RA Status????

What would happen if I graduated from a school and then a couple of years later they lost their RA status? Would my degree be worthless or would my degree be counted as RA? I ask because I worry and think ahead, just in case.....

 

I am not an exper but I would say that your degree is still RA. It should not matter if a school loses accreditation, if you graduated when they were accreditied.

On the same note, if CCU get DETC, I wili not have an accreditied degree.

 

Your degree would still be RA. When Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, lost its accreditation in Dec. 2002 for financial reasons, it "sped up its spring semester so students could complete classes and graduate before it lost its accreditation."
http://www.thecentralgeorgian.com/education3.html

 

Re: Re: RA Status????

Understood. I thought so too.
However, suppose a student started a CCU bachelor or master degree program, say in Jan. 2003( remember this is the old program before DETC accreditation, if they get it) and finishes the program in Aug. 2004. CCU gets DETC accredited in June 2004. The student would have completed the old program, no proctored exams, etc.

Would the student graduate with an accredited degree?

 

Re: Re: Re: RA Status????

Yes. But given the scenario you present, it would be presumed that CCU will have made whatever changes by that time the DETC deemed necessary.

 

Re: Re: Re: RA Status????

Altenatively he/she could have attended a regionally accredited school where proctored exams are not a requirement.

 

The problem with loss of accreditation it seems to me--Rich would know a lot more about this--is that the school in a year or two would fall out of the books and references that HR folks and registrars use to determine if the school is OK. I wonder if it would not be better, ultimately, for the student for the school to simply close--which I imagine would happen in most such cases. Neither is a great scenario.

 

Neither is, yes.

Which is less desirable:

1) Earn a degree at an unaccredited school that later becomes accredited, or

2) Earn a degree at an accredited school that later loses its accreditation (or closes)?

The first means you, technically, have a degree from an unaccredited school. But people wouldn't know if they don't compare graduation/accreditation dates. (Likely.) The second means your degree is from an accredited school, but people who look up the school might not find it.

Neither is good. Given that employers tend not to look, neither probably matters very much. Many people with degrees from unaccredited school count on that.

 

Most people would look it up on the Web these days. The Regional Accreditors should list historical info on their Websites, yes? They don't do it as prominently as they should. Searching on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' search page http://www.sacscoc.org/search.asp for "Morris Brown" turns up nothing, although http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/webmemlist.pdf shows the years it was accredited.

 

Which is most preferrable:

1) Earn a degree at an unaccredited school that later becomes accredited?

Technically, the degree isn't from an accredited institution. That might be important if the date of accredited status is necessary for licensing or something.

But in my eyes at least, the subsequent award of accreditation casts a warm glow over a school's credibility even before the accreditation was granted. The implication is that if the school was of suitable standard on the day of accreditation, then it was probably very near the accreditable standard some time before that date.

That implication is only strengthened if the accreditor has some kind of formal preaccreditation status.

2) Earn a degree at an accredited school that later loses its accreditation?

This is the reverse situation.

The degree is technically from an accredited institution, which might be important for licensing purposes or something. But the school might not be listed on the accreditor's listings any longer, or if it is, the fact of the loss of accreditation will be noted.

And unfortunately, the loss of accreditation casts a cold stark light on what went before. The implication is that if the school was not accreditable on the day that its accreditation was revoked, then it probably suffered from the same kind of deficiencies much earlier. Loss of accreditation is not something that happens overnight. There are warnings, and if they aren't heeded, formal probation. Loss of accreditation is a last resort.

3) Earn a degree at an accredited school that later closes?

This is probably preferrable over the loss of accreditation. The degree is formally from an accredited institution, though the school will no longer appear in most of the listings.

But closing doesn't carry the stigma that losing accreditation does. The great majority of closures occur for financial reasons. There are lots of academically excellent small colleges out there that are struggling financially. Several die every year.

 

Since the majority of accreditation revocations are also for financial reasons, the stigma difference is illogical.