US Embacy - What happened to National Accreditation :-)

http://bern.usembassy.gov/accreditation.html

What happened to National Accreditation

well they do mention DETC

Question?

Are other national accreditors irrelevant?

They don't want to confuse the foreign students or there is a problem that maybe National Accreditation is not recognized overseas?

I have written to the embassy.

Will share reply.

 

Their statement that there is one relevant national accreditor, the Distance Education and Training Council, could mean one of two things.

EITHER:

A: The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is an irrelevant national accreditor.

OR:

B: The person who wrote the above-referenced website is an ignoramus who does not know that the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is a recognized national accreditor.

Go figure.

 

On more than one occasion, people have posted statements from foreign governments stating that degrees from the USA had to be RA for them to be considered legitimate. I always assume that this has more to do with the fact that the vast majority of graduates from accredited USA schools are RA rather than there being a conscious decision that DETC is unacceptable. However, it is still likely a sticking point if one has a DETC accredited degree.

 

Or, to be fair, they would class ACICS as a "Professional" accreditor. Which is exactly what it is:

ACICS Eligibility Requirements

Of course, whether the recognized religious and theological accreditors, especially the ambitious-in-its-disciplinary-scope TRACS, should really best be called "professional" is another question. And the national recognition of the American Academy for Liberal Education, which accredits explicitly non-professional and necessarily liberal arts-oriented programs including those outside of the surfeit of regional accreditors, blows the whole binary distinction out of the water. But in their defense again, the AALE is relatively new, and such things probably do fly well pretty well beneath the radar screens of even your most conscientious generalist diplomat...

 

Actually, professional accreditors accredit only specific departments within a school, which is why the American Academy for Liberal Education is a professional accreditor, and institutional accreditors accredit entire institutions, which is why the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is an institutional accreditor. And, within institutional accreditors, there are regional accreditors, which have only a specific region, and national accreditors, which can accredit schools all over the nation, which is why the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is a national accreditor.

 

The AALE is also an institutional accreditor.

 

With the distinction that institutional (regional and national) accreditation accredits entire institutions and professional accreditation accredits individual departments within schools, there are many gray areas. AALE accredits both colleges/schools of liberal arts within universities/colleges and entire liberal arts colleges. APA accredits both psychology departments within universities and free-standing schools of psychology. So, yes, there is a certain grey area.