Transfer Credit Woes - Regional vs. National Accreditation

Well, the challenges of America's multi-tiered accreditation system continues. CNN reports that regionally accredited four-year universities are rejecting transfer credits from nationally accredited institutions.

The Career College Association calls it simple snobbery. They allege that there is bias against their institutions. How does the regional accreditors respond?

"Nobody is entitled to a credential," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. "Credentials are earned, and they are earned on the basis of the autonomous decisions of the institutions who awarded them."

In the meantime, students who spend thousands of dollars then attempt to transfer to regionally accredited institutions are discovering that they essentially have to start over.

Here is a link to the full article: CNN Article on Accreditation

 

True, however, Nationally accredited students don't even have the chance of transferring credits to a regional institution (there are exceptions). They are denied right up front! However, if you are attempting to transfer regionally accredited courses, then it is evaluated for possible credential (of course, credits that apply to your specific program or possibly electives will only be accepted).

Personally, I think its a way for these schools to "discrimnate" with out getting in trouble. I don't think theres really anything that can be done about it. Schools can take/not take whatever they want. Its their right to not take credits if they feel they are not good enough for their programs. Perhaps, if ACE evaluated more NA curriculums it may help better transfer.

BR,

Bill

 

I got an idea.

NA schools should deny RA credits for transfer! That'll show em!

Yeah right...

Bill

 

Apparently, it is not even an issue of distance versus traditional schools. Several of the "tech" schools are actually residential programs. Yet, they are not given a chance. It is notable though that community colleges are considered acceptable to the RA institutions.

 

They are acceptable because they too are RA.

 

That's correct, Paul. I meant it from the perspective that many of the "tech" or "trade" schools are functionally similar to Community Colleges.

 

it is regional to regional as well

The issue of transfer of credit acceptability has been around for a long time.
In VT, Community college of VT is much cheaper than the University of Vermont. Both are state supported. However, CCV is part of the State College System and UVM is not.
For many years UVM routinely accepted only a small portion of the courses CCV taught. Both are regionally accredited.
finally there was a series of big meetings and a list of courses that CCV offers that UVM would accept for transfer was developed. However, UVM still does not routinely accept every credit earned from CCV.
If there are disputes in credit transfers among regionally accredited schools, in the same state, I would expect significant issues between regionally accredited and nationally accredited programs.
All the best!

 

In my quest for an RA bachelor's degree, many schools categorically denied credit from NA schools. (in my case, ACCSCT)

When pressed on the issue, most said that they did accept ACE recommendations.

Since ALL of the NA credits had been listed in the National Guide, the application was reconsidered.

Result: 68 out of 72 credits accepted. They would not credit Analytical Geometry and Calculus as a matter of policy, which seemed reasonable to me.

In the end, I chose to enroll in another NA school, based upon reputation. The degree will be terminal, and is highly accepted in my field, so the lack of RA was not a consideration in my case.

 

We are very lucky here in Australia. Our national Australian Qualifications Framework mandates mutual recognition of all AQF qualifications, be it in the Vocational (VET) sector or Higher Education. Admittedly some universities are still a little slow in the area, but by and large, we have a superb national framework. You yanks should come over here, crack a few coldies and check out how the professionals do it

Cheers,

George

 

This takes place between RA schools too, so the issue seems to be one of trade/technical coursework from a 2-year school being acceptable as transfer credit to a 4-year program, rather than acceptance of credits from nationally accredited schools by RA schools. For example, I know that Southwest Texas State University (RA) will not accept many Computer Science courses from Texas State Technical College (RA) or Austin Community College (RA). SWT classifies many of the courses from TSTC and ACC as "vocational," and thus nontransferrable, in many cases even when the course title and description closely matches one of their own. SWT will, however, accept most general education courses from either of those schools.

 

It generally takes place here among RA schools, not always though ....

 

All,

This is an interesting article. It's certainly worth reading.

 

Gary - You are right on with this post. I teach at a school that focuses on engineering and management. We are fairly selective in our admissions and demanding in our coursework.

While we generally take "general ed" (excuse the pun!) as transfer from lots of places, we get pretty particular on math and science courses, especially when the transferring student comes from a community college. While "Calculus" may sound like "Calculus", when you compare the coursework at an open admission community college to a selective engineering school - there is a big difference. To accept a "C" in Calc 1 from a student transferring from a community college - and then to put the student in Calc 2 at our school - is asking for disaster.

The key point here is this - RA schools are not all alike. Coursework and degree requirements do vary significantly.

Regards - Andy

 

Gary identified that sometimes 2 year, regionally accredited colleges do not have all their credits accepted at 4 year regionally accredited colleges. Good point. That does seem to come up in many other states in addtion to TX and VT.
I wonder if the 4-year college is worried about students taking cheaper credits at the 2 year institution and thereby not paying for the credits at the more expensive college?
All the best!

 

Accrediting associations are associations. They are composed of colleges and universities that agree to accept one another's credits in transfer, assuming that those credits meet curriculum requirements etc. In order to ensure that all the members of the association are on the same page, they created a quality assurance process that operates by peer-review.

So to insist that member schools are also obligated to accept credit from schools that decline to join the association and refuse to subject themselves to the association's standards, is to defeat the entire purpose of accreditation.

If any fault can be found here, it's with the "career colleges" that advertise heavily, promote themselves as "fully accredited", but never disclose to prospective students that the credits they grant may not transfer to 90+ percent of American colleges and universities.

 

Re: Re: Transfer Credit Woes - Regional vs. National Accreditation

This is called "hitting the nail on the head."

 

Actually, I think that our regional accreditation produces pretty much the same result.

What makes it look different is that non-RA institutions and even non-RA accreditors are more common here than non-AQF institutions there.

So we inevitably see the non-RA schools crying "discrimination", and suggesting that the consequences of their conscious choice not to enter into the RA framework are somehow the regional accreditors' fault.

But whatever the truth is about that, a trip to Australia does sound like a good idea.

 

Perhaps things are different here in California, because I really haven't seen that.

Community college classes almost always transfer. If there are problems, it's because the credits may not count towards major requirements. But that isn't because the credits originally come from a community college, but because of the details of the particular class. But pretty much anything that you take at community college will give you elective credit of some kind.

As for class quality, I've taken courses at top-tier schools and community colleges, and have to say that some of the best courses that I have ever taken were at the community college level. (Some of the worst too, but that's another story.) The point is that teaching quality isn't really a function of 2-year vs. 4-year, in my experience.

Perhaps California is atypical (that's rhetorical, since I don't think that it is), but here community college classes operate at pretty much the same level as 4-year college classes. That fact is reflected in the extensive articulation agreements between the state's community colleges and UC and the CSU. These agreements are pre-arrangements that specify that particular community college classes are accepted as equivalent to particular requirements at the 4-year school. You can indeed take calculus at a community college and transfer it into a physics major at UC Berkeley.

The community college uses similar textbooks. It requires its students to master similar problem sets. Quality of instruction is often as good or better. The differences are that the community college often has weaker students and a much higher dropout rate. Class sections that are standing room only at the beginning of the semester are only 25% filled at the end.

I think (and UC thinks) that students who pass these classes deserve credit.

 

Agrosy notes on its web page that it will consider schools accredited by select National Accrediting bodies (what this means is not defined).

I suspect the territorial issue in the cases you mention has something to do with it. The local University was locked in battle for a while with the local Community college because the University routinely refused to accept their credit (even though both are RA). It has a lot to do with the University's resentment of students starting at Community for credits because it was cheaper than starting at the University. Both were competing for the student dollar.

North

 

Your points are well taken, Bill. I live in the Bay Area and I've noticed, as you pointed out, that community college students often have no difficulty transferring into the UC nor the CSU system. However, something interesting occurred recently. Students at CSU Hayward began complaining that when they attempted to transfer to other CSU schools (San Jose and Sacramento were two cited), they encountered difficulties. That was a bit confusing to me. I was under the impression that credits were easily transferrable to sister institutions.

On another note, do you have any idea what led to the development of two university systems in California? We seem to have a two-tiered system where the UC schools offer doctoral programs whereas the CSU schools offer only masters.