I have a question for education people, and anyone else who might know. What is the significance of being a member in ACE, American Council on Education?
Or so they say... Membership in ACE In today’s environment of dwindling resources, increased competition, and unexpected challenges, the need for cross-sector collaboration and a unified, national voice is even more critical. The American Council on Education (ACE), the nation’s only coordinating presidential association, provides you with the opportunity to connect with colleagues from every sector of higher education and benefit from the representation, resources, and services that help you lead your campus. We invite you to join your colleagues from 1,600 colleges and universities and 200 higher education associations (Members and Associates Directory) and contribute to the national dialogue on higher education. http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Membership&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=64&ContentID=8358 .
Re: Or so they say... Well, yes. Hmmm. So, an ACE listing is a place to "hobnob" or is ACE a left wing labor union? If it is a collaboration entity how does it do that? Does ACE evaluate anything?
Re: Re: Or so they say... I'm not going to pretent to be an expert by any means but, I will share what I know. From my understanding, ACE will let institutions become a listed member for recongintion purposes. From what I can tell it serves nothing really useful. Now, ACE does review/evaluate actual coursework and content for a fee. This can be very useful for gaining credit for certain training that you have taken. ACE reviewed courses are widely accpeted for credit transfer within many institutions from what I know. There has been some confusion in the DL world (if there is such a thing) about ACE reviewed schools. Don't assume that if a school is listed with ACE that their coursework has actually been reviewed by ACE. Those are two different things. I'm sure that there are others here who are more knowledgeable than me of this topic so feel free to correct where I may be wrong. That's what I have learned from my checking up on it.
I just submitted a new HR reimbursement form for an upcoming class. Previously, the form simply said that accreditation would be checked. Now it says, as one of the steps, "Confirm with your school that it is recognized and accredited as published by the American Council on Education (ACE)." This doesn't seem quite right to me. Shouldn't they be asking for CHEA (for broad accreditation) or RA/NA (more specific)? Or does ACE also publish lists that are analogous?
From reading the ACE site it appears that RA(CHEA listing) is an automatic in for membership. I noticed a few schools not on the ACE list, though. By far, the majority of U.S. schools are ACE listed. Bing
If a course is nationally-accredited (as opposed to regionally accredited), and ACE reviewed/approved/blessed/whatever, then said course will more readily be accepted in transfer by a regionally-accredited institution than would the same course be if it were nationally-accredited but not also ACE reviewed/approved/blessed/whatever. In other words, if the regionally-accredited institution is balking at accepting a nationally-accredited course, the ACE imprimatur may be enough to tip it in. For what that's worth.
Can you ask Brenau if they can become members in ACE? My company has a similar policy for ACE but it turned out OK for me with regard to having NCU paperwork approved. Since my course specialization was in my direct field, and in need for the company, they gave me approval. From what I gather, they don't have to pay for their accreditation of courses(or eval or whatever)or something. They have to just pay for a membership. So few schools are ACE members that it seems a school almost has to be a member. I don't understand why a school would not want to be in it. Bing
I'm not worried about being disqualified, since Brenau's a very solidly RA school, and my degree was already approved under the old HR policy in which they weren't specific about accreditation. However, I'm still a bit confused. If you do a search on Brenau this list comes up... http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search&template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=10965 ACE Cooperating College Network ------------- GA Georgia Albany State University American InterContinental University Armstrong Atlantic State University Beulah Heights Bible College Brenau University So Brenau is an ACE member anyway. But the list just looks stupid... Beulah Heights Bible College is a totally different place. I think I'll send them an email about that. This list is also not analogous with all accredited colleges in Georgia... it doesn't include many major places such as Emory University, GSU, UGA and GaTech. It seems like ACE would have a different and more comprehensive list, but their website architecture is not exactly a model of clarity.
