Accredited Online Degree Courses - Make Sure Your Diploma Is Real

Many students are understandably confused about what accreditation means. Whether you’re pursuing an associates, undergraduate, masters or graduate online degree, you’ll want to take online accredited courses. Employers won't take your degree very seriously if it's from a non-accredited institution. (Accreditation is less important for certificate-type programs).

The problem is that there's no single accreditation agency that provides colleges and universities, even bricks and mortar schools, with accreditation on a national level. That's true whether your attending live classes or pursuing an online degree. Professors and administrators have debated for years about whether a national authority should be created to certify the quality of higher education. But right now, college accreditation is given out by several different, and disconnected groups.

Top Accrediting Groups
The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) does, however, approve certain organizations to be in charge of approving schools with providing online accredited college credit courses. There are seven regional associations that the USDE approves, that you can look to when you want to research a list of accredited online degree schools, or even to learn more about university accreditation for schools that are more oriented toward on-campus teaching:

• Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Higher Education
  http://www.msche.org/
• New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Commission on Institutions of Higher Learning
  http://www.neasc.org/cihe/cihe.htm
• North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, The Higher Learning Commission
  http://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org/
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
  http://www.nwccu.org/
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges
  http://www.sacscoc.org/
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges
  http://www.wascweb.org/
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities
  http://www.wascweb.org/

Do Your Homework
As you check on the accreditation status of an online degree school you’re considering, be aware that these agencies will accredit an entire school in most cases, but will only accredit particular accredited online college courses at a school in another. It’s advisable to stick with accredited distance educationaccredited distance education schools where the entire online degree program has satisfied accredition standards. The Council for Higher Education is an agency that does oversight of accreditation agencies. You can check up on any school you're considering at their website:  www.chea.org

For more research help to find a valid online degree, try our Resources for checking accreditation of online schools