Most Military Friendly Colleges

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Mary A, Dec 9, 2008.

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  1. Mary A

    Mary A Member

    Hi Everyone - My school is among the schools listed so I wanted to state that up front. Given the interest in the activities of DETC schools and the DETC in general, I thought I would post this press release from yesterday.

    Mary A


    Washington, DC, December 8, 2008

    For Immediate Release

    DETC Institutions Account for a Fourth of the Finalists in Magazine's "Most Military Friendly Colleges" Competition

    The winners of Military Advanced Education 's 2008 Annual Top Military Friendly Colleges and Universities Honors were announced this week. For complete listing of the 20 colleges, refer to the attached file.

    DETC accredited institutions accounted for a fourth of the finalists in the competition. Five DETC institutions were cited as being among the top 20 finalists. There were 69 entrants in the competition.

    The five DETC accredited institutions that were honored as being military friendly include, in alphabetic order:

    American Military University
    American Sentinel University
    Columbia Southern University
    Grantham University
    Western Governors University

    DETC is celebrating its 82nd year of service to America. It is a nationally recognized accrediting association with 110 insitutions that are located in 7 countries.

    DETC has worked with the military training community for the past 8 decades, and two of the military branches' distance study institutes-The Marine Corps and the Coast Guard--were launched by a DETC member institution in the 1920s.

    For more information on DETC, visit www.detc.org
     
  2. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Outstanding.
     
  3. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Two of these DETC schools are also Regionally Accredited.
     
  4. jagmct1

    jagmct1 New Member

    It should come as no surprise to those of us who track what DETC has been achieving in recent years that one fourth of the Top 20 military friendly award winners are accredited by DETC.

    This is because DETC heavily emphasizes student friendly policies in its accreditation standards and policies. It is no great leap for a DETC institution to go from being student friendly to being lauded for being military friendly. I would venture that if other DETC institutions had entered the contest, half of the top twenty honorees would hail from the DETC ranks.

    To conclude that Regional Accreditation status alone and of itself was the determining influence or primary causative factor in the two dually accredited institutions winning the award would be open to serious question.



    · WGU and AMU were first accredited by DETC; in the case of AMU, they were DETC accredited a full decade before they attain HLC accreditation.

    · Both institutions had to demonstrate that they met DETC’s far more stringent—and far more specific to online learning --standards for student service

    · DETC’s culture and its standards have long been student-centric. Compare DETC’s mandated minimum refund policy, for example, to the minimum tuition refund policies-- if any such exist-- by the RAs.

    · DETC policies do not permit discrimination against other accrediting associations in transfer of credit policies, and no DETC institution refuses credits or degrees in transfer based solely on the source of the accreditation of the sending institution ( unless the association is not a nationally recognized one).

    · DETC’s Executive Director was the co-chair of a Department of Defense Task Force that developed special standards for distance learning institutions that enroll military members.

    · Only DETC, of all the US accrediting associations, incorporated the DoD distance learning standards, which have as their goal military friendly practices.

    · DETC’s Executive Director is the current Chair of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Advisory Board, and he is the first accrediting association executive to ever hold that position. He first proposed and was instrumental in SOC adopting the SOC Military Students’ Bill of Rights http://www.soc.aascu.org/socgen/BillOfRights.html

    DETC deserves credit for the leadership it has exercised in championing the rights of military students.
     
  5. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Do any of the military or former military members of this board know enough to comment on this organization?

    Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges www.soc.aascu.org
     
  6. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 13, 2008
  7. FLA Expatriate

    FLA Expatriate New Member

    Ted, during my active duty service (Army), I viewed SOC as a noble yet pragmatically lame attempt at mirroring the same concept behind the Community College of the Air Force for the other services. SOCAD (Army), SOCNAV (Navy), SOCMAR (Marines), SOCCOAST (Coast Guard), and SOCGUARD (National Guard) are the service-specific components.

    Post-service, I've since slightly altered my earlier perceptions about the SOC/SOCAD programs. In principle, SOCAD performs according to design. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) co-sponsor SOC in accordance with a contract. These organizations are hardly insignificant fish in the pond; AASCU and AACC collectively represent over 1,500 RA schools. Note the Top Level Domain for soc.aascu.org. AACSU hosts SOC.

    Under SOC, students establish what is called a "home college". This home base accepts credits from other network colleges and universities. If the student is reassigned and can't finish at the home college, then credits simply transfer back to the home college. Colleges also award credit based on service-related training and duty positions held. The 25% rule -- meaning a student must complete 25% of credits at one institution to receive a degree -- looks good on paper. Back in the pre-WWW/pre-articulation agreement eras, SOC seemed like a great idea because many soldiers frequently transferred duty assignments. Soldiers often leaving the service said a primary reason for not reenlisting was they couldn't attend school or encountered insurmountable obstacles earning degrees while on active duty. From my understanding, SOC was created to promote more seamless post-secondary structure for all services except USAF.

    What we had in the old days for Army was something I guess we could label as provincialism complemented by service-specific contracts. This arrangement still exists, although is possibly more diversified now. Over the years, colleges located by major installations enjoyed near-exclusive market share. For example, Austin Peay State University dominated military higher ed in and around Fort Campbell for 30-40 years and, with minor exceptions, still does. After 35 years, Central Texas College remains the major player on Fort Hood and in many parts of the military world for 2-year degrees. CTC is a good school. Excelsior, UMUC and Tarleton State also maintain offices on base. University of Central Texas, a private college absorbed by the Texas A&M University system, was another big player around Ft. Hood. I could ramble incessantly about Kansas State/Barton County CC and Fort Riley; University of Louisville/WKU/Etown CC and Fort Knox, and so forth. Depending on location, those fortunate enough to serve in an MOS that wasn't constantly in the field could earn degrees from really good schools.

    UMUC ruled higher military education in Europe for more than three decades until City Colleges of Chicago and CTC were awarded contracts. Troy State and University of Oklahoma entered the European military market during the early 90s with permission to teach certain degrees in theater. And, per contract, Central Texas College taught classes on European bases -- Italy and Greece, if memory serves me correct -- where City Colleges of Chicago could not, and vice versa. This has all changed now. Some colleges have moved on after losing contracts. What's great about SOC is that it satisfied a requirement so service members wouldn't lose credits when transferring duty stations. Of course, many RA schools readily accept lower-level general ed credits from other RA schools without the slightest concern. I received my first AS degree after transferring 15 credits from a non-SOC member school.

    To me, what makes SOC, SOCAD, ConAP, GoArmyEd, eArmyU, and College of the American Soldier all so confusing to a 19 year-old Army Private is the senseless overlap which, in my mind, produces not only information overload, but additionally portrays a redundant educational collaborative structure hopelessly mired in bureaucracy. US Army Recruiting Command devised ConAP as a tool in the late 1980s. I think ConAP amounts to little more than a paperwork drill for recruiters. Others may disagree.

    I've heard about issues affecting formation of a true Community College of the Air Force-clone for Army. One involves discontinuing Skill Qualification Testing (SQT). Between 1973 and 1995, SQT endured five incarnations. As I recall, Army SQT results could not be used as a discriminator for promotion purposes after a cut-off date. Moreover, centralized record keeping of previous test results appears broken. SQT tests I scored high on in the 1980s are recorded nowhere on my AARTS transcript. An additional issue -- and I'm going off rumor here -- is administrative costs. But after looking at all the other Army programs previously mentioned, where lies the savings?

    Then there are the army high-density MOSs, such as infantry, armor, and combat engineer. No existing degree programs seamlessly integrate into these combat arms career fields. Military Police or Signal Support (Commo) have relevant career degree plans. While in Iraq a couple years ago, I read in Stars and Stripes about some 4-star General directing SOC to convert all MOSs into degree plans similar to the CCAF arrangement. Still, a visit 3 years later to the SOCAD page reveals nothing but "degree alternatives" for 11-, 12-, and 19-series MOSs. Perhaps the bigger question is can colleges conceivably translate armor or infantry jobs into 2-year college degree plans like the Air Force has done for its people? Apples and oranges, no doubt. US colleges teach classes about Madonna, Star Trek, or offer degrees in Golf Management, so why not create degree tracks related to professions focused on "closing and destroying"?

    I've also heard another rumor related to hard lobbying by some colleges and SOC itself against possible Army, Navy, etc community colleges. I doubt that rumor is true, though who knows? CCAF is regionally accredited by SACS. Many colleges partner with CCAF. That's not my point. Air Force enlisted members have long had one centralized institution of higher learning directly integrated into their service branch. Since 1977, CCAF awarded over 308,000 AAS degrees, or something like 10,000 per year. Pride and espirit de corps aside, CCAF represents a convenient avenue for its members to earn recognized and accredited 2-year degrees. Why can't Army and especially Navy have the same type of internal institution? A final argument conforms to reinventing the wheel. Just keep it outsourced.

    I think a fellow poster here currently works in an Army Ed Center and can shed more light on SOC, SOCAD, and other current Army programs. I've ranted long enough. Compared to CCAF, I think SOC historically fails for lots of reasons, namely for not effectively assisting soldiers serving in Army high-density MOSs before online education attained its present accessibility level. As an individual entity, SOC at least provides unity to an otherwise fragmented system. Sorry for the long rant.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2008
  8. Delta

    Delta Active Member

    If you are taking votes, mine is for Excelsior College. Great support for military and veterans!!!
     
  9. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I think TUI is great!! They are flexible, offer a great military discount, and when I was enrolled in 2003 I was in the Reserves so I got the discount ($750 per 4 credit graduate class). I am back at TUI but not in the military and they are still giving me the discount rate!!!!! How is that for wonderful??
     
  10. dl_mba

    dl_mba Member

    Randell, you deserve the discount !!


     

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