I have several quick questions, first is anyone familiar with United States Open University and is it worth investing my time and money in? Secondly since it currently is a candidate for regional accreditation will my credits from this instituion transfer to other regionally accredited instituions. My Problem is that I just completed a degree from a nationally accredited school but not regionally accredited. I've only found a few colleges that will accept credits from there. USOU is one of the few that will transfer the credits and is reasonably priced. Also if anyone could fill me in on the significance of being a "candidate for regional accreditation" it would also be greatly appreciated, thank you
This Accreditation thing always seems to find its way to this forum. Dr. Bear's Guide can answer some of these questions. Or, you can read the article written by Rich Douglas on www.degree.net. If you look at the subject titles of the various posts, you may find a thread that answers your questions. Finally....Information on this board suggests to me that Capella University may accept your degree if it accredited by a DOE recognized body. You may want to give them a call to see if this is true. ------------------ Darren Cross BSB-Management, UoP MBA-Fontbonne College
US Open University is the U.S. campus of the UK's famous Open University (ca. 200,000 students). It's considered a shoo-in for regional accreditation, but there's always a chance that something will go awry. Some of the Open Univ. people may be just arrogant enough to piss someone off enough... Incidentally, I am delighted that this thread gives me the opportunity to mention that today a new Vice Chancellor (equivalent of university president in U.S.) took the reins of Open University -- Professor Brenda Gourley was formerly the Vice Chancellor of the University of Natal and formerly the chairperson of the South African Vice-Chancellor's Association and of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. She was the first female VC of a major South African university and now the first female head of the Open University, the largest university in the Commonwealth and one of the world's few true mega-universities.
Not directly. But that has never stopped me from talking before, and it won't now. If it were me, I would have little hesitation. I think that the OUUS is one of the most promising DL developments in the US. It seems very credible to me. And it has the advantage of its connection to the OUUK. The British Open University is well regarded in the US and the OUUS will be able to take advantage of all that good will among employers and educators. The only real problem is that it isn't fully accredited yet. But given the depth of its backing, I'd say that they are well positioned to meet any of Middle States' demands. They are about as good a bet to receive accreditation as any school there is. That's assuming that Middle States will actually consider accrediting a 100% DL school, but I'm sure OUUS ran the concept past Middle States before they even began the process. And TESC and Excelsior are already in their territory, so it isn't a new departure for them. After it achieves full accreditation, there shouldn't be any problems. Your transfer credits will still have to meet program requirements at your new school, but that's always gonna be the case. If you try to transfer them before it reaches full accreditation, it will be up to the institution that you are transferring them into. You should probably be directing this question to that school. Now you are confusing me. You already have a bachelors degree, right? So what is it that you want OUUS to do for you? Are you trying to earn a second bachelors? Are you trying to get into a masters program? And why are you contemplating transfering credits out of OUUS into another school? It means that the school has applied and the accreditor has found the administration and its plans to be credible enough that the accreditor will permit a degree of association, but still wants to see how the plans work out in practice before it finally decides. But given that the British Open University owns the OUUS, resources exist to make the plans a reality. And given that the OUUS can draw on the unparalleled DL experience back in Milton Keynes, it's hard to imagine any problems being insurmountable.
Thank You for taking the time to reply. To clear up some of the confusion, I have an associates degree from ITT technical institute, not a bachelors degree. Sorry if I posted differently. ITT is accredited by the accreditation council for independant colleges and schools. I took that to mean nationally accredited. Attending this school was a huge mistake, I wish I would have done some research first, the fact is that some smooth talking ITT recruiters had me convinced that I would get a superior education.
I taught at an ITT campus for a while and was convinced that the quality of instruction was directly related to the individual instructors rather than any particular ITT educational program. I would be interested in hearing some of your reasons for thinking you had a less than top-quality education. Was this overall or just a few courses? For the record, I am not defending ITT and I no longer either work there or know anyone who does. When I started teaching at that campus the school was brand new and the program was absolutely top notch. Then the director left and under a new director the program sank fast. That's when I left - and I was third in a long line of instructors to do so within that year after the new director arrived. As an aside, I also know of many RA traditional and DL college programs about which I would have to say the education received was less than top quality -- again all based on the caliber of instructors/professors. Leslie
Well I took the computer networking course but in the 2 years I was there I only spent 2 days in lab physically constructing a networking (using cabling, hubs etc). The windows NT instructor was rather clueless and we learned little to nothing. The Unix instructor was fresh out of college and had never had an IT job in his life and his teaching methods reflected this. I will say that my computer repair instructor and programming instructor were excellent. What was most frustrating is that the entire class complained that the courses did not reflect the brochures we were given about the courses when we were applying for ITT. I spend much more time on the subject. The only thing that operated smoothly was their billing department. We really felt like suckers. I highly recommend any considering attending a proprietary private school thoroughly investigate it first. I did not and have only myself to blame.
Hmmmmmm....hate to say it but sounds just like the school I left. I keep in touch with several of my former students (graduated and all with good jobs now) and they keep in touch with some current students. So everything I hear is third hand. One former student's wife is in the IT networking program and her remarks are similar to yours. Such a shame that the company's bottom line is $$ rather than education. ITT is a business, not a school. One has to be careful when considering private technical degree schools. Sorry to hear of your unsatisfactory experience - I was hoping our school's poor education was the exception.
