Why not let the market decide?

Ok I admit I was wrong about some things.

I tend to find accreditation a good idea, and valid to a degree. In my view if they are truly independent and also voluntary options that's fine. That's the free market.

I'm just pointing out that even among these there is a huge biase the NA vs. RA even thought the first are accredited with the blessing of the giovenment they are stigmatized. Now true we are talking NA for trade schools and purpose degrees and looking at them I think several unaccredited foreign schools could get the SAME accreditation.

I for one think it would depend on WHY you are getting a degree for personal use as in to hold a doctorate to hold one OR for a use such as as a business credential. In my place of work two people have degrees that are unaccredited, say they are unaccredited and hold them for personal reasons. They note them on their records at work as a PhD in (subject) from (school)- unaccredited then note a web site for their informational file on what they did to get the degree. Under other education and no one seems to disrespect that at all. I think it matters if your intending to be deceptive or using the credential for a purpose its not proper for.

For example I am looking to get my PhD from Wakefield International University for a personal credential in Humanities but might use Ashworth for a NA associates in Business Management for a business credential. And take that plus my existing credits from RA schools to Excelsior for a BS in Liberal Arts with a Business Management focus. For Ashworth they will grant 30 credits in Business Credits, I can transfer 60 credits and will need to complete the rest. But the later options my company will pay for.

I see no problem myself holding a PhD in Humanities if its for a personal credential in my case I can prove via witness proctors of reading over 400 volumes of great works, 200 volumes of other texts outside that of scholarly worth and am also submitting a written work as a dissertation component and a large selection of papers I wrote for various scholarly groups I belonged to over the years. Its true this is not a traditional degree but I venture my scholarly work is no less respectful of mention. I'm a firm believer in tradition of classical education and learning via extensive study ,as far as I can tell, is the oldest one around. I see myself as much of a scholar as any other PhD in the field and intend to hold up the honor of the tradition of a Gentleman Scholar.

But I see there is a difference between my intended NA degrees and the unaccredited one I'm not daft I'll let my work speak for me. But why should I not be allowed to use the title Doctor or PhD as long as I'm honest as to the reason- is an unaccredited degree shameful? No I have to say not if you did the work and are holding the degree for a credential for non-employment purposes or state its unaccredited as a credential.

So I accept the differences and see accreditation as a viable tool- there I'm a proper scholar and a gentleman I was wrong not about everything I still hold the system is far from perfect. But that accreditation is a needed tool in this society as a feature of capitalism.

 

The flaw in your theory, at least from my perspective, is that Ph.D. has more meaning that what you imply. A Ph.D. means that the doctorate has made a significant contribution to the academic field. I argue that this cannot reasonably be done at an unaccredited school. A dissertation from an unaccredited school is like a tree falling in a forest with no one around. Generally unaccredited schools are not really part of the academic community. A significant contribution to the body of knowledge cannot be made without the academic community being made aware of the contribution. This does not generally occur with unaccredited dissertations. Unaccredited dissertations are not cataloged and available to the general academic community. The academic community will generally not trust unaccredited dissertations because they cannot be trusted when the school refuses to be monitored by an accreditation agency.