Netizens turn Sherlock Holmes over Azizan Osman's 'PhD'
Madiha Abdullah
October 8, 2016 20:50 MYT
October 8, 2016 20:50 MYT
University of Malaya (UM) on Sept 29 refuted claims that it awarded an honorary doctorate to Azizan. - Filepic
IT seems that the controversy surrounding motivational bigwig, Azizan Osman has clearly not ended.
After Richworks issued a statement aimed to clarify concerns that have been raised with regards to his academic qualifications several days ago, social media users took the opportunity to 'investigate' his latest claim.
Richworks, in the statement cited that Azizan has held a Doctor of Science (Metaphysics) from Gordon University, Bradenton, Florida in the United States since 2009.
A quick search on the web led them to the university’s web page, but no address is attached.
The logo boasted something akin to Harris University, located at 1903 60th Place E. #M5311, Bradenton, Florida, Amerika Syarikat.
A Google Map search using the address led to the location of a factory of an unnamed company.
Netizens also questioned why the address domain of Gordon University ended with “edu.us” due to the fact that all domains of the universities in the U.S. would end with “edu”.
Netizens vent their anger on the 'confusion' and 'discomfort' over the issue by doing quick searc on Google, which led them to the discovery of another institution in the U.S., bearing similar name, yet known as Gordon College, which is located at Wenham, Massachusetts.
The issue reached its highest point after a letter allegedly sent by University of Hertfordshire, citing that the institution were unable to find any award of details for Azizan. The university also verified that the award was never issued and found the information to be fraudulent.
A Twitter user then re-tweeted the letter to the University of Hertfordshire and the university replied confirming its authenticity.
At Press time, it is yet to be verified whether the Twitter account of @uniofherts belongs to the university.
A Twitter user then retweeted the letter to the University of Hertfordshire and the university replied confirming the authenticity of the letter.
University of Malaya (UM) on Sept 29 refuted claims that it awarded an honorary doctorate to Azizan.
This comes following social media postings alleging him obtained an honorary doctorate in entrepreneurship from UM, the university said in a statement on its official Facebook page.
Since the controversy surfaced of Azizan's 'PhD' issue, Astro AWANI's efforts to contact him and Richworks for comments turned futile.
According to Azizan's website (azizanosman.com), he holds the Malaysian record for hosting the largest motivational seminar in the country.
He has written 18 self-help books on investment and business, says his FB page, which has more than 800,000 followers.