European Theological Seminary and College of the Bible International
The European Theological Seminary and College of the Bible International is an unaccredited fundamentalist Christian college based in Northern Ireland and Birmingham, England. It has no buildings and is operated from the home of its founder and president, Gordon Beck. Foundation ETSCBI was founded in 1993 by Gordon Beck, a Scotsman who has lived in Northern Ireland for most of his life. Mr Beck describes himself as "Professor Dr", even though he has never taught at any established college or seminary and his theological education is entirely self-taught. He claims to have earned a doctor of philosophy degree from Trinity College and Seminary, a Christian college in Newburgh, Indiana. Mr Beck is named as the college's President, Founder and Convener of the Board of Examiners. UK government investigation In May 2007, following complaints about the quality of ETSCBI degrees and a BBC investigation, Trading Standards, a division of the UK government's Department of Trade and Industry, announced that it had initiated an investigation into the quality of the degrees offered by the college. Upon the announcement of the government investigation, the college's website (https://web.archive.org/web/20061213145849/http://www.europeantheologicalacademie.co.uk/) ceased to be accessible. BBC investigation On 27 May 2007, BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Sequence programme