So PECB has started online MBA and Graduate Certificate courses. Find excerpts below from their website (https://pecb.com/en/university): PECB University will offer the following programs: MBA Degree programs: MBA in Information Security Management MBA in Business Continuity Management MBA in Information Technology Service Management MBA in Quality Management MBA in Risk Management Graduate Certificates: GC in Business Administration GC in Management Systems Administration GC in Information Security Management GC in Business Continuity Management GC in Information Technology Service Management GC in Quality Management GC in Risk Management They are accredited by the Higher Education Licensure Commission (HELC), Washington DC. I want to know if this accreditation is a recognized one
HELC is not one of the national or regional accrediting bodies in America, so they do not grand accreditation. Since it is located in Washington, DC, I would liken its role to the educational licensing bodies of each of the 50 states in America. Basically if you want to offer programs in Washington, DC then you have to obtain a license from HELC. I would say that the degrees from PECB University are not nationally or regionally accredited but they are approved to be used in Washington, DC.
There are people on this board that know more about the ins and outs of accreditation than me but my first glance tells me that they're indicating that their HELC "accreditation" means something that it actually does not mean. I believe they are misrepresenting this in order to make themselves appear more legitimate than they really are. I would welcome some more feedback on this.
It's in order to say the have recognition from this body and not accreditation from a recognized accreditation body in the US. Wish they got even national accreditation as the offerings are not bad. Sadly, my money won't go down on this one.
https://pecb.com/en/affiliations In addition to state licensure, they also have accreditation from the International Accreditation Service, although that's not CHEA/ED, it's more ISO certification.
PECB seems to be a training and certification organisation for IT and Information Security Management (professionals AND organizations), focusing on standards like ISO/IEC 27001. There's a lucrative market in that. Their degree-granting arm, PECB University, appears to be quite new; on this stage it makes sense that they have a state license but not accreditation, yet. It also makes sense that they charge more than you'd expect from an unaccredited upstart school. It's a niche market. A very similar operation, EC Council University (now DEAC accredited) also used to be quite expensive for an unaccredited school. PECB seems legit to me; I haven't heard of them, but then again I didn't work in this subfield either. A potential student most poised to benefit from these programs would be someone already familiar with this industry and with what "PECB" brand may represent. Again, niche.
I agree. In a world where what universities and training center do overlaps a great deal, there's no reason to discount approval from bodies like IAS. Whether that's sufficient all depends on what one's goals are.
I think it's a lot like religious schools and denominational recognition. PECB serves the "tribe" that believes in ISO standards, so it needs a nod from a body with standing in that world. If I'm not mistaken (again, I don't have direct experience in these matters, although I vaguely heard od ISO 27001 before), IAS is such a body of standing. Of course, the drawback is that such credentials may not travel well beyond the "tribe"
Even if they became RA tomorrow - do we really need another distance MBA program? Maybe, if it were AACSB and they priced it at $3,000 . . .
Hello everybody, My name is Tim Rama and I am the Managing Director at PECB University. I stumbled upon this interesting thread and felt that I need to provide more information. PECB initially is a Certification Body for Individuals and Organizations established in Canada in 2005, that is specialized mainly in ISO standards and now expanding to non-ISO standards as well. As a Certification Body, we are accredited by IAS (higher authority) and we operate worldwide by certifying more than 20,000 clients. PECB University is a separate entity that we have created with the higher education in mind. We have been incorporated in Washington D.C., hence we obtained the license from HELC in DC to operate as a University. As some of you indicated, this is a license to operate as a University, and not an accreditation. Most US states require higher education institutions to first obtain the license and then seek accreditation. Since we received the license in May of this year, we plan to become accredited in 2 years (from DEAC or MSACS). Indeed the offerings are different, considering that we wanted to focus on some trendy topics and provide more practical orientation for our students. Those who have taken any ISO-related or other professional training courses will find our programs quite feasible, but of course, the registration is open to anyone that meets the criteria. You can find more information on our general brochure here: https://pecb.com/pdf/brochures/PECB-University-General-Brochure.pdf If you are interested to enroll or want further information, feel free to contact us at [email protected] and we will gladly respond to you. Have a great day, Tim
So their tuition isn't bad for a private school ($600/credit), but their MBA is an unusually high number of credits (48, UT-PB is 36 or 30 with a BBA). So the cost works out to about $29k in tuition for the degree. But there's a $50 fee for transcript requests! Ouch! That's gonna hit graduates who need official transcripts in the pocketbook.
That used to be normal for an MBA. That does seem rather excessive for a service that should take the Registrar's office three minutes of time and $5 worth of materials to provide.