PART I: What is Accreditation and Who Decides?
I have myself expressed some rather critical views of UOP's approach to higher education, and today thought I would take a minute to explain what accreditation is, and why it is so important that students understand it before they spend any money on a school.
This is excerpted from my new book How to Make As in eCollege, just available at www.Lulu.com this month.
Part I: What is Accreditation and Who Decides?
The Higher Education Act of 1965 is federal legislation that provides financial support for students who want to pursue an advanced degree. The act says that if the school is accredited the federal government will provide grants and loans for students to attend it. Since most students must take out loans to afford the ever-increasing cost of higher education, most will not be able to attend non-accredited institutions. Any school that wishes to attract students with federal loans and grants must be an accredited institution.
The enactment of this law lead to a number of accreditation boards throughout the country that evaluate the quality of education any institution of higher education sells to the public. These organizations are themselves monitored by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). According to CHEA, there are 19 recognized accrediting institutions in this country that review schools.
All this monitoring is intended to ensure that students who pay top dollar for expensive educations are actually getting value for their money. If you want to check out whether the schools you are planning to attend (or are attending now) are accredited, take a look at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation website found at: http://www.chea.org/public_info/index.asp
Degree Mills & Accreditation Mills
CHEA also discusses the growth of degree mills and accreditation mills, "dubious providers of educational offerings or operations and their accreditors that offer certificates and degrees that may be considered bogus." These misleading institutions will sell programs or degrees that are not recognized by employers or other universities and colleges.
The result may be that you spend a lot of time and money working toward a degree that won't get you that job promotion and that can't be transferred to any other school for continued study. Not a happy thought! Appendix A is a list of all CHEA recognized accrediting institutions. It would be worth your time to ensure that your school is accredited by one of these organizations.
But remember, accreditation is not the same as reputation. A degree from Harvard will always be worth much more than a degree from any community college although both are accredited, because of Harvard's excellent reputation for faculty, students, and educational programs. So the next thing you must investigate after assuring yourself that the school is accredited, is the reputation of the degree you will be paying to earn!
What is the School's Reputations?
Of course, we all can't have degrees from Harvard (another reason it is such a desirable degree) and that doesn't mean that all other degree-granting universities are useless. Of course not! What it means is that each institution of higher education falls on a scale of desirability. There is actually a ranking of all colleges and universities that is published each year by Newsweek that you can check out to see just where any traditional, on-ground university falls in this ranking. The higher your school ranks, the more your degree is worth to employers. The more the degree is worth to an employer, the likelier you will be hired by that employer.
How Rank is Determined This rank is based on a number of factors, including how satisfied students and graduates of the school are with their education and degrees, how employers perceive the "clout" of that degree, the level of acclaim and education of the faculty, the kinds of programs the school offers, and many other things.
Why Schools Object to Ranking Many schools object to this ranking system because, as they rightly point out, a school that is ranked #125 might very well give the same quality education as a school that is ranked at #20. But, in our world of reputations, no one can argue that if an employer sees you have a degree from Columbia they will hire you rather than the person with the degree from the local community college if all other experience is equivalent (and sometimes even if it's not).
Online School Ranking Many organizations are now beginning to rank online schools as well. A quick Internet search using the term "online school ranking" will turn up several of these. While this is a good resource for evaluating the schools you are considering applying to, none of these compare the quality of the degree you earn online to a degree you would earn in an on-ground university. Thus, it is still important to know the field in which you plan to use your degree, and to understand how the professionals in that field view your online degree.
Why Should You Care?
If you are going back to school purely for the love of learning (a perfectly respectable, even admirable, reason in my book) then you shouldn't care. I believe that in most distance education institutions a student can learn just as much or more in online classes because faculty participation and student projects are much more in-depth and frequent than in on-ground classes.
However, most of us do not have the leisure and financing to attend college merely as entertainment. Most students need their education and degree so that they can advance in their jobs or start a new career. Those students must care about accreditation and reputation. Once again, let me remind you that your degree is only as valuable as the school from which it comes. So in the spirit of a good consumer, do your research and be sure you are paying for the education you'll find most useful.
NEXT WEEK: Who are the Faculty and Why Should You Care?
About the Author
Rebecca Brown, M.A., has taught more than 3000 courses online, trains faculty for several major online universites, and acts as a mentor for students and adjuncts. Becky also tutors students in study skills and paper writing.
Ms. Brown is the author of several Short & Sweet Book titles, including HOW TO TEACH ONLINE (AND MAKE 100K A YEAR), and HOW TO MAKE As in eCOLLEGE, which can be found at http://www.ShortandSweetBooks.com