Report from the DETC Accrediting Commission

Some Highlight:

Applicant Institution Denied Initial Accreditation
Southern California University for Professional Studies, 1840 East 17th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92705

The following institutions resigned accreditation:
• American College of Prehospital Medicine, Navarre, FL (as of May 26, 2004)
• Center for Lactation Education, Chalfont, PA (as of April 1, 2004)
• Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, Ireland (as of March 31, 2004)

[Why resigned? They don't like DETC?? or seeking RA??]

Popose:
1. Proposed Policy on Doctoral Degree Programs

Institutions Seeking Initial Accreditation:
California Coast University, Santa Ana, CA
Still HERE!!

 

The proposal for doctorates is that schools must be accredited for 2 years before applying to offer doctorates. I don't like that. Most potential applicants already offer doctorates. What does having them drop the programs for 2-3 years accomplish? If their programs are equal to accredited programs, what is the problem?

Doctorates are to be considered at the January 2005 meeting.

At least 90 credits after the bachelors with no more than 15 for the dissertation. Sounds like a whack of courses.

 

Dennis,

90 semester credits after the bachelors is pretty standard. J.D. programs tend to cover that in 3 full-time years (a heavy load, to be sure). Those taking the research doctorate route (Ph.D., Ed.D., etc.) will usually do 30-36 credits for a masters and then do the remaining 60 credits within the doctoral program (including the dissertation). Any of us who have done it will agree with you--it IS a whack of courses.

I hope that the DETC settles the doctoral issue soon.

Tony Pina
Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino

 

Tony Pina,

How do you FEEL about DETC doctorates? The dissertation doctorate is not merely another degree, another taught qualification like the JD or LLM or MBA. Does DETC KNOW anything about what constitutes a "research university"?

 

Schools may resign accreditation for lots of reasons including the fear that they may be denied reaccreditation. A denial of accreditation has greater implications that resigning accreditation. Every accreditation process that I have been involved with (national and regional) asks the specific question: Has the school ever been denied accreditation?

Obviously you could put your own spin on a resignation - a denial is a denial and that means your school was found to be lacking.

Mary A

 

DETC school professors have gone to the same schools as any other professor. I think they would understand the process.

 

I'm not Tony, but I'll say that I'm surprised that proposals for DETC (and presumably ACICS etc.) doctorates haven't met with more opposition.

The Ph.D. is an anthropological rite of passage that separates the professional academic from student riff-raff. (Kind of like tribal scarification.) It confers a title, just like inheriting a faded British Barony. It denotes intellectual authority. It's the jewel in the crown of the research university.

There's a lot of status, ego and self-identity wrapped up in doctoral titles.

If DETC (and/or ACICS etc.) acquires the right to accredit doctoral programs, it might make sense to accredit these programs individually rather than merely extending the right to grant doctorates to all DETC schools automatically.

It might also make sense to import some representatives to the doctoral accreditation teams from RA universities that have experience with doctoral programs, and perhaps leave off the representatives of the locksmithing schools and the like.

 

Post on discussion board OR answer email?? Hmmmm

True, but in my experience, DETC school Presidents rarely respond to emails or phone calls. Disgraceful! Time for regime change at many DETC institutions.

 

Excellent points. Since you asked about my feelings, my friend, I must admit that I have more questions than answers at this point (which is great for me, since I have a place like Degreeinfo to ask them).

This does bring up an important issue about the role of DETC as a accreditor of distance learning programs and institutions. If DETC wanted to get into the research doctorate business, it would do well to draw upon the expertise of those institutions that are both doctoral and DL, such as Capella, Walden and Touro. However, these institutions are regionally accredited, so would being members of the Distance Education & Training Council be of any benefit to them?

As distance learning becomes more pervasive in higher education, I wonder whether the DETC could/should take a role similar to professional organizations (i.e. the APA, ABA and AACSB) in accrediting distance learning programs within colleges and universities. If a school offering doctorates at a distance goes with DETC rather than RA because it is an "easier" accreditation to get, then both doctoral educationa and distance education will suffer.

Is there a role that DETC can fulfill that regional accrediting bodies cannot? Is there a need for another layer of accreditation in higher education because of the uniqueness of distance learning? Is there a reason for, say, Walden University to consider the extra hassle and expense to be both NCA and DETC accredited? Is there still a viable role for the DETC that cannot be fulfilled by the regional accreditors that are currently accrediting both brick and mortar and virtual institutions?

I'm sure that our Degreeinfo regulars can enlighten us further.

Tony

 

Good point. However, having experience in the mentoring and supervision of dissertations is also essential. Those on DETC accrediting committees for doctoral programs would need this experience, hence my suggestion of having faculty from Capella, Walden, Touro, etc. (and maybe Nova Southeastern, U. of Nebraska-Lincoln and others) as members.

Tony

 

I think some research into the current DETC accreditation process, including a look into the visiting teams and reviewers, might lend greater clarity and focus to the process of crafting the kinds of questions that might lead to the answers many are seeking. There is a process. It is published. There are people that are willing to discuss the details of the process. Why formulate opinion and position through assumption and speculation when many of the hard facts and reasonable implications are fairly easy to obtain

 

Hello - Your response assumes that this is not already happening.

The last accreditation team that evaluated Aspen had 4 (four) Ph.D.s currently teaching at RA schools all with experience in both RA and DETC accreditation. That was 2/3rds of the team.

The staff at the DETC work very hard to have qualified people to do the accreditation visits and they draw from a variety of sources. All reviewers must be trained before they do a visit and of course they must serve on several visits before they are asked to serve as Chair. It's a good process and one that I support, as I have said more than once on this forum.

Mary A