Breaking News-Nationsuniversity withdraws DETC Accreditation

Accreditation a pre-condition for state approval? That's putting the cart before the horse. All schools start out unaccredited. I think, however, that what some states require is not accreditation itself, but rather being on an accreditation track.

 

Which is exactly why the passage that you just quoted says: "the state itself can make accreditation (or progress towards accreditation) a pre-condition ..."

In the case of a brand-new school, the state can demand progress towards accreditation.
In the case on an established school, the state can demand that accreditation be achieved, after a certain time period.

In either case, accreditation ultimately becomes a condition for state approval.
If a school doesn't have accreditation, it loses state approval.

 

Actually, 70 (my age) marks the start of my 8th decade, I think -- but who's counting? Anyway, I have the feeling this is gonna be a real good one! :smile:

Johann

 

Here is a link to the current Newsletter from Nations University. http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20130820/e2/c4/8c/28/1eaece2bbdec956b4f215ed2/SNL_AUG_2013_IT.pdf It has sounded its commitment to continue to pursue the accreditation. The school explained the reason why they had to take the decision to withdraw and the next steps...

 

I've lost faith sometime ago that Nations will ever become accredited. They've been at this now for quite a while, no dice.

Perhaps they might consider course credit evaluation through ACE and/or NCCRS.

 

It seems to me that NU is serious about business. In its current newsletter, it reads:
''The last delay had to do with state registration. The States in the U.S. have a certain measure of self-determination. We thought everything was in order until May, when it was deemed we should make some adjustments. Consequently, we missed the opportunity to be considered for accreditation in June. We hope to be on the table for January, but it would be premature to predict that at this point. We are unaware of other obstacles, but who knows what may come up between now and then?'' I have a feeling that they will get accredited, it may require some super patience and commitment to right all ''wrongs.''

 

I'm just not in this game, anymore. I have always thought NU was a school of genuine and sincere intentions and I still do. However, the ups and downs of the uncompleted accreditation process seem to be of their own doing. They have also completely eroded my confidence in NU's eventual success.

The latest stumbling block appears to be the fact that NU needs THEC (Tennessee) approval before it can be accredited. As I read here, this approval is a very thorough process and also costs thousands of dollars.

What dismays me is the thought that people who hope to be leading NU into accreditation may have somehow been unaware of this until May 2013, though the applicable legislation was passed in 2010.

Earlier in this thread:

"Any school operating in any form while located in Tennessee must have Tennessee THEC authorization. On Oct 29, 2010 Amendments to the Higher Education Act, Program Integrity Issues, State Authorization, Section §600.9(c) stated that:"

It looks to me like the people at Nations should have known this. If I'm right, and they fumbled the ball, then maybe they don't deserve accreditation as much as I once thought they did.

Johann

 

I hope NU is reading all the comments on this forum. I hope comments on this forum would gear them up to take the accreditation bull by the horn once and for all. I strongly believe NU has it in mind to get accredited and they are not going to relent in their efforts. That the 12 (is it 13?) member Board of Regents voted to continue NU's operations and plans suggests that they have the future of the school in mind. ''When will it be?'' seems to be the question that anyone, not even NU, cannot answer.

 

I hope they are not reading this. They haven't time to um, while away in Internet forums, as I have! If they'd spent time reading the laws of their State, they likely wouldn't be in such an embarrassing position. They shouldn't need a "gearing up" from this -or any- forum for their accreditation efforts. Cheerleading is for football games.

I believe in the school -- even though it's gone from free-to-$100-to-$250-to-nearly-$500-a-year-and-rising - but still no accreditation. Yes - I believe in Nations, but I have to shake my head at the front-office flubs on accreditation: First the drop-out while the first DETC self-evaluation had to be completely redone, now the ostensibly overlooked THEC authorization.

I would have expected a much better performance from the start. Ultimately, they'll get whatever they deserve on the accreditation issue. I'm just not sure any more exactly what they deserve.

Johann

 

Thank you for the insight into the situation with NU. The question becomes even with a positive site visit by DETC, even if they have good or great curriculum, academic standards and so on (things I have seen describe them in the past), at what point do these administrative missteps become financially unsustainable when it comes to accreditation. I am not meaning to be insulting but they have had to withdraw their application twice. I know little about the accreditation process but understand that it is VERY expensive. Don't they have to reapply each time (new fees)?

Again, I am not meaning to be insulting to anyone, but how did the State regulations sneak up on them when they had been operating in the state for some time. Should someone at the school have been responsible for ongoing assessment of State requirements as well as the DETC requirements?

 

I would have thought that having messed up once they wouldn't have even applied again until they knew it would be a slam dunk. Regardless of any good karma that people might wish on this endeavor it looks increasingly like they really don't know what they're doing in this regard. I wish them the best but how do you continue to recruit new students and hold them to high standards when you can't maintain those same standards yourself?

 

It is almost funny to have managed to make it through a "positive" site visit by DETC, running for the goal line and fumble the ball over an administrative requirement with the State of Tennessee. Obtaining and maintaing accreditation is more than academics. It includes a host of administrative issues and even financial management (as many Regionally accredited schools know that have been put on Probation solely for that reason). So, in line with what Kizmet is saying, there seems to be a component missing. The problem is that it is not really understood how something so fundamental as state regs were missed. Fine tuning your academic standards till they meet the highest standards will not suffice if other areas are neglected. Neither will being sincere.

On the whole, I have seen very positive comments about NU from students and others in terms of their academics and effort so I feel badly for saying that what comes across is that on the eve of scoring a touch down with DETC they have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

Sadly (because I've always liked the school) I think Kizmet said it best. :sad:

Johann

This sad situation has an old Reba McEntire song going in my head. "Here's your one chance, Nations - don't let me down." :smile:

 

In case you don't remember it:

"Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down"

Written and performed by Bobbie Gentry, 1969. (I still have it.) Reba had a hit with it in 1990. :smile:

Johann

 

With few (about 5) credits to finish my BRS degree at NationsUniversity, I was madly hoping I'd graduate with a DETC accredited bachelor's degree and then apply to a college or university that accepts both NA and RA for admission into its Masters programs. At the moment, as far as my pockets are concerned, I am not at ''Liberty'' to go to LU.

 

Jan/2014

NationsUniversity's accreditation status will be decided in January 2014. The state authorization issue has been resolved. It is fair to remember that NU receives under 20K in student fee's while it spends between 300-450K each year. Moreover, only five staff receive a salary and the other 35 or so faculty and staff serve without pay.

At first I did not want to respond to this thread because it seems to do so only opens the door for attack. Bottom line is NU operates on a small budget, depends on volunteers, and may or not receive accreditation in January 2014.

 

I spoke to their leadership about possibly serving them as a professor. They just are not set up well to pursue DETC accreditation. It's no small task. And yes, DETC is more rigorous in its expectations on institutions than some assume.

 

Who on this forum would assume such a thing? :smile:

 

This is not in any way meant as an attack. My thought is that NU has a specific mission and in light of that, what is accreditation going to add to it? By anecdotal reports we read, NUs academics portion is done well, curriculum is designed well, etc. It seems that it is other administrative issues that have caused stumbling and are important to accreditation regs. You have professors and staff who are unpaid (and the few paid staff) so NU is not a profit making venture and does not need to be. You have Church of Christ affiliation and your degrees have been accepted in transfer to accredited schools. Again, my question would be whether the ongoing effort to achieve DETC accreditation is worth it? What would you gain? A little more transferability of credit? As good as NU may be, it is not competing with Dallas Theological Seminary, Fuller, and other residential seminaries. Even with DETC accreditation it would not. Considering the niche you serve, would DETC accreditation add enough value to be worth whatever time and effort you are expending on it? Apparently, the experience has been good as you or someone else noted at one time on another thread the fact that the revisions to courses and submission for critique process has helped improve overall quality.

The point here is to weigh what on another thread was called ROI - Return on Investment. If you guys continue to pursue accreditation then great but you need to do it without financially imperiling your organization and you need to get these administrative issues fixed. Think what your mission (focus) is, what you are trying to accomplish with your current pursuits, possible outcomes and ramifications of those possible outcomes. How do all of these fit within your mission?

 

Nations, long before its accreditation attempt, used to have a tie-in with Lipscomb University in Nashville. They may still have it - I don't know. Once you completed a BRS at Nations, you could be admitted to Lipscomb's Master's program in Biblical Studies. You were on "double-secret probation" :smile: till you had completed - I forget - 9 or 12 units of the Master's. Might be worth a shot - contacting Lipscomb U. Their website is www.lipscomb.edu and they're RA (SACS).

Johann