All this talk about Century and DETC accreditation

It's funny to watch the Century University straw-grabbers pinning their hopes on *POSSIBLE* DETC accreditation. Who in their right mind thinks this would significantly enhance the value of a CU "degree"?

Check out this quote from geteducated.com:

“The Distance Education & Training Council (DETC) is a nationally recognized accreditation agency for distance learning colleges. The DETC accredits over 70 institutions that sponsor home study programs of all types. While the DETC is a recognized accrediting agency, credits and degrees earned at DETC colleges are not yet widely accepted in transfer by regionally accredited colleges. “

http://www.geteducated.com/articles/dlfaq.htm#Q7

"Not widely accepted"? LOL! Talk about an understatement! In my view, if Century earns this "accreditation" it will raise if from a zero on a 10-scale to a 0.1. No RA university worth its salt would accept DETC credits. Leave DETC accreditation to the Sally Struthers type schools ("Become a forest ranger at home studying in your spare time"). After all the banter, all the back and forth, all the arguing, it all comes down to this simple fact: In the United States, if it's not an RA accredited school, it probably isn't worth squat. Period. End of sentence. New paragraph.

 

Thus spake jugador.

Now we know.

Well, we might as well shut down the board, since the rest of us have spent so many years without coming to the correct conclusion.

 

Ummm, perhaps the USDoE and CHEA, if indeed CU obtains DETC accreditation.

 

I am not a Century University fan and I agree that CU has to tighten a lot of screws before they get the DETC accreditation. The DETC is USDOE and CHEA recognized and there are a number of RA universities that accept credits from DETC accredited schools and this is growing.

There are a number of DETC accredited universities that have arrangements/agreements with some RA universities.

 

I would think it would significantly improve the status of the degree. Not by much--say 500%. By the way it is not so difficult to get into a (as in any one that will slightly bend the rules to take you) RA graduate program. I guarantee you I could find more than one program in more than one field that would accept me with a DETC undergrad degree--in fact, while it might take a while, I could find more than one RA school that would accept me with an unaccredited undergrad degree. Gasp! Gasp! a chink in the armor! Hundreds of thousands of people gainfully employing degrees by US government recognized accreditors that are not RA! Or what if that Century student with a DETC degree (if they get DETC) took it to the world class, also DETC accredited, UNISA? Then he could use the UNISA masters to go to........Harvard!

 

A reminder for jugador and others:

In the survey of registrars and admissions officers of regionally-accredited schools that I did about 3 years ago, asking whether they accepted various kinds of accreditation always, usually, sometimes, etc., roughly 20% said they always or almost always accepted DETC and another 20% said sometimes.

Not wonderful, but not terrible either.

Incidentally, while 100% accepted regionally accredited degrees done on campus, about 7% did not always accept regionally-accredited degrees done by distance learning. Usually, but not always.

 

There does seem to be some indication that DETC accreditation is becoming more acceptable at RA institutions. Specifically, I hear of additional RA schools that accept DETC accredited degrees and I've heard of zero RA institutions that used to accept DETC degrees but no longer accept DETC degrees. It would seem to indicate that it is becoming more acceptable.

 

CU ain't got it yet. We already talk about CCU like it is in the bag, but CCU has a much better chance than CU wouldn't you all agree?

 

Jugador,

I think you can safely gather from what has been posted here that you do not really know what you are talking about in that sense that you have significantly exaggerated or misrepresented the situation.

i) There are some RA universties that consider Nationally accredited degrees on a routine basis. The number of such schools is small, but seemingly growing.

ii) There are some RA schools that offer Masters degrees and are not Sally Struther schools. Catholic Distance University for instance looks more substantial than some RA schools I have seen. I think Global is pretty substantial as well.

iii) There are situations in which a nationally accredited school is certainly 'worth a sqaut'. I work for an organization where an accredited degree is required. NA will work for those purposes. NA masters may get you into a couple of doctoral programs I could name...etc.

Your assertions above were wrong. Now, admittedly NA has more limited utility in general.

North

 

What are you basing your statements on?

 

Century with no acreditation is not a good choice. Century with DETC is better as it lends some knowledge that there is at least a standard that they are following that is independently evaluated and will therefore be a viable option for some people. I would rather see schools such as Century get DETC accreditation that no-accreditation at all.

On a side note, I do have concern with DETC's interest in accrediting first professional doctorate degrees. When this happens I am unclear as to what utility these degrees will have in the marketplace. Academia from the RA perspective will definitely look down at it and industry may not know better.

John

 

What's interesting is the presumption in the first post of this thread that "we" (who?) are all casting about to make excuses for Century or have a vested interest in seeing Century gain NA. This is foolish, or the rant of a disgruntled employee/student at Century. Set aside the peculiar, not to say indefensible, disparagement of DETC, and what you have left is an undocumented animus against a school which simply doesn't have a very high profile.

I've wondered this about far more experienced posters, too, so this isn't picking on a newbie: why is this fellow so angry and disdainful?

 

People get burned, sometimes, and it colors their outlook?