Comments needed on accreditation and transfer credit

Very interesting topic.

Specially that my younger son is getting ready to go to college / university in a year.
Not exactly on the topic I will bring couple of opinions.

I seen in Russia now state non profit universities have cap of how many students can study on state tuition. About 20% of seats in the university are now for profit payed.
So its basically subsidized and highly competitive state system with option for these who didn't qualify to attend the same university as long as they can pay higher non subsidized fees.

One thing that I like about the Russian Higher Education system is that all universities have to pass State Attestation.

Because Russian State Format Diplomas are also a license to practice a profession
Diplomas are awarded by the State Attestation Commission.
These require passing State Examinations independent of the University one attended.

Some what similar to US State Licensing Boards that provide additional layer of validation of graduates knowledge and skills.

In US for profit and non for profit graduates are also subject to state licensing examinations for protected professions.
Be it Social Workers, Dentists, Medical Doctors, Teachers, Nurses etc.

The change that can be mandated is that graduating US University will include % of finals that students take that are actually comprised by industry, state and universities
on a national level.

The results can be public knowledge, pass % can reflect on schools success level.
The Attestation will add some equal ground in addition to licensing/approval and accreditation.

 

For profit Regionally accredited school will accept transfer credit from another institution as long as they are properly accredited.

Non for Profit will be highly biased in favor of top tier research schools whit identical accreditation.
I also think there is preference between RA accreditors New England vs NCA, I think New England has a higher traditional core and more respected its also senior older among regional.

For profits are more accepting of NA credit as well.

 

I like that, too. What I don't like, however, is the scam known - I believe - as the provedennyi diplom. For a few thousand bucks to the crooked administrator of a cash-strapped school, one can get a diploma from a well-regarded school, that is genuine in all respects - except that the person named never studied for it!

It's on the right paper, someone uh - "borrowed" the right stamps and it's in an (otherwise) good school's records along with the genuine grads and will stand up to normal verification.

A horrendous blot on a fundamentally very good education system, which now suffers terribly from cash exigencies that lead to corruption.

Johann

 

Okay, I'll jump in.

No. Type of accreditation preponderates.

 

Russia is proud of it education system, specially the old universities, they contributed so match to all the sciences. The hard economic times of change in 90's did gave birth to some corrupted practices and the one Johann is mentioning.

There were number of crackdown by the government on academic corruption, one major such activity was in 2005.
Today in 2013 it is almost impossible to buy in Russia "provedennyi diplom". Putin and Mevedev routed out majority of corruption from higher education.
Its not possible to rout it out completely anywhere in the world.

Sex for grades, academic paper services and fake credential market all still exist and are a problem in many countries.

Many sites offering проводной диплом are actually Police sites.
The following service put 73 people in jail, heavt fines and probation in couple of years, including colonel from army, mayor candidate of city, high school teacher, lawyer etc.
https://diplom-vo.com/

 

The many other site are simply take your money and send noting in return.
I do hear from time to time that some sites still sell diplomas.

 

What the author of that article doesn't seem to understand is that the for-profits who give the disclaimer "credits unlikely to transfer" are accredited by ACCSC or ACICS. I have yet to see a regionally-accredited, for-profit school give this disclaimer unless it was for a program that often requires programmatic accreditation. The article had so many misconceptions, it made my head hurt. It would take a long lecture to make that person understand accreditation. By the way, University of Texas and Texas A&M accept some University of Phoenix credits.

From what I've seen, the first thing most RA colleges check for is if the transfer credits come from an RA school. Then, they might go further and look at the syllabus/course description to see if the course is equivalent to something they offer. There is an NA-accredited non-profit where I live. Only one local university will accept their credits. Honestly, I have not seen too many non-profits that never work toward RA accreditation outside of religious schools. Maybe this is common among DETC schools, but I've never looked into it.