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Asbiro University

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Asbiro University (Polish: Uczelnia Asbiro) is a private higher education business school in Łódź, Poland.[note 1] Asbiro has been embroiled in a controversy after appointing the far-right pseudointellectual Edward Dutton, in 2020, as a "Professor of Evolutionary Psychology" — despite not having a psychology department nor teaching psychology courses.

History[edit]

Asbiro was founded in 2006 (it emerged out of an earlier meeting group for entrepreneurs).[1] The university offers entrepreneurship courses, bachelor's degrees in management, sales and marketing, as well as MBA postgraduate studies in business and real estate. Asbiro's lecturers include business owners and CEOs; it advertises itself as "the only school in Poland in which all of the lecturers are businessmen."[2] Asbiro has set up business trips abroad and occasionally hosts seminars for entrepreneurs in Poland.[3][4]

Accreditation[edit]

The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange recognises Asbiro University as having educational accreditation.[5] Asbiro, however, does not have accreditation to teach doctoral programmes or award PhDs. It is therefore categorised as a "Professional HEI [Higher Education Institution]" opposed to "Academic HEI".[6]

Edward Dutton controversy[edit]

Edward Dutton incorrectly wrote "Department of Psychology, Asbiro University, Poland" on one of his paper preprints. Asbiro does not have a psychology department and is a private business school.

On February 29 to March 1, 2020, Asbiro University hosted a seminar on so-called real estate psychology.[7] A guest lecturer at the conference was Edward Dutton who delivered a one hour presentation "Declining Intelligence" [8] to an audience of about a dozen.[9] Dutton's profile on Asbiro's website reveals he has never taught a course and he was only a guest lecturer for the aforementioned seminar in 2020.[10] Dutton often describes himself as a "Professor of Evolutionary Psychology" at Asbiro University, relying on his false credentials even while attacking others for relying on credentialism.[11][12][13][14] This is despite the fact Assiro does not teach undergraduate or postgraduate courses in psychology nor has a psychology department; it does not either have the accreditation required to award PhDs. On his website, Dutton claims to contribute to Asbiro University in an "occasional capacity".[15][note 2]

In response to criticism,[16][17] and PZ Myers describing him as a fraud,[18] Dutton has uploaded evidence on his website that Asbiro University appointed him as "Professor of Evolutionary Psychology" in September 2020.[19] However, considering Asbiro does not teach psychology courses and he is only a guest lecturer — the academic title is at best an honorary title.

In 2023, Dutton falsely wrote his academic affiliation was the "Department of Psychology" at Asbiro University on a co-authored paper with Dimitri van der Linden and Curtis S. Dunkel (which he submitted to Acta Psychologica).[20] The preprint later removed this after an email complaint was sent to the journal editorial board and the journals' publisher, Elsevier.[21] An investigation by Elsevier confirmed Asbiro does not have a department of psychology, however, Dutton claims he wrote this on the paper by mistake.[22]Do You Believe That?

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Asbiro University is affiliated with Ludwig von Mises ideology. Their website notes: "The activities of the Asbiro University are largely based on the views of representatives of the Austrian School of Economics."
  2. He only spoke as a guest once at a seminar.

References[edit]

  1. https://www.asbiro.pl/o-nas/
  2. https://asbirouniversity.com/
  3. https://www.asbiro.pl/wydarzenia/wyjazdy-zagraniczne/
  4. https://www.asbiro.pl/wydarzenia/seminarium/
  5. https://nawa.gov.pl/images/users/623/List-of-recognised-non-public-HEIs-2.pdf
  6. https://nawa.gov.pl/en/recognition/polish-higher-education-system/higher-education-institutions
  7. https://www.asbiro.pl/seminarium/seminarium-asbiro-29-lutego-1-marca-2020/
  8. https://www.asbiro.pl/nagrania/video/?id=3736673625
  9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuFjOIo9AXE
  10. https://www.asbiro.pl/ludzie/profil/?id=886053
  11. I am a full Professor of Evolutionary Psychology and, in your world where credentials rather than discovery or originality mean everything, I see you don't even have a PhD. by Edward Dutton (10:28 - 4. Jan. 2021) Twitter (archived from January 4, 2021).
  12. http://books.imprint.co.uk/author/?person_id=723
  13. https://radixjournal.substack.com/p/pre-order-ed-duttons-new-bookspiteful
  14. https://archive.org/details/edward-dutton-11132021
  15. Archived webpage.
  16. https://twitter.com/thebirdmaniac/status/1346170674746961920
  17. https://twitter.com/DialecticBio/status/1535636816795140097
  18. https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2021/04/23/professor-edward-dutton-is-a-fraud/
  19. https://edwarddutton.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/asbiroprof.pdf
  20. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36731177/#affiliation-3
  21. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823000239?via%3Dihub
  22. https://pasteboard.co/7XDCO8saa1yg.png