DEAC has a few newly accredited schools, which is always nice to see. https://www.deac.org/UploadedDocuments/Public-Notices/Accreditation-Actions/022718_AC_meeting_report.pdf One school has a teach-out that was a little surprising: California National University for Advanced Studies This mention was odd. Not sure what this really means, Why would a school do this? California Coast University, 925 North Spurgeon Street, Santa Ana, CA, is now owned by California Coast University Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Regards, Michael
The University of Arkansas System eVersity has been accredited by DEAC. (I had no doubts that it would.) To my knowledge, that makes it the first American state university with DEAC accreditation. (This school's primary accreditation at this point.)
The very first school on the newly accredited list is American National University. They are ACICS refugees, and kudos for them for making it. DEAC is a step up from ACICS even on a good day. I'm curious though: the school does not appear to be predominantly distance learning. Looks like it is a combination career college and an I-20-issuing school for international students (you can't get an I20 for a program that's less than 75% in-person, full time one). How does it fit under DEAC? Doral College is interesting too. It's a dual enrollment program for high achieving high school students at several schools (that appear to be charters) in Florida. Which is good enough, but I wonder if that was not better left to the Florida State Colleges system (which do offer dual enrollment classes, in fact are required to do so by statute).
I still don't see the necessity or reason for that. Overall, I don't see much that's interesting in these updates that sets anyone apart from existing RA offerings.
Sarasota University is a Montessori early childhood education outfit. Doral College is probably a ploy to keep dual enrollment money in the hands of investors of the charter schools' operator(s). I'm not 100% sure, but American National possibly functions like a combination of a local career college and less-competitive option for students who want to come to study to America (some would say "visa mill"). eVersity is Arcansas' way to expand DL offerings within the public system. I don't see why they need an interim DEAC accreditation (rather than award degrees from established campi) either, but it's entirely possible they have a reason and we all are missing it. Overall, not the worst crop of new DEAC schools in history.
Sneaky, befitting an outfit named after the most pernicious Cylon. I forget which model number Doral was, but it's probably buried somewhere on the DEAC website.
I expect that they did it because it was the quickest way that their students will qualify for federal financial aid. They will probably pursue RA as well (and probably already are) but DEAC was quicker.
I don't believe that state university systems qualify collectively as eligible for participation in federal student financial aid programs. My belief is that individual campuses in each system must qualify individually, and each school receives its own identifying number which goes on the aid application.
Not individual campuses, but individual institutions do, and eVersity is a separate institution from others that bear the name University of Arkansas.