I was browsing the Internet trying to find an online mba with a reasonable price as I'm an Egyptian living in Egypt.

I have found ligsuniversity but I have not seen any discussion about it anywhere, I tried to whois their domains:
ligsuniversity.com
ligsuniversity.cz
Both are registered on the 2nd of July 2013 which is creepy.
I really liked the idea of an interactive Online MBA with $5000 total fees.

So I don't think I will trust any degree from this university, and Also I would appreciate your suggestion for my case.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Mustafa Aziz Khalifa

Personally, I wouldn't go near that school - Personally I've never heard of it, and it's not accredited by AACSB, EQUIS, or AMBA. Plus, the website is full of English mistakes, which is not a good sign.

In terms of an MBA in Egypt, you have a few options. There are a lot of online MBAs offered by reputable universities in Europe or the UK - check out IE, Warwick, Bradford, and Imperial to start with.

You might also want to check out the EMBA at the American University of Cairo - it's in a weekend-based modular format so it will work around busy schedules. There are similar programs regionally - for example, Cass has an EMBA in Dubai - classes in that program are held one weekend per month; you could fly in fairly easily.

No, this is obviously not a good university by any standards; it is explicitly not accredited by the state or country in which it is based. For this amount you could take a diploma for graduates in management from the LSE (http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/courses/diploma-graduates/lse/diploma-graduates-management) which would be better in every way. But there is no way to provide an MBA education at that price.

Do you know any online diplomas with reasonable prices ?

That programme from the LSE is under $2000. Cheaper than that is hard, but there are verified, certified courses from organisations like StraighterLine, Coursera and Edx.

Thank you very much .. If it is not much to ask .. do you know any other online granted diplomas or MBAs with affordable prices ..

MBA of management in ESLSCA 2014 is above 7000 euro !! that's 70000 LE in two years .. so you know what I mean..

In general ,what do you think of the online education .. ofcourse the standards abroad are much higher but there is not actual reaction between staff and students when it comes to online education.

Of course there are thousands of online courses, but you won't get anything better for less except a library membership.

Online education is a vast topic. I have nothing to add to the common sense.

Dear Sirs,

Allow me to take part in the discussion since the information is quite misleading and we would like to put things right.

LIGS University is a rather young university which is a fact we’re definitely not ashamed of – the first campus in Europe was founded in 2006 and the one in Honolulu, Hawaii, was established in 2012. The university changed the name in 2013 and that was also the year when the domain names changed – I don’t think there’s anything creepy about it.

The university is a non-accredited degree granting institution following the laws of the State of Hawaii – it operates perfectly legally in the sector of higher education. Moreover, LIGS University is accredited by the International Association for Distance Learning (IADL) and the American Association for Management Education and Accreditation (AAMEA) – please, visit our website here to find complete information regarding the accreditation status of LIGS University.

The vision of LIGS University is to provide high quality BBA, MBA, MSc, DBA and PhD programs in a flexible and accessible interactive online form of education. The mission of LIGS University is to make it possible to study also for adult students, who lack time and financial resources to study full-time in a traditional university.

We understand that we lack the history of renowned universities but each one of those universities was at the start at some point. We believe that the affordability, flexibility, and dedicated student support from the tutors as well as other staff of the university makes studying at LIGS University worth the investment of your money and time.

In case you preferred to learn about the experience of studying at LIGS from the people who actually know us – feel free to contact us to get in touch with our students / alumni to share their thoughts with you or engage on our Facebook page to get in touch with the students directly.

Thank you and kind regards

Dr. Pavel Makovsky
LIGS University President

Hi Pavel,

What is misleading in Ralph's information above? It all seems correct. Your "university" does not have regional, national or international accreditation. I am glad to hear that you legally follow the health and safety and taxation laws of Hawai'i. Many hairdressers and language schools do as well. I am a big fan of entrepreneurship, but your "accreditation" bodies are fully unrecognised: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unrecognized_higher_education_accreditation_organizations Given the $200 a year fee for accreditation by these bodies, I imagine the effort they put in.

As far as Google can tell me (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=International+Association+for+Distance+Learning&oq=International+Association+for+Distance+Learning+&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64l3j69i61l2&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=%22International+Association+for+Distance+Learning%22+site:.edu) the International Association for Distance Learning accredits just two schools with ,edu websites: Freedom Bible College and Seminary, and St Clements University - Somalia.

Hi Pavel,

What is misleading in Ralph's information above? It all seems correct. Your "university" does not have regional, national or international accreditation. I am glad to hear that you legally follow the health and safety and taxation laws of Hawai'i. Many hairdressers and language schools do as well. I am a big fan of entrepreneurship, but your "accreditation" bodies are fully unrecognised: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unrecognized_higher_education_accreditation_organizations Given the $200 a year fee for accreditation by these bodies, I imagine the effort they put in.

I should apologise for suggesting the LIGS follows the heath and safety laws of Hawai'i. Given that Pavel, as the university president, is in Prague it seems unlikely that the business has any property anywhere which would require health and safety checks. And I guess Haiwai'i is as far as possible from Parague.

Dear Duncan,
thank you for reply. Yes, Honolulu is very far from the Prague.
However, I am in Honolulu several times a year, as well as in other countries
Right now I'm writing from our school in Honolulu and I am here for three months.
It is obvious that without modern telecommunication devices would be impossible to offer online programs.
And because we offer online programs to students from around the world, we now have students from 22 countries and approximately 70 tutors from 10 countries and staff from several countries, managing university requires primarily communication tools, and thanks to video calls, Skype calls, emails and so on, is possible effectively manage our university.
I am glad that the online form of study is interesting and beneficial to students and we work very hard to further develop and increase the quality of our university and student satisfaction.
Greeting Pavel

Thanks for the prompt reply, LOL. So, basically you objected to Ralph's comment but can't point to anything incorrect in it.

Aloha, my reactions and explanations related to the headline of this page "Ligsuniversity.com is it real? or a fake university website?". And I explained that the LIGS University is real university and not fake and that we work very hard for our students and their success and satisfaction.
Pavel Makovsky, LIGS University

I just cannot think of any meaningful sense in which LIGS can be called a university, but a diploma mill cannot. For the students who come here, it cannot be a wise choice. If they want guided reading: coursera and OpenCourseware will be perfect. If they want an inexpensive qualification developed by rigourous academic leaders, the LSE's Diploma for Graduates is perfect; if they need an internationally-accredited MBA with minimal cost, even Amity University's online MBA has EFMD accreditation.

LIGS is not like the grand universities in its early days. Those were, at their time, the best available. If you want to build a real university, start teaching accredited courses from other schools and work your way up into research.

*real* in the sense of whether it actually exists? Probably.

But a school's veracity does not mean that it's automatically worth it to pursue one of its degrees - in fact, if a school actually has to argue whether it exists or not, I'd say it's probably not a good choice. There are so many options out there, why take chances?

Regarding LIGS university... They are not fake, they exist. THEY ARE ONLY NOT WHAT THEY PRETEND to be - THE UNIVERSITY. :-) First of all, their partnership with american university located in Hawai is one of their small cons.... Mr. Makovsky simply founded a company called LIGS university in Hawai. It is not a university, it has no building, no campus, no accreditation, it has just a name. Honestly, Mr. Makovsky?:-) How can I trust that you will teach me something useful, apart from how to swindle. Or a
m I to smart to attend your school?:-) It took me a second to figure out your partnership con from the document Mr. Makovsky placed on LIGS webpage:-)

Dear Kayale,

I’m very glad to see that you’ve examined all language versions of our website in detail. That’s great!

Regarding the “lack of campus” – we’re an online university, the courses are taught online, our staff, faculty, students are located all over the US and all over the world – why would we keep expensive premises that would just raise the tuition for our students? It wouldn’t really make sense, would it?

Regarding the “lack of accreditation” – you can find the information on our accreditation status on our website (all 3 language versions, I’m sure you’ve noticed yourself) – I believe it’s quite visible and clear in the section named “Accreditation” as well as in every information sheet to every degree program that all applicants get at the very beginning of the application process as well as in the Enrollment agreements.

LIGS University is accredited as Premier University by ASIC (Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities). We've earned the Premier Status for commendable areas of operation. You can find the full information on our website here (http://www.ligsuniversity.com/about-ligs/accreditation-and-partners/) or our listing in the directory of ASIC accredited institutions on the website of ASIC here (http://www.asicuk.com/international-directory/).

As mentioned on our website - LIGS University is acting in accordance with the Unaccredited Degree Granting Institutions law codified in Chapter 446E of the Hawaii Revised Statutes and is fully eligible to grant degrees to its graduates. LIGS University is not accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the US Secretary of Education. The national and regional accreditation is voluntary in the US and it is an option – not a must.

I would say the students are well informed about our accreditation status in course of the whole application and enrollment process. I also believe our students are smart and mature people, who can make a good and independent decision about their future based on the information they have. In case they enroll in the program in find it useless – they can cancel or terminate the enrollment and get refund based on the conditions of a refund policy (you can find it on our website on in every enrollment agreement). Fair enough, isn’t it?

Regarding me being the owner of the university – you’re right about that. What’s wrong about it?

Regarding you being too smart to attend our university – I really don’t know, but let’s give it a try:-).

Kind regards

Dr. Pavel Makovsky
LIGS University President

[Edited by Pavel Makovsky on Aug 17, 2016]

Obviously the fact that you are accredited by a body which accredits schools and does not have the power to grant degree awarding powers sounds a little similar to 'universities' in California that register under the same rules as barbers shops and 'universities' in Switzerland that register under the same rules as language schools. The idea that an unaccredited university could be a good choice for applicants on this website, who are looking for solid, respected graduate schools, is simply outlandish.