Accreditation

In a nutshell, accreditation is a process of making sure that a school admits students, spends money and pursues educational goals and brings in faculty that meet basic quality standards. Although the U.S. Department of Education has repeatedly indicated this year (2007) that it would like to institution some kind of national accreditation process, the government is not in charge of college and university accreditation right now.

Keys to watch for:
Make sure your prospective school is accredited by a recognized body. Watch out for school websites that hedge by saying the institution is “approved,” “chartered” or “registered.” For basic “trade” training, it’s often fine to go to a school that is simply licensed by the state. But for an undergraduate degree, make sure the school is accredited (see our list of major accrediting agencies).

The U.S. Department of Education has a great search tool to help you check on the accreditation of all sorts of schools available here.

CHEA, The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, also has a comprehensive database of accredited schools.

“Distance learning accreditied life experience degrees” are a pretty dicey area. This spam e-mail I got this week is a good example:

Dear Annapurna, (not even close to my real name!)
A Genuine University Degree 1n 4-6 weeks!
Have you ever thought that the only thing stopping you from a great job
and better pay was a few letters behind you name?
Well now you can get them!
BA BSc MA MSc MBA PhD
Within 4-6 weeks!
No Study Required!
100% Verifiable!

Meow!
It’s an extreme example, but the e-mail illustrates that degrees that don’t involve any formal study have a very poor reputation with both educators and employers, and that the bad reputation is well-deserved. In one recent case, an “under cover student” for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office named Colby Nolan earned a degree from one diploma mill. Colby Nolan turned out to be the Attorney General’s pet cat! The school was soon closed down.

Fake degrees from so-called “diploma mills” have proved embarrassing for some pretty “respectable” folks. Everyone from local school teachers right on up to NASA scientists have found themselves in hot water when a background check shows they have used some type of fake degree to get their job. Unfortunately, distance education life experience degrees are among the most controversial of non-traditional degrees.

Not All Bad
It’s not that the very best schools don’t give credit for life experience. In fact, major universities have for years given some course credits to students for doing anything from starting a business to working with a charity. Some schools have even gone so far as to create full “competency-based degrees.” The key is that good schools will require rigorous proof and sometimes competency testing before awarding credits in any academic area.

A competency degree, distance experience learning, life university or other non-study based program can sound like an attractive way to get yourself some credentials quickly. The State of Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board (WHECB) offers great advice on these red flags to look out for, no matter where the school you’re looking at is located. According to WHECB, beware of any school that has two or more of these “warning signs”:

1) You can earn degrees in far less time than at a traditional school.
2) The college’s main focus is on giving credits for life experience.
3) You can get a diploma by simply paying a fee.
4) The school allows you to “buy” a point average or honors.
5) The college gives you discounts for enrolling in more than one degree program (though this may be acceptable at some vocational training schools).
6) The school’s address is a P.O. Box or a suite number.
7) The school’s website lacks the normal information a college would have on faculty, library and course requirements.
8) The college gives no information on its faculty, or simply calls them “evaluators” or “counselors.”
9) The school claims to be accredited by a non-existent organization, or by a group not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
10) The name of the college is similar to a well-known university.

Read more about Legitimate distance education life experience degrees.

In spite of the association that some “life experience” degrees have with diploma mills, the fact is that there are legitimate ways to get online college life skills credits for things you’ve done in life, beyond what you’ve studied in an official online college or university course.

The key is validation. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the truly valuable distance learning accredited life experience collage degrees will incorporate these elements:

• The university or college offering you life experience on-line degrees is accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
• Credit is given based on standardized tests or your learning level, the presentation of a portfolio, oral exams, learning from a previous credits college courses online or professional certification.
• The credit, life experience degree, degrees for work or any other credit or diploma you get for work or study experience outside the class should equal what you would have received for the same work in a college level course.

A good way to place to find out if a college or university life experience degree is legitimately accredited is to check on the U.S. Department of Education’s website.

Many students are confused about what accreditation means. That’s understandable. But it’s important to learn about how both online universities and traditional colleges get the “stamp of approval” that comes with accreditation, and to find out what level of accreditation your chosen school has before you sign your first tuition check. Some schools have only some online accredited courses or majors, but don’t have blanket accreditation for all the programs they offer.

Whether you’re pursuing an associates, undergraduate, masters or graduate degree, it’s advisable that you make sure you’re taking 100% accredited online courses. You don’t want to get an accounting degree, for example, from a school and then find that the nursing program is the only accredited degree your school offers.

Key To A Good Job
Employers won’t take your degree very seriously if it’s from a non-accredited institution. Accreditation is sometimes less important for certificate-type programs or online career training schools. But although employers now hire lots of people who gotten degrees through distance learning, they defiantly want to see that this type of degree came from an accredited online college.

The problem is that there’s no single accreditation agency that provides online colleges and universities, or even traditional campus-based schools, with any kind of national accreditation. That’s true whether you’re attending live classes or pursuing an online degree. Educators have debated for years about whether a national authority should be created to certify all the accredited colleges and universities in America in a standardized way. But right now, college accreditation is given out by several different, and disconnected groups that look at most schools based on geographic location.

See a list of good, low-cost online bachelor and associate degree programs.

Top Accrediting Groups
The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) does, however, control accreditation indirectly, by giving only a few organizations the right to certify which schools are providing accredited online college courses, classroom based courses, or full-scale degree programs

Seven major regional associations have been given this authority by the USDE, and you can use those groups as a resource when if you’re researching brick and mortar schools, a list of accredited online degree colleges, degree completion programs, continuing education or particular online courses you want to take:

• 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/

Two other organizations focus more specifically on accrediting online degree schools. They are:
1) The Distance Education & Training Council (DETC), which rates and approves college degrees online from accredited colleges in about 70 different locations. DETC is the largest accrediting authority focused entirely on online college degree programs.
2) The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools.

Students looking for very specific college online career development courses need to “connect the dots” on accreditation. In some states, you’ll be unable to get a teacher’s license, for example, if your online degree is from a school that’s not accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). State organizations that give licenses to practice law, engineering or even to teach at the higher education level (college) will also, in many cases, require that you have a degree from a school accredited by a specific professional board.

Diploma Mills & “State Schools”
Unfortunately, there are definitely a number of shady online learning providers out there, who have become more and more skilled at making themselves appear to be accredited when they’re not. A good example would be the phony “state approved” schools, which are cropping up all over the place. In many cases, being “state approved” means only that the school has a license to operate in a state, not that they have actually been approved to give an accredited bachelor online degree or even a single accredited online course.

“Diploma Mills” are fake schools that simply sell college diplomas. They’ve been around for years, but the ability to “sell” and online degree from in invisible location has, unfortunately, helped them grow and prosper. They usually offer a diploma for a lump sum without requiring you to study online or in a classroom, often using high-pressure sales tactics to get you to sign on.

A more subtle kind of diploma mill that’s become popular is the school that gives you an online degree for your “life experience,” without asking you to undertake any additional study.  Be aware that many of these schools will claim to be “nationally accredited” or “accredited worldwide.” These are both ways of saying that the schools are accredited by fake agencies. If your school is not accredited by one of the official groups noted above, look to a different school that’s giving bona fide online accredited degrees.

Do Your Homework
Accreditation can be confusing, but it’s worth taking time to learn about it. The Council for Higher Education is an agency that does oversight of accreditation agencies. You can check up on any school or accredited online courses 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

Getting a degree from an accredited school is key of you want employers to take your education seriously. Here’s how to quickly check the accreditation status of a school, before you sign up for a program.

As we’ve covered in another article, accreditation is a slightly complex issue in the U.S., with a variety of different organizations doing accreditation on a regional basis. You can get a quick overview, however, by going to the U.S. Department of Education’s “Database for Accredited Postsecondary Institutions & Programs” page. It’s possible to search this database in several ways: by entering the name of a school you’re interested in, by searching for all schools in a state or by finding schools that have been approved by a specific accreditation agency.

If you enter the name of a school into the search box and hit “search,” you may get several schools that have similar names (particularly if your school has a state in its name). Click on the name of the school you want to find out about, and you’ll get a page listing its accreditation status. You will also find specialized accreditation info in this page, where accreditation for specific academic programs will be listed. Keep in mind that some schools have different programs accredited by different agencies, or have only some of their programs accredited at all. If the school doesn’t have overall accreditation, make sure that the specific program of study you want to sign up for does.

Another good way to search for schools is by using the drop down box that searches by accreditation agencies. You can find colleges that are accredited by specialty groups like the Council on Occupational Education, the Association for Biblical Higher Education or the Distance Education Training Council (a good one if you’re looking for an online degree program). It’s a good way to turn up more narrowly-focused accredited schools you may not be aware of.

Another highly respected group that has a good site for accreditation search is the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Its accreditation database lists over 7,500 schools that give degrees or certificates, as well as 17,000 plus specific education programs that have been accredited by CHEA, the U.S. Department of Education, or both. And in case a school you’re looking at says it’s accredited by a group that doesn’t sound quite right to you, there’s a good place on CHEA’s site (in a pdf file) to check the accreditation status of the accreditation agencies themselves.