosnia

and Herzegovina American University in Bulgaria American University in Cairo American University of the

Caribbean American University of the

Caribbean (Haiti) American University of Central

Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan American University in Dubai American University of Iraq American University in Kosovo, part of the Rochester Institute of Technology American University of Kuwait American University in London American University of London American University of Madaba American University

(Nicaragua) American University of Paris American University of Phnom

Penh American University of Puerto

Rico American University of Rome American University of Science and Technology, Beirut, Lebanon American University of Sharjah American University of Tech

nology, Byblos, Lebanon