Why is DETC required when we have RA granting institutions? DETC degrees are not widely accepted by RA schools and even a lot of employers. Elimination of DETC solves many problems revolving around accreditaion for DL programs and acceptancy of DETC degrees by lot of RA schools/employers. $$/time spent by students will be of some use. Are there any advantages for universities going for DETC accreitation? Why dont DETC schools apply for RA? Overall quality of programs can be increased by having only RA schools. USDE need to think about this seriously. But there should be a legitimate reason for having DETC around !
Why have any kind of US accreditation at all in its present format?!?! Why have US accreditation at all in its present guises? DETC is still systems and facilities oriented like RA institutions but less so. I don't think people just sit back and consider what it costs in terms of time, people and money to gain US accreditation (RA and DETC). This is one of the reasons, so I believe, why the Centre for Labour Market Studies at Leicester Ubniversity here in the UK dropped DETC accreditation. I can;t understand why it applied in the first place. It didn't need it! The average cost to get DETC accreditation is US$250,000 and more for RA. There is little, if any, emphasis on what students produce, reviewing assignmentas, written examinations, etc. The process puts an emphasis on 'systems' not 'outcomes', whether people have a PhD (not that this has anything whatsoever to do with the ability to teach!), physical library facilities and so I could go on. We're going the same way in the UK. Heaven forbid! DETC stands as a flame of hope that things could be done differently if only DETC had the guts to stand up and be counted and stop being a pale reflection of the RA agencies! 'telfax'
DETC has been a delightful addition to the distance education scene. Who knows how much impact their accreditation of degree-granting schools has had on the RA's opening up? And while it has been demonstrated that DETC accreditation is not as acceptable in as many places as RA, it still fills a big need. It answers the question, "Are you accredited?"
There's an issue of political philosophy at play here, that goes to the heart of what the United States is all about. In the United States, institutions usually don't exist to fulfill a master plan, imposed on the population from above. Institutions exist because they grew organically, as the result of individual initiative. That means that everything doesn't always have a precise function or a discrete place on the national organizational chart. Things overlap, they compete. DETC exists because those who created it wanted it. I think that originally it largely accredited sub-degree-level vocational programs, at a time when most established universities weren't involved in DL. Since then, it has moved into accrediting degree programs, while the regional accreditors were growing more interested in accrediting DL programs themselves. It's a constantly evolving thing. I disagree strongly. Sure. It's a definite step up for a non-accredited school. Many prominent employers such as the US federal government recognize it in hiring. DETC gets less respect in the academic world that fascinates Degreeinfo so much, but that's life. Most DETC programs are vocational rather than scholarly in nature. (And keep in mind that the scholarly world doesn't think very highly of distance education in general.) Some regional accreditors have proven resistent to accrediting 100% DL schools. They prefer a school with an established on-campus program adapting a few of those proven programs to a distance format. And DETC might see things differently than the regional accreditors and enforce subtly different requirements. A similar situation exists with the Academy of Art College: It opted to take its institutional accreditation from NASAD rather than WASC because NASAD is an art specialty accreditor, far less concerned with stuff extraneous to that mission. Many students like to enroll there in part because it lets them avoid some of those annoying math and English requirements. I'm not sure what the Department of Education could do about it. They can't just outlaw all non-regional accreditors by decree. Anybody has a right to create an accrediting association, just as they have a right to associate in other ways. If anyone desires an RA-only system such as you suggest, all they need to do is to ignore all of the accreditors except the regionals. Easy enough, problem solved. It's already within peoples' power to accomplish individually, by making appropriate choices.
Telfax: I can't understand why [the University of Leicester's Centre for Labour Market Studies] applied in the first place. It didn't need it! John: My [former] company was the US/Canada agent for CLMS through 1997. At the time, DETC accreditation was necessary to qualify for tuition payment plans available to military personnel. Leicester thought about the 1,400,000 active US military, and believed their degree in training would have interest. They even rewrote much of the syllabus to make it relevant for American students, and then applied to DETC. Have they really resigned? As of today, they are on the DETC list of currently accredited schools: http://www.detc.org/content/degree.html#ulc
