ACICS & DeVos

how big a role did she play in the reinstatement?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/betsy-devos-for-profit-higher-education.html

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/11/accreditor-restored-devos-falls-short-federal-standards-report-says

 

Fascinating.
There is a potential rift within Trumplandia here. ACICS is home to a number of universities that cater to International students who seek to enter US, and in some cases obtain a legal work authorisation through CPT&OPT programs (there are RA programs doing this as well; both University of Cumberlands and Sullivan University are reportedly in this game). Anti-immigration zealots (like hate group "Center for Immigration Studies"), to put it mildly, do not like these so called "visa mills". CIS is criticising DeVos by name now. It is no secret that this crowd, too, has major influence within the administration. I wonder which of these two beasts will prevail. I would guess, in this particular instance, DeVos and for-profit education lobby will prevail. It is interesting dynamic between the species of the swamp dwellers.

 

Just to be clear: I never attended a "visa mill" program, but have no problem with what they're doing whatsoever. Unless they explicitly break the law (like Tri Valley did) or misrepresent their accreditation status (like, hmmm. Tri Valley apparently did too). If I was a desperate Indian student, I would be wise to stay away from schools that couldn't even get ACICS.

 

Their term, not mine. There is a class of schools where emphasis is clearly on the I-20 form, which use practices like quick acceptances, creative class schedules, networks of recruiters primarily in India, and chiefly the "Day 1 CPT trick". Here's an article about U. of the Cumberlands' program designed this way:

https://qz.com/1269299/f-1-visa-day-one-h-1b-alternative-work-authorization-cpt/
To be clear, there is nothing illegal or necessarily bad about any of this, especially is the school can do it competently (like Cumberlands reportedly does). There are longstanding RA F1-heavy schools that use some of these tactics; Maharishi school in Iowa and University of Bridgeport come to mind. Try to explain it to CIS extremists though. And yes, there is a group of ACICS schools that depend on this crowd of potential students; that's why DeVos decision enrages those of them aware of the intricacies of F1 status. I can link some rants from CIS site; it'd not add much though.