TRACS accredited school now offering online BA degree in Business, Classics and Biblical Studies. Morthland College announces online degrees, new minors - News - The Daily American - West Frankfort, IL - West Frankfort, IL
While I may have vigorously defended the legitimacy of TRACS in another thread, this illustrates a current trend which is starting to irk me; specialty accreditors venturing into areas outside their area of specialization. This is not the only TRACS school now offering business programs (where TRACS is their sole accreditor). That aside, I think an online B.A. in Classics is pretty interesting. The course breakdown is pretty light in the religious area and it has a thesis requirement.
TRACS may be a speciality accreditor, but it's not a programmatic one. My understanding is that the two Christian institutional accreditors are not the same in that TRACS's scope is broad, whereas ABHE has the more limited scope.
It's true. They are an institutional accreditor. And clearly USDOE is OK with TRACS doing what they do. But, let's take a look at Morthland's programs for a second. Set aside the business degrees for a second. They also offer a bachelors in Biological Sciences. From their website: It also appears that their founder is a physician. The problem is that Morthland isn't regionally accredited. That's OK if you are pursuing a religious education. But when you offer a degree which is actively being marketed for individuals intending to pursue graduate or professional level studies in healthcare, I have to question the thought process there. Business is a concern. But, realistically, a TRACS accredited business degree likely offers no more or less utility than a DEAC or ACICS accredited business degree. My criticism isn't so much that TRACS is wrong to do what they do, per se. It's the same criticism I have of DEAC and ACICS. DEAC went from largely accrediting career vocational programs and high school diplomas to accrediting doctorates in computer science. Does DEAC have the necessary resources to fully evaluate the coursework for programs like this? That's just a general question I think we should ask as we look at whether a DEAC degree is equivalent, in terms of rigor and content, to an RA degree. So TRACS seems to just want to accredit institutions which identify as "Christian" and purportedly evaluates even non-Christian curriculum and degree programs. In doing so, we're seeing yet another accreditor move further away from its original intent and attempt to compete with RA schools while offering questionable utility.
I don't see schools by category, I see them as individual. So I don't see Morthland as competing against RA schools, I see it as competing against all other schools. Morthland and all other schools each have their own selling points and value propositions -- of which I would agree that regional accreditation is a very strong one.
I also look at schools individually. I think my statements against Liberty University and for Bakke Graduate University show that my opinions are more nuanced than simply "national versus regional accreditation." I encourage anyone to evaluate a school, including Morthland, on an individual basis in the context of their own goals and objectives. And while I recognize TRACS as a legitimate accrediting agency I think it perfectly valid to question TRACS approach to things. The bulk of their member institutions are seminaries and bible schools. And, even among them, they tend to have a Masters in say, Organizational Leadership, or a bachelors in business administration thrown into their course offerings. I don't know. Maybe Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools does the exact same thing with business degrees. Maybe they're good at it. But it just seems that faith based accreditors should be focusing, primarily at least, on faith based education. When they start veering into secular subjects, as I said, it kind of irks me a bit and makes me question whether they are truly doing what is best for their students or if they are just trying to cash in on trends. But it's a personal irking not a blanket condemnation nor a call to action.
I agree on all points. I definitely wasn't trying to suggest you were oversimplifying, in fact even when we don't agree I appreciate that you bring nuanced thinking to issues of academic legitimacy that many people erroneously believe are perfectly covered by rules of thumb.
I enjoy our disagreements almost as much as our agreements. What would be really interesting would be if a Morthland graduate actually was admitted to medical school using a B.S. in Biological Sciences. They appear to be a new school (the founder's LinkedIn says the school was founded in 2009). So I doubt they have a large alumni base at all. Part of me wonders if they are using TRACS as a stepping stone toward RA. But another part of me kind of hopes they work out a way for their graduates to get into medical, pharmacy, veterinary and biology grad programs. Today I criticize. But if that happened, I would have a lot of respect for them (plus it would be a huge leap for nationally accredited schools, IMHO).
