The Newly Accredited EC-Council University

This is an interesting school just recently (in today's bulletin) accredited by DEAC.

I'm always a bit fascinated when a single degree school gets accredited. It appears they only offer a Masters in Security Science (and a graduate certificate). More on the horizon? Maybe.

And no show cause orders, so the rest of the DEAC world is breathing easy. For now.

 

Nations University missed once again. Not to be mean, and I truly want to see them accredited. But is this some sort record for denials?

 

I, personally, am doubtful Nations will ever make the cut at this point. I'd like to see them have a go at accreditation, but being denied this many times tells me there may be more to the picture (possibly their finances?) than I can see from the comfort of my chair. So I just have to trust DEAC that they are doing what's best. We really don't have a choice but to trust their judgment on the matter at this point.

I think what is fascinating is that EC Council has a reputation for IT Certification. I think it would be a pretty interesting thing to see if this trend continues and a company like say, O'Reilly, earned accreditation for their programming courses. I'm not sure it would ever happen, but it would be interesting to see.

 

Agreed. I myself have resigned to the idea that it will never happen for them, and yet I still pull for them... strange, I admit. Funny thing is, Nation's rep is getting its grads into highly respected regionally accredited schools, while the same can't be said for a number of other programs already accredited by the DEAC.

EC Council has been at it for a little bit now. I wonder what it was that got them over the hump that some other schools haven't been able to (like Nations)?

I find all of this interesting. I honestly have been checking the DEAC site semi-regularly since their last meeting in January.

 

They were offering the degree (and chasing accreditation) for quite a long time. I remember it being discussed here around 2008. I have a sort-of-related certification (CISA) and checked it out from time to time, and thought they probably won't make it.

EC-Council is a legitimate certification entity, best known for their Certified Ethical Hacker program. Their more successful competitor, SANS Institute, also created a degree-granting online school, SANS Technology Institute (Cyber Security masters degree | Information Security Masters Degree). It's RA now.

It looks like ECUni degree is not quite as expensive as I thought, and may be a good add-on credential for some IT types. I'm glad they made it to accredited status. At the first glance, being accredited by DEAC will improve their status, and conversely - it's a great addition to DEAC stable.

 

Direct competition, and on all accounts a better bang for your buck, is the SANS Institute.

 

Honestly, if they want to offer a degree; then they should use a decent name. I don't think anyone wants to have some acronym and mixed in the diploma.

EC-Council ( International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants) University. I have a CEH certification with them, but I don't think a Master degree from them is more valuable comparison to other schools.

 

That was my initial thought. However, we have to consider the value of their brand prior to offering academic degrees.

Let's say, for example, Microsoft decided to start "Microsoft University" and they are going to use that as a vehicle to offer all of their current certifications as well as a Master of Science in Software Engineering. Microsoft University sounds like an in-house training program, rather than an actual university (like Hamburger University). But would you scoff at a software developer who earned his/her M.S. from Microsoft? If a company places quite a bit of stock in Microsoft certifications, wouldn't it stand to reason that they would place similar confidence in their related academic programs?

If Microsoft University decided to rename their school "The University of Software Engineering" it would require them to essentially start a new brand. They would have to educate the public that USE is Microsoft. But the difference in name would really make people question just how close to USE Microsoft actually was.

I agree that a Masters degree from EC-Council University might not be more valuable in comparison to other schools. But I'm not really talking about quality of education. Schools that offer certifications and then venture into academic degrees would hypothetically have an advantage over a random brand new for-profit school with no pedigree. EC-Council seems to already have a reputation. There are already employers who likely value their certification. So, compared to say, Aspen University or American Sentinel, their Masters may actually have a bit more punch.

Is it better than getting an RA Masters? A ranked RA Masters? I don't know. We can only speculate. But I think it is an interesting case study. Many DEAC schools rely on DEAC to lend them credibility. Here, the school has its own credibility. Perhaps schools like this would help raise the profile of DEAC. Just a thought.

 

This reminds me a bit of a situation a few years ago where UNISA and a few other non-US universities became DETC accredited. These were established universities, "accredited" by whatever legitimate authorities existed in their respective countries. Overall it seemed to lend more credibility to DETC than it did to the school. In the end UNISA dropped their DETC accreditation. I suppose it simply wasn't worth the trouble to them. The last time I checked Deakin University (Australia) was still DETC/DEAC accredited.

 

Fascinating.

I can understand why it wouldn't be worth the expense. I looked at DETC's fees about a year ago. It looks pretty expensive to bring in the evaluators. I imagine the expense of flying them to South Africa or Australia would get mighty pricey. Then, of course, you have U.S. evaluators looking at a very different system of learning.

Imagine if DEAC was known less for schools like Aspen, New Charter and Ashworth and more for schools like EC-Council, O'Reilly's, Microsoft, Apple. I think it would give rise to a new generation of "technical degrees." Could be bad news for liberal arts education but I think we've veered so far away from actually teaching technical skills it would be a logical course for our society to take.

I had an applicant once who had a B.S. in Information Technology Management. He told me he had 30 credits dedicated to his major. The rest were gen ed and other LA requirements. Of those ten courses, half were business courses and half were IT courses. But we needed someone with solid technical skills. It was an entry level Network Specialist job. Problem was, his five IT courses were all over the place (Java programming, Web Design, Intro to Networks etc.). No high level study of any one IT topic. He seemed to feel that we should teach him how to be a Network Specialist (his exact words were: "College's job was to set the foundation. Your job is to make me an expert.")