The CA-Approved Universe

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by BillDayson, May 13, 2001.

Loading...
  1. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I live in the SF Bay Area, and have been looking at the BPPVE website trying to learn more about the CA-approved degree-granting schools in my vicinity. Well, I'm amazed! I knew that there were several, but it turns out that there are probably 50 to 100 of them in the SF bay area alone. Extrapolating to the state as a whole, I'd say that that they probably outnumber the RA schools in California by 3 or 4 to one. I wasn't prepared for that.

    And when you remember that the great majority of the BPPVE universe isn't university level at all, and are the barber, bar-tending, secretarial and trade schools, it turns out that the CA-approved sector is BIG. 1000 schools or more. It's certainly a lot more than Cal Coast and Scups.

    A weird thing is that most of them have almost no profile here. I have only heard a handful of them ever mentioned in conversation, while Berkeley, SF State etc. are mentioned constantly.

    It seems that they fall into three broad classes: 1) Local satellite branches of RA schools from outside the WASC territory. 2) Non-RA schools accredited by other recognized accreditors (the NASAD art schools, ACICS business schools, AABC Bible colleges etc.), and 3) The true CA-approved schools. The latter have several sub-varieties: The religious schools, some of which seem pretty flaky and may be held to less stringent standards or something, the law schools, the business schools, the psych schools and the tech schools.

    Here's an annotated sampling of them. I think it represents about half of the pure CA-approved sector in the bay area, and doesn't touch most of the local branches of things like U. Phoenix, Nova Southeastern, City U., Goddard, Embry-Riddle and even Johns Hopkins, which are CA-approved because they aren't WASC. It also leaves off the art schools like the huge Academy of Art College (NASAD) and its numerous smaller cousins. There are two CA-approved chiropractic colleges with recognized professional accreditation and several acupuncture colleges as well.

    I should say that I have not studied most of them (I intend to) and don't know to what extent they offer distance education work. Some apparently do, most don't. I'm just including them as a sampling of what the CA-approved sector contains.

    The degrees listed are the highest level offered.

    1. SF Christian U. and Seminary- Hayward. D. Chr. Educ., D. Ch. Music., D.Min., Th.D.

    2. So. Marin Bible Inst.- Marin City. M. Biblical Studies.

    3. Silicon Valley U.- Milpitas. MS Computer Engrg., MSCS

    4. Inst. Buddhist Studies- Mountain View. MA Buddhist Studies. This one is particularly interesting. Besides offering degrees of their own, their courses are accepted by the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, a rather prestigious RA/ATS school. The GTU will grant students an RA masters with a Buddhist studies specializaton largely for work with these guys.

    5. Peninsula U. Sch. of Law- Mountain View. JD.

    6. Global Seminary- Richmond. Dr. Bible Stud., D. Chr. Ethics, D.Div.

    7. Acad. Chinese Culture ealth Sci's-Oakland. MS Trad. Chinese Medicine.

    8. Armstrong U.-Oakland. MBA. This seems to be the descendant of the formerly RA Berkeley school. They may be ACICS now.

    9. Church of God Theol. Seminary- Oakland. Master of Church Ministries.

    10. Lincoln U.- Oakland. JD, MBA. ACICS for the MBA.

    11. Oakland Col. of Law- JD.

    12. Pan Pacific U.- Oakland. D.Min.

    13. Shiloh Bible Col.- Oakland. Masters in Theological and Historical Studies.

    14. U. Creation Spirituality- Oakland. D.Min. This is the spiritual creation of Matthew Fox, a rather well known author who previously headed up the theology program at Holy Names College in Oakland (Catholic & RA) until his theological innovations met influential opposition in the Church. An interesting feature of his UCS is that if you want an RA masters you can register in the following program offered at the same address by the same faculty:

    15. Naropa Institute- Oakland. M.Lib.Arts. in Creation Spirituality. This is an extension branch of the RA Buddhist university in Colorado.

    16. Inst. Transpersonal Psychology- Palo Alto. Ph.D. These people are still on the CA-approved list although they have moved up and received regional accreditation from WASC. Offers a very interesting RA DL masters program.

    17. Western Graduate School of Psych.- Palo Alto. Ph.D. Same thing, a CA-approved school that became RA with WASC (and APA in this case).

    18. No. Calif. Graduate Univ.- San Mateo. Ph.D. Higher Education, Ph.D. Counseling Psych., Psy.D. Not far from my home and has seemed pretty credible to me. Their niche is preparing people for CA state licensing.

    19. Asia Pacific International U.- SF. DBA. I don't know what to make of this. They have branches around the Pacific.

    20. Inst. for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality- SF. Ph.D. It is easy to laugh but let's face it: It's an important subject that we are all interested in. It also begs for an interdisciplinary approach and is woefully underserved by dedicated RA programs. This IASHS certainly is serious about what they do and seems to be taken seriously in certain circles at least. And damn it, their labs have gotta be something to behold.

    21. Psychoanalytic Inst. of No. Calif.- SF. Psy.D. Another angle on a psych. degree for CA licensing.

    22. San Francisco Law School- SF. JD. These people have been around forever running their part-time evening programs, and have graduated many practicing bay area attorneys (even some judges). They are about as credible as it is possible to get and not be ABA.

    23. International Technological Univ.- Santa Clara. MS Software E., MSEE, MS Computer E., MBA Intl. Bus. This thing seems to be very Asian immigrant oriented.

    24. The Transworld Univ.- Santa Clara. MBA, M. Fin. Mgmt.

    25. Harvest Seminary- San Jose. M.Div. I believe that they are associated with:

    26. San Jose Christian College- BA. A recognized candidate for RA with WASC, whose current AABC accreditation doesn't extend to masters programs. They are located next door to Harvest Seminary.

    27. Lincoln Law School- San Jose. JD. Pretty well known, but not as credible as SF Law School in my opinion. I'm not sure what their connection is with the SF/Oakland Lincoln.

    28. Love in Action Ministry School of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment- San Jose. This colorfully named outfit offers an M.Div.

    29. Saratoga U.- San Jose. JD. A rather well known (on this group) distance law school.

    30. National Hispanic U.- San Jose. BSCS. I'm put off by their focus on serving one ethnic group, but their academics do seem reasonably credible. Only three bachelors programs which they are trying to do well. ACICS and an RA-candidate with WASC.

    OK, one conclusion that I draw from this sample is that the CA-approved sector is a mixed bag.

    Certainly the sector is interesting. It is kind of a shock to me to discover dozens of universities within easy commuting distance of my home that I had never even heard of. Of course, most probably aren't worth enrolling in, but there may be a few diamonds in the rough mixed in there.

    I had written off the CA-approved universe as a failure. But this little sample does show some successes: Schools that made RA, others on RA track, and some others that offer instruction towards RA degrees offered elsewhere. Some provide routes to state licensing in law or psychology or have some other degree of academic value.

    And yes, some are probably damn near worthless.
     
  2. Neil Hynd

    Neil Hynd New Member

    Hi Bill,

    My printing of a BPPVE Newsletter from their web site gave a quote of approx. 3,000 schools under their control with 400,000 students enrolled.

    As you say, significant numbers.

    Cheers,

    Neil

     
  3. samc79

    samc79 New Member

    Which of these schools, if any, offer degrees by DL?

    ------------------
    Sam C
    www.uci.edu
    UCI 2002
    [email protected]


    [Note: This message has been edited by tcnixon]
     
  4. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    Fascinating stuff here, Bill! Thanks!

    Maybe I can be of assistance on Brer Fox's school, here:


    I requested a flyer on this program a few months ago; it's actually low-residency (though low-residency like Pacifica rather than Union), and the impression I think I picked up from the flyer (I filed it away when I finished reading it) was that the D.Min. is offered in conjunction with the Graduate Theological Union or another regionally accredited school of some kind (accreditation was my primary question mark when I requested the materials). The curriculum for the program does seem to be very rigorous for a D.Min., though certain aspects of it look like a phys ed program (early morning "body worship" every day of each residency, etc).


    Peace,

    ------------------
    Tom Head
    www.tomhead.net
     
  5. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    Loyal readers will note that I have edited samc79's message above. This was done solely for length. Please, let's try not to quote entire messages (particularly in this case where the message was incredibly long). It can make the entire page quite long and cumbersome.

    Thanks!


    Tom Nixon
     
  6. David Yamada

    David Yamada New Member

    I checked out the BPPVE website and also was stunned by the breadth of institutions, as Bill Dayson mentioned.

    Putting aside legitimate issues of whether some pretty lousy schools have been accorded BPPVE approval, not to mention the whole Columbia Pacific situation, I like the fact that California has a structure that allows for some qualitative evaluation for all these little schools of all types. I'm a real believer in encouraging new initiatives in post-secondary education -- variety and competition are good things in this realm -- and the BPPVE scheme seems to advance that notion.
     
  7. Jonathan Liu

    Jonathan Liu Member

    PU closed its door a while ago. Its founder joined the board of its arch-rival - Lincoln Law School of San Jose. Lincoln Law School is a spin-off of the Lincoln University, formerly in SF. http://www.lincolnlawsj.edu/

    ------------------
    Jonathan Liu
    http://www.geocities.com/liu_jonathan/distance.html
     

Share This Page