Cleveland Insitute of Electronics lost DETC accreditation

Well . . . . .now that CIE lost DETC accreditation, the credits I earned prior to the loss are still accredited. Correct?

Does anyone have an understanding of school that lose accreditation?


Regards,
Michael


p.s. My opinion, as a former student; CIE-WC was an awful experience. Poor teaching and poor course materials.

 

When did that happen? I thought only their World College was no longer accredited (and is closed).

 

CIE lost DETC accreditation but didn't close it doors.
Only classes toward AAS degree were accredited, other classes that were non degree are not accredited.
CIE had policy that they allowed credit toward AAS degree for completed classes such as diploma in XYZ.

At this time they offer state approved but unaccredited AAS degrees.

CIE has very interesting courses that they sell via the book store.

I don't rule out that they may get some other form of accreditation in the future if they survive.

 

Lerner,

Thanks for the opinion. It is the majority opinion on DegreeInfo that 'state approved but unaccredited' are basically worthless and are of little use or entirely worthless.
I disagree with that thinking.

Regards,
Michael

 

I don't think so, Lerner. Check their current course listings. How many degree courses do you see - none, right?

https://www.cie-wc.edu/coursedescription.aspx

And yes - the other courses they sell via the bookstore are very interesting indeed. Bargains, some of them, for sure.

Johann

 

BTW - I don't think Ohio has a "State Approved" system for unaccredited schools, as California does. Here's the list of Independent Colleges and Universities granted permission by the State Board of Regents - and CIE/WC certainly isn't among them. Doubt you'll find much in the way of unaccredited schools here.

https://www.ohiohighered.org/board-of-regents/university-system-of-ohio/independent-colleges-and-universities

Johann

 

I know they lost it now, but where is the official information on it? I guess I missed it even though I thought I was watching (lol).

 

The US Dept. of Education's "Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs" is about as official as you can get.
The current listing for CIE says:

Cleveland Institute of Electronics
DETC
Accredited 07/24/1956
Terminated 07/18/2014

 

When I conducted my thesis research, I found two school omissions in that database. Technically, it's a third party database. The best way to check accreditation would be to look directly at DETC.

 

More info from DETC is posted here.
It would appear that DETC had numerous concerns.

But the bottom line is the same at both DETC and USDoE:
CIE's accreditation from DETC was terminated on 07/18/14.

 

DETC accreditation is renewed every 5 years. That means that CIE was up to older standard of DETC at 2009.

After some changes in DETC leadership and new requirements in DETC accreditation
standards handbook such as "instructors have to be licensed and or certified in the field they are teaching" and some other adjustments added in last three years.
In 2012/14 CIE got out of compliance with the new standards that were modified in last couple of years.

DETC standard got harder to follow, number of schools lost, resigned accreditation.
This shows that there is more demanding QA process in place.

 

I disagree, too. Partly because it's not really thinking - it's an opinion. That's something that doesn't always involve thinking. Trouble is - if you have a degree from an unaccredited school and some HR gatekeeper where you want a job holds that opinion, or an admissions person at a school where you want to study has that viewpoint - you either have a fight on your hands or you're screwed. (But you can still look elsewhere, if that's the case.)

Not that long ago, there were more reasons why a person might choose unaccredited study than there are nowadays. There are more low-cost ways to accredited study than there used to be. Yes, there are some niche schools as Steve mentioned and will likely always be -- and some schools that are attracting positive attention on their way to accreditation -- as did University of the People, also mentioned by Steve.

As for me, there are some unaccredited schools I've long liked -- but today there are fewer and fewer compelling reasons to attend them. Distance education is, thankfully, more of a buyer's market nowadays. I'm not saying such degrees are useless -- though their utility is seriously diminished in some circumstances. I'm just saying that we're kind of running out of situations in which they're a logical, viable alternative. Maybe that's why some schools that were unaccredited for nearly thirty years decided to attain accreditation - e.g. Cal. Southern, the former SCUPS.

My take -get the degree you want. The one that will take you where you want to go. If an unaccredited degree will do that for you -- and save you money or time - go for it. But make sure it will meet your anticipated needs. I think Dr. Bear said something like that -- I'm sure he's the person I learned it from.

Johann

 

Way back in 2003, there was a degreeinfo thread on noteworthy unaccredited schools in California (which was, at that time, probably the national leader in unaccredited schools). The list did not include SCUPS (which is now NA and seeking RA). Here is what has happened to those other 12 unaccredited schools since:

1. National Test Pilot School. Still no institutional accreditation, but has ABET accreditation for one of its two MS programs.
2. Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences. Now RA.
3. Soka University of America. Now RA.
4. San Francisco Law School. Now RA, as part of Alliant University.
5. Hsi Lai University. Now RA, as University of the West.
6. Expression Center for New Media. Now NA, through ACCSC, as Ex'pression College.
7. Campion College of San Francisco. Defunct.
8. Institute for Buddhist Studies. Still unaccredited, but still participates in an RA master's degree program through the Graduate Theological Union.
9. Dharma Realm Buddhist University. Still unaccredited. There are NA accreditors for Jewish and Christian schools, but not for Buddhist schools.
10. Intercultural Institute of California. Still unaccredited, but no longer offers degrees.
11. Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Still unaccredited.
12. University of Philosophical Research. Now NA through DETC.

So six of these 12 schools are now RA or NA (or 7 of 13, if you include SCUPS/Cal Southern), two are defunct or no longer offering degrees, and two have some connection to recognized accreditors. Only two seem to be still totally unaccredited, and one of those would qualify for a religious exemption.

Whether you like unaccredited schools or not, it does seem like there is no longer the number or variety that there used to be.

 

San Francisco Law School

Yep, SFLS got bought out, got RA as a result, and raised their JD tuition by 50%. The students got the "benefit" of access to student loans to pay tens of thousands more in tuition but their degrees are exactly as useful as they ever were. To take the California Bar Exam.

Grr.

 

My point is that I hadn't seen an official release statement from anyone.

 

Variety is definitely down. So many cookie-cutter business degrees... There are still a fair number of schools in California, though. Here are 150-odd BPPE approved schools - just the ones with "University" in their names. https://app.dca.ca.gov/bppe/view-voc-names.asp?schlname=university&Submit=Search

At least one more well-known "distinguished but unaccredited" school has applied for RA accreditation - the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla. The school has been a WASC candidate for a while.

I fear we've strayed far from the CIE/WC subject, so I'll let everyone get back to it, if they wish... :smile:

Johann

 

Whoops - quite a few of those BPPE-approved schools on the list are accredited - ACICS, DETC etc. So I guess numbers of unaccredited schools may well be down a quart or two. Sorry.

Johann

 

I wouldn't call them "entirely worthless," the linen paper used for the diploma must have some value. :jester:

Seriously, unaccredited degrees have extremely limited utility. In some states it is illegal to use an unaccredited/unapproved degree professionally (e.g., Oregon). In many instances this academic anomaly is a time bomb waiting to detonate.