Privacy regulations (in the US at least) would not permit students to post correspondence with faculty on a public forum such as Mudcat. A separate and independent website would be an obvious requirement, with appropriate security and privacy provisions.

The separate website need have no "name-connection" with Mudcat, although "faculty" could perhaps be recruited from the Mudcat membership. Faculty recruited from Mudcat could of course at "MM" (mudcat member) to their CVs, which certainly would be as impressive as most of the rest of the alphabet soup commonly seen.

As soon as Bert sets up his website, he can ask if anyone here wishes to participate in his online academy and would surely be buried in an avalanch of volunteeeeers. Once commitments are firmly made and confirmed, presumedly with payment of "binding retainers" to the proposed faculty, an application for accreditition could be submitted, preferably to a governing group with the highest academic standing such as Pago Pago, a small South African country, or other offshore location.

As participants here using the name GUEST appear to be most eager to foist their opinions share there knowledge, it is possible that they might volunteer in significant numbers, and by giving them all the task of grading the homework they'd all be too busy to come back here on a regular basis, so there might be a "fringe benefit" for Mudcat; but I see no reasonable way that the Mudcat site could support the communications required for a formal academic program of any kind.

We'll need to reconsider as soon as Bert has established a formal list of curricula and at least a preliminary faculty.

(Please PM for my requirements for retainder fee and contract stipulations.)

John