Florida Metropolitan University in the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal carried an article today that examined "for-profit" schools such as FMU. FMU is one of the nationally accredited schools that is being sued by former students who spent large sums of money to find that their degrees or accumulated credits were not recognized elsewhere. With this background the article profiles pending legislation to force greater accountability on traditional institutions in regards to their rejection of non-traditional credits. Here's a snippet...

"With growing concern over the rejection of their students' work, the for-profit industry is pushing a bill that would make it more difficult for traditional colleges to reject course credits and degrees from their schools. It is now pending before Congress as part of broader higher-education legislation.

The Republican leadership and Bush administration support the legislation, including the credit-transfer provision and others that would provide more financial-aid dollars to these institutions. Mr. Bush has generally supported private initiatives in education, such as government-funded vouchers that grade-school children can use to attend private schools. Supporters say the for-profit colleges are providing a valuable service to students, many of them low-income, who need skills and training they aren't getting from traditional colleges.

The Senate is considering similar legislation, which is expected to pass by early next year. Traditional state and private colleges could still reject credits and degrees from for-profits, but they would have to provide more detailed reasons for rejecting the credits."

-from 9/29/05, The Wall Street Journal
Battle Over Academic Standards Weighs On For-Profit Colleges

Eric