RKU has been discussed here and on aed before. They are a candidate with ACBSP. ACBSP has now achieved recognition by CHEA. If RKU achieves full accreditation, how will this effect the value of their degrees. In other words will the professional accreditation without Regional (I assume without Swiss recognition as well) be considered valuable in terms of acceptability of an RKU degree? North
It's not unusual for specialized schools to have professional accreditation without regional or other institutional accreditation. Art schools do it all the time. In this case, it would mean that RKU technically meets GAAP, I guess. One of the GAAP criteria is accreditation by a CHEA recognized accreditor. But I don't know if it would make much difference in real life, unless RKU can crack one of the listings that graduate schools or (especially) employers use. It's gotta be there when somebody looks it up.
If RKU does achieve ACBSP accreditation, wouldn't that mean that just RKU business degrees would be considered accredited? Since ACBSP is a business professional accreditor, I think their stamp of approval would be meaningless to RKU's other programs. I just checked RKU's website. I haven't looked at it in quite awhile, and it's all brand-new. Interestingly, our old friend Emir Mohammed is still listed on the faculty roster with the same wording (wordl-wide expert on distance education). I thought he had left there, but apparently not. Bruce
If I remember right, RKU has been claiming candidacy for years, but when someone actually checked, they weren't a candidate at all, but simply had "membership", which any organization, no matter how awful, could get. John Bear, I, and one or two others attempted via email to discuss this school with its proprietor. After about 4 volleys of mail, all of which were extremely evasive, the proprietor refused to answer any further questions. The school claims to operate out of Swizerland, and proudly shows their "campus" which is in actuality a building where they rent rooms by the hour. However, the *owner* of the school, who seems to conduct all of its business and correspondence, is actually in Italy. My suspicion is that the school will never actually gain ACBSP accreditation. And if it does, probably the same thing will happen that seems to be happening with GAAP: registrars are creating exceptions for countries like St. Kitts, whose governmental oversight appears to be lax or nonexistent, so even though a school *technically* meets GAAP, the GAAP status is meaningless for schools from certain jurisdictions. Rich and John could better elaborate on this, because they're the ones that actually have the communications with registrars. One other thing to keep in mind about GAAP: It's not a set of written policies, it's instead a description/observation of the actions that registrars actually follow.
I avoided adding my "two cents" on this issue because I didn't know quite how to put it. Well, it should be put just as Bill did above. One additional note: even with this accreditation, it will do little for the graduate who wishes to pursue a higher degree from a regionally accredited school. They tend to expect regional accreditation, too. And I suspect they'd want to know why this school didn't have it--or at least the foreign equivalent. It would likely go out the same back door it came through. Rich Douglas
Yes, yes, yes. And there are exceptions to everything. A business degree from an accredited RKU might be rejected, even though it meets GAAP. The same might be said of a degree from Berne or a doctorate from the CEU.... Rich Douglas
I've followed the RKU situation with great interest since I teach at an ACBSP program and I am concerned about possible negative impact from RKU's situation. RKU is an unusual institution to seek ACBSP accreditation. ACBSP's standards clearly state: "Institutions operating in the US must be accredited by their regional body. Non-U.S. institutions should have equivalent accreditation or recognition as appropriate." Unless RKU can stand up to this they aren't likely to go anywhere with ACBSP. As for their "candidacy", it can last up to 5 years under ACBSP policy. Thanks - Andy ------------------ Andy Borchers, DBA NSU (1996)
