Family Med Academy

[joshuaissac]

Granting degrees is a regulated activity in the UK, so it is suspicious that this institution is claiming to offer master's degrees while only being accredited for CPD courses.

There are many healthcare CPD providers (MIMS, MedAll, Medscape, BMA), so someone who needs CPD points would be better off with a provider that does not claim to offer degrees that they are not authorised to grant.

The title is "Professional Masters in ...." What is a professional masters degree? Is there a difference between a professional master's and an academic degree in the UK? The other caveat is that one must already be a licensed physician with an MBBS or other globally recognized medical degree to enroll.

There is no regulatory difference between professional and academic master's degrees in the UK. Only between taught master's degrees and research master's degrees.

I think the prerequisites (MBBS or equivalent) are fine. It's just that they should not claim it is a degree when they do not have permission to award degrees.

[Duneranger]

They're not really for academic credit. CPD should be continuation (to keep up to date with policies and procedures) or professional development in nature.  It's very similar to CEU or PEU, here's a WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_education_unit

CEUs are paid for by most provider role jobs with a yearly allotment. I get 3000 a year to spend how I want. Why would I spend money on this when I can go to a conference in Hawaii for CEUs lol?

This is just further proof that healthcare is broken. You get 3,000 for con-ed.

I have to pay out of pocket and take an unpaid day off to recert for ACLS, PALS, or any of the rest.

Your employer sucks. I have NEVER had an employer that didn't pay for ACLS/BLS/PALS.
,
Your take is pretty myopic, the conferences are in nice places but are also pretty high quality with great speakers and hand-on procedural workshops.

Better than the dubious/low budget option offered in this thread.

Yeah totally sane take, my 3k continuing ed is totally why healthcare is broken. You are just bitter, it's a clear part of a compensation package just like a bonus or insurance when someone gets hired. Its the standard for providers.

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Granting degrees is a regulated activity in the UK, so it is suspicious that this institution is claiming to offer master's degrees while only being accredited for CPD courses.

There are many healthcare CPD providers (MIMS, MedAll, Medscape, BMA), so someone who needs CPD points would be better off with a provider that does not claim to offer degrees that they are not authorised to grant.

The title is "Professional Masters in ...." What is a professional masters degree? Is there a difference between a professional master's and an academic degree in the UK? The other caveat is that one must already be a licensed physician with an MBBS or other globally recognized medical degree to enroll.

I have a "taught masters". It's less research-focused than a "research masters" which is more or less independent study. People often do one as a stepping stone to a PhD.

There are also diplomas which are masters degrees without dissertations.

Again, another reason why this "institution" is sketchy. There are "professional" masters in the UK.

[Hotdogman1]

The purpose of the post I wrote a couple weeks ago was to show that all the accreditations the school claimed to have were misleading, not an academic accrediting body, or non existent. As far as I could tell, their website claims to have 4 accreditations from:

• great.gov.uk - a UK government website to promote and export UK company services internationally.
  
• UK Register of Learning Providers - database that confirms the existence of a education/learning company.
  
• THE CPD STANDARDS OFFICE - continued education company.
  
• International Accreditation Council - this is mentioned in their great.gov.uk page. However, it is not a recognized accreditation body of any kind or might not exist at all.
  

Regardless of whether it is legitimate or not, I would not pay anything to this academy. The current company was created ~5 months ago and the previous iteration with a very similar name (LIVERPOOL ACADEMY OF FAMILY MEDICINE LTD vs Limited) was created ~16 months ago with a current "Active — Active proposal to strike off" status. I'd honestly rather invest in meme coins. If you are still interested in risking thousands of euros/pounds/dollars, please wait a month and I'll make my own academy:

• £50 to register a limited liability company in the UK.
  
• Free to sign up with the UK Register of Learning providers.
  
• It looks like its free to register with great.gov.uk
  
• I can't find the cost for a CPD MENA membership but this article states "The (CPD Standards Office) accreditation cost ranks at £495." (https://www.tycoonstory.com/what-costs-a...editation/) Since I'm not sure and continued education is unregulated, it seems easier/cheaper/faster to make my own CPD LLC and accredit myself.
  
• I'll establish another LLC with a professional-sounding name to potentially be mistaken for an academic accreditation body. To be more competitive than Liverpool, it'll even lead to an actual website unlike that "International Accreditation Council"
  

Total cost: £150 in initial business startup cost (3 UK LLCs). 

My accreditation page: Academy of a People (In my hypothetical, I got sued by University of the People so I had to tweak the name)

• Registered with the UK Register of Learning providers
  
• Academy of a People is officially registered with the UK government on great.gov.uk.
  
• High Learning Commission (HLC) RA Accreditation tier membership awarded by Bob's CPD Office
  
• Doctor of Business Administration accredited by AAGSB (Association to Advance Global Schools of Business LTD)
  

I might even go a step further and create my own foreign transcript evaluation company, but I'm pretty sure Validential would give a positive evaluation.

I'm not saying Liverpool is a scam, but my hypothetical academy would be just as "legitimate" and misleading. Basically: accreditations are wack/nonexistent, company histories are sketch, website is misleading.

[cro-magnon]

It's funny to me that this Liverpool academy is not even in Liverpool but registered at a cheap virtual office in Covent Garden, London. I actually used to have an ltd at the exact same address back when I was doing business in the UK.

[Martyna9021]

I stumbled onto this the other day: https://www.familymedacademy.com

It's UK-based and I see that the courses are accredited by the CPD Certification Service in the UK, but there is no institutional accreditation which makes me wary of them offering Master's degrees. Seems like the PG Diploma should be the ceiling. To me, once you start offering degrees you're in a different territory. The UK government (at least from what I can tell) doesn't appear to do much if anything about these sorts of things.

Any thoughts on this program?

Yeah, I see what you mean. CPD accreditation is fine for professional development, but offering a "Master's" without proper institutional backing is sketchy. In the UK, legit degrees need to be awarded by a recognized university, and this doesn’t seem to be the case here. Looks more like a diploma-level course dressed up as something bigger. Probably useful for learning, but I’d be wary of treating it as an actual degree.

[Martyna9021]

I stumbled onto this the other day: https://www.familymedacademy.com

It's UK-based and I see that the courses are accredited by the CPD Certification Service in the UK, but there is no institutional accreditation which makes me wary of them offering Master's degrees. Seems like the PG Diploma should be the ceiling. To me, once you start offering degrees you're in a different territory. The UK government (at least from what I can tell) doesn't appear to do much if anything about these sorts of things.

Any thoughts on this program?

Yeah, I see what you mean. CPD accreditation is fine for professional development, but offering a "Master's" without proper institutional backing is sketchy. In the UK, legit degrees need to be awarded by a recognized university, and this doesn’t seem to be the case here. Looks more like a diploma-level course dressed up as something bigger. Probably useful for learning, but I’d be wary of treating it as an actual degree.

What do u Think about my comment?

[bjcheung77]

I stumbled onto this the other day: https://www.familymedacademy.com

It's UK-based and I see that the courses are accredited by the CPD Certification Service in the UK, but there is no institutional accreditation which makes me wary of them offering Master's degrees. Seems like the PG Diploma should be the ceiling. To me, once you start offering degrees you're in a different territory. The UK government (at least from what I can tell) doesn't appear to do much if anything about these sorts of things.

Any thoughts on this program?

Yeah, I see what you mean. CPD accreditation is fine for professional development, but offering a "Master's" without proper institutional backing is sketchy. In the UK, legit degrees need to be awarded by a recognized university, and this doesn’t seem to be the case here. Looks more like a diploma-level course dressed up as something bigger. Probably useful for learning, but I’d be wary of treating it as an actual degree.

What do u Think about my comment?

I'll tell you what I think about your comment, I've seen that hidden link before and banned one of your accounts, I'll remove the link and ban this account as well!