Breyer State University

Probably. MAA is an academic body but they don't appear to have any sort of organizational affiliation system (you can become an individual member, though).

Of course, whatever benefit an affiliation with MAA would offer would carry a bit more gravitas if the school offered a program in Medieval Studies or, I dunno, History or something even remotely related to Medieval studies.

For Cato, all politics aside, the funny thing is that even if there was some sort of partnership there...who cares? Just as a UN Charter does not accreditation make neither does a formal arrangement with a think tank.

It's funny because AIU is one of those schools that I honestly have no idea about their programs. They fly under the radar. They are one of the few unaccredited schools left with a .edu and operating legally and not under a religious exemption. They are also one of the ones where the last time I did a search in LinkedIn I found more than a handful of actual academics with their PhDs from there (I'm assuming they were teaching with Masters degrees and wanted to top up their CV). They don't draw the same negative attention as Almeda and others in that vein. So they must not just be outright selling the degree like that. They must have some coursework of an unknown quality and rigor. They're like secular LBU, in my opinion.

But when they fill their About page with all of that nonsense it makes their red flags all that much more prominent.

 

Not clear to me, either. AIU operates legally in Hawaii, where the late Mr. Jeffrey Brunton, a determined consumer affairs attorney, litigated many sleazy operations out of existence and developed a framework for schools without CHEA- and/or USDoE-recognized accreditation. The framework has pretty well nothing to do with academic quality. It is geared to enforcing a degree of honesty, to see that the school just doesn't siphon off all the customer's money and not give tuition etc. in return. There is also a minimum time before a degree can be awarded and some other safeguards against a complete sham. A Hawaii school must adhere to a refund policy and actually give instruction. Quality of instruction etc. is not covered by legislation.

A Hawaii-based school without US-recognized accreditation can be legal to enrol in and still be a bad choice - the degree might well be worthless, depending where you live - or get you into trouble depending on how you use it.

The reasons why you'd look AIU up aren't clear to me either, Neuhaus, but it's OK. I still like you. I still look at pages of such schools -- probably for too much time. I don't know why either. Beats watching porn ... I think.

 

The value of state authorization is almost entirely formed by international customers who won’t make distinctions around private accreditation. Permitting these operations to continue, no matter what disclosures are required or what modicum of effort is required—enables these businesses to sell diplomas—with the state’s imprimatur, no less.

 

I mean, it depends on the state. It really depends on the state. States like New York and New Jersey don't have a religious exemption. And for degree approval authority you need to be a pretty legit place. In New York, the regents don't just hand out degree authority to whomever asks. And since it's the same office that registers and accredits, even if they are different processes, I feel like if we had a state registered but unaccredited program that's in a different bucket than AIU. Of course, the majority of programs that are registered in these states are merely building up the required years of operation to apply for accreditation.

Louisiana has shown us that you need only put the word "Baptist" in your name and you can award PhDs in Communications, if you like. That's a very different scenario from states that actually regulate this sort of thing. I think California, before they went full on accreditation required, is another good example. Oregon as well. These are states that, at least previously, would potentially allow an unaccredited school's credentials to qualify for licensure in a few fields. It's just a very different situation than in other states where a school can set up shop and, as you note, try to capitalize on people not understanding state approval.