California Coast Univ. takes one broadside…

...that's going to leave a mark.
OUCH!

 

This could have far reaching implications.

 

Qouted from article
"...
Despite this, CCU notes in its spring 2003 newsletter that more than two dozen federal agencies have paid for or reimbursed employees for tuition costs. According to CCU, they include the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps; the Agriculture, Defense, Commerce, Labor, Justice, Treasury and Transportation departments; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Postal Service."

Certainly NOT how I want my tax dollars used.

 

That's OK, they can use mine.

 

Interesting that CCU is often used as an example of a better unaccredited DL school, but it was the only one specified in the article.

The article also likened unaccredited schools with diploma mills. Hmmmm......

 

That is a tough one for CCU. Does anyone know how long the DETC accreditation usually takes? Is it a few weeks, months, years...?

 

I am sure that someone enrolling in CCU today has a bit different experience than someone enrolling 20 days ago. Proctoring, of some sort, is a DETC requirement but, interestingly, not an R/A requirement.

At CCU, I received credit for my maximum 2 graduate courses and received "accelerated learning Guides" in 2 more that I didn't receive credit for out of 7 DETC accredited graduate business courses.

"Accelerated learning guides" are essentially the same as "study guides" but with a few less questions.

I am not sure that everyone would agree that about 200 multiple choice exams is an appropriate method of testing knowledge at the graduate level but there is nothing obviously easy about it.

I think the whole point behind CCU was to be consumer friendly. In sales, taking away consumer resistance can lead to considerably easier sales.

A lot of people worry about proctoring - no proctoring. People worry about tuition - low monthy payments for 4 or 5 years. Worrying about dissertation - business or psych doctorate without dissertation.

Were the requirements as stringent as most R/A schools? No. Is it a serious academic program? Nothing I have seen would lead me to believe otherwise.

 

One wonders why CCU didn't (and doesn't) go through the process that could get them off the Oregon list?

They survived two long and extremely unfavorable articles, many years ago, in the New York Times and a Long Beach newspaper. Of course they changed their name not long after those two articles, but I don't think there was a causal relationship.

 

Ouch? ...puke is more like it... That's some really crappy, spin-based reporting. Too bad that CCU has to endure such ignorance and stupidity. Did you notice there isn't one reference to CCU being State Certified and Approved or any discussion of the CA system of due process and evaluation. The authors make the mistake of leading the reader to believe that RA is the only education quality assurance system, totally ignoring international methods. Also, did you notice that the article leads the reader to believe that being licensed under the BPPVE and not the CA Dept. of Ed. is somehow unusual. (it's different, but that's the way it's done in CA... for all approved schools) The authors also ignorantly rely on the ODA list as an authoritative list of diploma mills. In fact, it's not. Oregon doesn't publish such a list. Oregon explains this in their website. What the reporters are inferring is misleading and intellectually dishonest and leaves a mark on their credibility. ...however on the positive side, they did spell most of the words correctly...

 

This article is inaccurate and maligns a legal, state approved school. CCU is a real school and in June 20004 will be accredited. The ignorant will not hear and cannot change. Anyone familiar with CCU will not agree with this poor reporting. Such ignorance is almost beyond comprehension. CCU offered quality distance education at a time when accredited schools held their noses and wouldn't touch distance education. I remember CCU fondly and certainly wish them well. Not a real school, absurd.

 

Wow! I didn’t think it would take that long! Do you really think the DETC would want to wait such a long time to make sure CCU has really mended their ways and has ceased granting excessive life experience credits, allowing for unproctored open-book exams, as well as the lax verification of credentials and transcripts they accept for transfer credit?

 

"Life experience credits" are already restricted under California law and DETC regulations unlike some R/A authorities.

Unproctored open book exams aren't unknown ar R/A schools, while proctoring is required at DETC schools.

About verification of credentials, I am unsure.

So there is no misunderstanding, I am not saying that CCU's program is superior to anyone's, just that it is a serious academic program.

I can see no reason why CCU wouldn't get accreditation at the earliest opportunity.

Strange things seem to happen and most of the schools considered for DETC accreditation, this past June, had consideration deferred.

 

Although I am not exactly pro CCU, I also think this projection is a bit too pessimistic.

 

I guess all those CCU Ph.D.'s who, based on their CCU doctorates, are licensed by the state of California as psychologists are taking it broadside as well, huh?

 

In my view the article is an excellent example of the dangers of an unaccredited degree. A huge majority of the unaccredited degrees are grossly substandard. This encourages people to paint all unaccredited degrees with the same degree mill brush. Until CCU is accredited or it earns a good reputation on its own, like Bob Jones University, it will frequently be painted with that degree mill brush. Fair or unfair doesn't really matter, that is the reality of the situation.

 

Re: Re: California Coast Univ. takes one broadside…

I'll just comment on the modern press in general: Is there ANY non-biased, FACTUAL reporting any more? (It seems that EVERY news service is more like a magazine now-a-days or a big bundle of editorials. ANY modern article today would fail the journalism classes that I took.

<sigh>

 

I would agree with this statement, and sadly, perceptions change glacially slow.

 

When CCU becomes accredited the only change, of any noticeable amount, will be from those outside looking in. Their opinions will be different as will their talk. CCU will continue offering quality education, as they have all along, and my opinion will be the same. I don't need an outside group, DETC, to tell me what I like or what is good. CCU is a good school now and will be good when the DETC also agrees.

 

I don’t think so. The real changes are internal, not external. The real changes are the ones CCU had to bite the bullet and make in order to even apply for accreditation.

And as to your opinion that they will continue to offer the same quality education, that is incorrect as well. For example, they won't be offering any more doctoral programs, will they? That is just one of the major internal changes. The dropping of their very lucrative doctoral programs is no insignificant feat. My belief is that after all these years, CCU saw the handwriting on the wall, and decided that consumers were becoming more knowledgeable, better and more legitimate offerings were abundantly available, and sooner or later something was going to hit the fan.

 

I cannot see where DETC will change CCU so much in respect to academics. I believe current and past learners, for the most part, are or were older, more experienced in life, better motivated and, I would think, enrolled to sincerely and earnestly improve their level of knowledege in a particular field.

In other words, with or without proctoring, with or without accreditation, I believe the learners were not likely to cheat. My experience was that the learning material was of interest to me. The assigned text books were very current and the readings were challenging. The fact that assessment was made through open-book, non-proctored exams made little difference to me since I wanted to master the material. I apparently did O.K. since I went on to teach the area of study for a number of years at an RA school, authored or co-authored a few articles in respected journals, and started a small but busy business in developing educational programs for my peer group.

Incidentally, at the time I enrolled in CCU it might interest forum members to know that I was counseled by several professors at a neighboring RA university to avoid Union Institute. They considered it markedly inferior to any RA program of study.