School accreditation

Generally, accreditation is the process by which a facility becomes officially certified as providing services of a reasonably good quality, so that the public can trust in the quality of its services.

In the United States, the term is most often used with reference to schools and hospitals, neither of which are directly certified by the federal government. Instead, accreditation is performed by private nonprofit bodies known as accreditors. The Council on Higher Education Accreditation overlooks these accreditors and provides guidelines as well as resources and relevant data.

In many other countries, higher education institutions must receive the permission of the government to operate, and thus accreditation is performed by the government. For example, in Australia, higher education providers generally need approval of the federal or state governments (or a non-government body to whom this power has been delegated), or an Act of Parliament, depending on the nature of the institution. This system differs in that unaccredited institutions are often illegal, and thus diploma mills are much less of a problem in these countries.

Accreditation of schools in the U.S.

Accreditation is very important for schools in countries that operate under federal systems of government, like the United States of America. Because the federal government's Department of Education currently lacks direct plenary authority to regulate schools (in contrast to the powerful Ministries of Education in many other countries), it cannot vouch for the quality of any school's degree.

Therefore, educational accreditation has traditionally been done in the U.S. by private accreditors. These are formed, funded, and operated by their members; obviously this puts them in an uneasy balance between maintaining the public's trust and not kicking out too many of their poorly performing members (who are also their source of revenue). They are not government agencies, although they often appear to have quasi-governmental powers to the extent that their blessing can make a postsecondary school's students eligible for federal student aid.

In addition, under the terms of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, the U.S. Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies that the Secretary determines to be reliable authorities as to the quality of education or training provided by the institutions of higher education and the higher education programs they accredit.

Today, there are two major types of accreditors: regional and national -- in spite of its name, the list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies includes both types.

Regional accreditors

Each regional accreditor encompasses the vast majority of public and nonprofit private schools in the region they serve. They include among their membership nearly all elementary schools, junior high schools, middle schools, high schools, community colleges, public universities, and private universities.

Because of their size, prolonged existence, and visibility, the regional accreditors have the strongest credibility of any accreditor with each other, private employers, and the federal and state governments. People graduating or earning credit from any regionally accredited school usually have little difficulty having their degrees or units recognized at other regionally accredited schools. Of course, that assumes they can meet the other school's admission requirements, if it has a selective admission policy.

Here is a list of the regional accreditors:

National accreditors

The national accreditors include a variety of religious, professional, and vocational accreditors, and get their name from their common policy of accrediting schools nationwide or even worldwide. Of the professional accreditors, the most powerful is probably the American Bar Association; its accreditation of one's law school is a prerequisite to sitting for the bar exam in nearly all states (California is the famous exception). Next would probably be the Association of American Medical Colleges for medical schools, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) for nationally accredited distant learning institutions and The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business for business schools.

There are many other national accreditors out there, which are too numerous to list here. These are usually formed by vocational or trade schools whose admission requirements and curricula are not stringent enough to qualify them for membership in the regional accreditation organizations. The result is that most regionally accredited schools will not accept transfer credit from most nationally accredited schools. A few students enroll in vocational schools every year without understanding this important distinction, and are horrified when they discover that their units are non-transferable (after they have racked up thousands of dollars in student loan debt).Hawkins, D. (2002, January 21). The unsuspecting, the uninformed and the unaccredited. Community College Week, 14, no. 12. p. 4-5.

Despite the credit transfer problem, many national accreditation organizations for vocational schools are legitimate and the certificates or degrees issued by their members are generally considered to be a bona fide prerequisite for working in certain fields.

However, every year, one sees the occasional diploma mill (where both the student and the proprietor know the student is buying fraudulent academic credentials) or scam (where the student is not aware of the fraud), where the "accreditor" is a post office box or Web page owned by the proprietor of the school.

Prospective vocational students should carefully research the credentials they will need to work in their chosen vocation, and find out which organization is considered by employers to be the legitimate accreditor for that field. By the time the student discovers their selected school and its accreditor are a scam, the proprietor may have signed up the hapless student for gigantic student loans. At that point, the student may have few legal options available. Student loans usually cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, it is extremely difficult to arrange for the forgiveness of student loan debt, and few attorneys specialize in such matters.

Religious Accreditors

While many religious schools seek regional accreditation, they also have the option of four different specialized agencies, which include Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools (AARTS), Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS), Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), and Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS). These groups specialize in accrediting theological schools including seminaries and graduate schools of theology. Thus, some diploma mills operate as religious universities to avoid laws against diploma mills.Butler, D. (n.d.) Ivory Tower Rip Offs - How Online Degree Mills Work. (Originally printed on about.com). Students should use caution when beginning their coursework at an unaccredited religious school.

Depending on the local laws some schools need accreditation to issue diplomas or be called a "seminary." For example in 2005, Tyndale Theological Seminary was fined $173,000 by the state of Texas for issuing degrees and calling itself a "seminary" without having accreditation.Associated Press. (2004, December 3). Texas Supreme Court to review seminary case.

Legal issues and considerations

United States of America

In the United States, unaccredited degrees may not be acceptable for state or federal civil service or other employment; in certain cases and circumstances; criminal penalties may even apply should such a degree be presented in lieu of a degree from an accredited institution. However, such degrees in and of themselves are illegal only in Oregon, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota, Nevada, and Washington where they are considered as misdemeanors mostly punishable by relatively small fines ^*.

The state of Washington passed a bill in March 2006 "prohibiting false or misleading college degrees." (The text is felony, a crime of fraud that could warrant five years in prison and a $10,000 fine."[http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/261687_diploma03ww.html" target="_blank" >^*

Large illegal operations of unaccredited schools or diploma mills are shut down. Such as in November 2005 a group of operators in Seattle were caught running several unaccredited schools. These people were indicted after a Secret Service investigation.Stephen Phillips A stress-free PhD? A snip at $250 The Higher Education Supplement 25 November 2005 As for other schools in 1998, Tyndale Theological Seminary was fined $173,000 for issuing degrees as a seminary without a license.^*

South Korea

It is illegal to falsely claim a degree in South Korea if it does not meet accredited approval. For example, in March of 2006 prosecutors in Seoul "broken up a crime ring selling bogus music diplomas from Russia, which helped many land university jobs and seats in orchestras."^* People who falsely used these degrees were criminally charged.

United Kingdom

In the UK it is illegal to offer a qualification that is or might seem to be UK degree unless the body offering it is on a statutory list maintained by the Department for Education and Skills. Prosecutions under the Education Reform Act are rare, as many of the bodies on the internet are based outside UK jurisdiction.

Prosecutions under other legislation do occur. In 2004 Thames Valley College in London was prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act for offering degrees from the 'University of North America', a limited liability company set up by themselves in the US with no academic staff and no premises other than a mail forwarding service.

Accreditation of certification bodies

Organizations which certify third parties against many official standards are themselves formally accredited by the standards bodies, hence they are sometimes known as "accredited certification bodies". The accreditation process ensures that their certification practices are acceptable i.e. they are competent to test and certify third parties, behave ethically, employ suitable quality assurance and other measures etc.

Examples include accredited test laboratories and certification specialists that are permited to issue official certificates of compliance with physical, chemical, forensic, quality, security or other standards.

Without accreditation, anyone would be able to issue certificates and bad practices or incompetence might discredit the certification process as a whole. The flip side, of course, is that accreditation and formal processes incur additional costs.

External links

Database for Accreditation in the United States (CHEA)
Database for Accreditation in the United States (USDE)
Database for Accreditation in the United Kingdom
Database for Accreditation in Australia
List of unacceptable/illegal schools by State of Michigan
List of unacceptable/illegal schools by Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization
Wired News
CBS News
"Questionable Degrees: Too Easy to Get" report by WOIA

References

School accreditors | Evaluation methods | Educational assessment and evaluation

Gourt Home::Gourt :: School accreditation