Problem with regionally accredited U.S. universities in Europe

Hello,

following question: I have a PhD as European from an regionally accredited U.A. university.
In a few countries in Europe there are problems (recognition) with regionally accredited U.S. universities.

The university incorporated is a non-profit institution founded for religious, educational and vocational purposes offering academic awards, degrees and is authorized to operate by the State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities, under Florida Statute and is also a member of the Florida Council of Private Colleges, USA. My thesis is published worldwide and I made a postdoc too.

Is it possibly and an option, to evaluate my PhD again through another university or a government body? Any ideas? Thanks.

 

What is the name of this university? What regional accreditor is involved?

 

In most European countries foreign credentials can be evaluated by NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Centre). You should first make sure that the US university is accredited by a valid accreditor (RA or NA). You can check it's status here.

 

PhD by http://www.newcovenant.edu/ (the website is under construction - redesign).
I made my postdoc (DTh) in SA. No Problem with the first PhD. No Problems with the PhD in many European countries (i.e. GB, Italy) but in some countries there're promblems with the recognition.

 

What did you intend the initials "U.A." to mean there?

Recognition as what, exactly? By whom?

As far as general institutional accreditation goes, there isn't any other form of American accreditation that's better perceived. American university graduates find positions and work everywhere in Europe. Many Europeans earn doctorates here in the United States.

Are you talking about admission to a licensed profession? Here in the United States, admission to practice certain professions often demands completion of specific syllabi and degrees from programs with specialized accreditations. It often isn't enough to present just any regionally-accredited degree. It has to be license-qualifying. If that's your situation, then you will need to be directing your questions to the relevant licensing board wherever you are.

What's the name of the university? Are you really certain that it's regionally accredited? If the school is emphasizing its incorporation and state-authorization, that suggests that it might not be. Did you earn this doctorate by distance learning or on-campus? There aren't a great many regionally-accredited distance-learning doctoral programs and the great majority of DL doctoral programs aren't accredited.

 

>>>>What did you intend the initials "U.A." to mean there?

Sorry, I mean USA.


>>>>>Recognition as what, exactly? By whom?

Swiss, Austria und Germany are the only countries which made problems to accept degrees from this and other regional ac. USA universities.


>>>>>doctorate by distance learning or on-campus

The NCIU has many ext. centres in the world, so the diddact. education art is a blended learning system via internet, on-campus learning (ext. centers), etc.

 

I don't know where you got the information of the New Covenant International University is accredited by regional accredited agencies, and recognized by the Department of Education or CHEA. I think the institute is unaccredited. I don't believe NCIU is affiliated with any of these institutions:

Covenant College (Lookout Mountain, GA)
Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO).

 

That university is New Covenant International University? Why do you think it is regionally accredited? I can't find any sources to prove that, and I even checked the old versions of the NCIU website at www.archive.org - It seems NCIU is unaccredited, but it is of course possible that i'm wrong.

OK, that answers the question "by whom?", but not the "as what?". Do you mean it is illegal to use your degree in Austria, Germany and (parts of) Switzerland? (Some Swiss cantons do not regulate the use of degrees.) Only the use of unaccredited degrees is illegal in these countries...

mintaru

 

www.newcovenant.edu > Administrations > Authorization & Membership:

”New Covenant International Incorporated is a non-profit institution founded for religious, educational and vocational purposes offering academic awards, degrees and is authorized to operate by the State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities, under Florida Statute 246.084 (3).

New Covenant International University and Theological Seminary is also a member of the Florida Council of Private Colleges, USA. [Authorised pursuant s246-041(1)(f) F.S.]”


NCIU is reg. accredited, I have the accred.-certificates as copy from a) FCPC
http://www.fcpconline.org/2003sitepages/2003fcpccertmembers.htm ... and b) in all transcript-certificates it is noted: "New Covenant International Theological Seminary and Bible College is authorized by the Florida State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities under Statute 246.084, to issue religious academic awards and degrees.

More Infos (www.fcpc.info).

Since 2008 it is legal to use this degree in Germany as Dr. (USA/NCIU), but it is not allowed to use this degree in Austria for example. Other USA-Degree (Carnegie listed), you can use as Dr. without Country and named university since 2005.

 

SACS Member Schools Directory

The outfit known as New Covenant International University is not an accredited institution. It doesn't have a regional accreditation. Since the school is in Florida, it is in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' territory. All schools that have SACS accreditation are here: SACS Member Schools Directory (Southern Region)

It is also neither a candidate for accreditation nor an applicant.

 

It appears that NCIU is legally authorized to operate in the US State of Florida. This means that NCIU degrees will be recognized throughout the State of Florida.

Unfortunately, Florida authorization, by itself, does not guaranteed that NCIU degrees will be recognized outside of Florida. To be recognized throughout the US, a school needs to undergo a second process, called "accreditation". It appears that NCIU has not gone through this process with any recognized agency. If it was regionally accredited, it would be listed by SACS, as noted in the previous post.

Without recognized accreditation, NCIU degrees remain valid in Florida -- but they may not be considered valid in other US states, or in other countries.

 

I was pretty certain that was the Florida religious exemption, but when I tried to verify that, it turned out that things are even worse. There isn't any chapter 246 in the current Florida statutes.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/

The chapters dealing with higher education are down at the bottom, in the 1000's.

Thinking that 'Florida Statute 246.084 (3)' might be an old designation for something, I Googled it and only came up with five hits, all of them German webpages dealing with theological education.

 

Apparently Florida Statute 246.084 was originally legislated in 1997. You can still see the bill here. As the previous post speculates, it basically outlines a religious exemption for schools that only offer religious degrees.

The current Florida Statute appears to be 1005.06(f), which states that "a religious college may operate without governmental oversight," provided that annual affadavits are submitted to document compliance with the rules of the exemption.

So NCIU operates legally in Florida. However, this does not provide any assurance of educational quality, because religious schools in Florida are basically exempt from government oversight. NCIU degrees are apparently not accredited by any recognized agency, and so there is no assurance that NCIU degrees will be accepted by other US states or foreign countries.

 

In the USA one can obtain a Ph.D in Religion for as little as $100, a Doctor of Divinity for $29, or a Doctor of Biblical Studies for $69. All are perfectly legal but completely useless. I believe the religious exemption derives from the first amendment to the US Constitution.
So you can see why other countries are leery of accepting USA degrees that are not nationally or regionally accredited.

 

In Asia, so long it's not accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by its home government. It's illegal to use it...There's no such thing as State Approved or Licensed.

 

Sorry, but you do not really understand what regional accreditation is. (please see for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_accreditation)

I think you did confuse the year dates. (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,540459,00.html)

 

I'm sure you mean "accredited or its equivalent". In many European countries, for instance, there is no 'accreditation' since the equivalent of RA in the US often has a quite different name. Here in Germany it is even called "staatliche Anerkennung", in English literally: state approval. But that does not mean that state approval in Germany is comparable to state approval in the US. It is a completely different process which only accidentally has the same name. (However, there is also accreditation in Germany, but German accreditation is always so called program accreditation (which is professional accreditation, in fact, but it's not called that way).)

 

That's exactly the reason why very most countries accept only those degrees that are "generally accepted" within their country of origin. To be "perfectly legal but completely useless" is virtually never sufficient.

 

Simple, the school is not regional accredited and for this reason won' be accepted for teaching positions or to use the title doctor in Europe or any other place. The solution is not to find another credential evaluator but to do an accredited doctorate.

The fact that is legal doesn't mean anything, I once bought a doctor of metaphysics from a legal school for under $100 and don't expect to use it to teach metaphysics in Europe or anywhere else but just as a souvenir.

 

Yes, What i meant was " accredited or its equivalent".