A question about Accreditation ?

1. Between 5-10 years. The check up is done at the end of that time.

2. Yes, it would still be a legitimate degree, but you could certainly have trouble proving it (because many HR departments are unlikely to go through the trouble of verifying dates).

3. The inability to sustain programs and staff because of finances is toward the top of the list. Systemic financial malfeasance (they're all crooks) would do it as well.



Tom Nixon

 

Hello Everyone

I am new to this site, and I have some questions about accreditation.

I hope you can help me.

1.) Once a college is regionally accredited, ( i.e. Middle States or New England Assoc, etc) how often does that Accrediting agency renew that colleges accreditation ? Do they "check up" on that college every so often to see if they are still at the same standard ?


2.) If a student were to get a degree from a regionally accredited college and then say 5 or 10 years after they graduate that same school loses its accreditation, is the degree legit because it was earned while the college was accredited ?

3.) Having said all that, what are some situations in which a college would lose its accreditation ?

Thanks everyone,
I know it's a lot, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Fred

 

Hi Fred, welcome to Degreeinfo.

Do accreditors check up on the colleges they accredit? Yes. They schedule periodic formal reviews, plus they are in continuing contact with schools between reviews and may schedule smaller visits between reviews to follow up on particular issues or something.

How often do reviews take place? It varies.

I'll use a couple of examples from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the regional accreditor for California and Hawaii.

Here's a listing from their directory, taken at random:

American Conservatory Theater
Artistic Director: Carey Perloff
30 Grant Avenue, 6th Floor, San Francisco 94108-5800
Telephone: (415) 439-2350; Fax: (415) 834-3300; www.act-sfbay.org
Independent, professional. Sem. Plan. Degrees: M
FTE: 55; 1984 / 1998 / 2007

The three dates at the lower right give you first: the year that ACT was initially accredited (1984), the year of its last review (1998) and the year of its next scheduled review (2007).

http://www.wascweb.org/senior/directories.htm

With WASC, I believe that ten years is the maximum period that they allow between reviews, so apparently they didn't see any major problems with ACT. (The fact that the review actually comes in nine years is probably just due to scheduling the visits.)

But just because there are ten years beween reviews doesn't mean that WASC is ignoring ACT during that time. Here's a listing of 2002-3 WASC site visits:

http://www.wascweb.org/senior/visits0203.htm

As you can see, WASC was visiting ACT on Nov. 13-15 2002, between formal reviews. I have no idea why. Perhaps ACT wants to make a substantive change, such as rolling out a new program or something.

Here's another one:

The American Film Institute
Director: Jean Picker Firstenberg
2021 North Western Avenue, Los Angeles 90027
Telephone: (323) 856-7600; Fax: (323) 467-4578; www.AFI.com
Independent. Degrees: M
FTE Enrollment: 298; 2002 / / 2007

Notice that with these guys, initial accreditation only came in 2002 (they were CA-approved before that). The first major review is in 2007, after five years, rather than after the full ten. That's almost certainly because their accreditation is so new.