DEAC Accreditation

Hello, I would like to ask if anybody knows offline universities that would accept credit from the university of the people which is under DEAC and CHEA. Another way to ask this, does anyone know what universities would accept credit or degrees from DEAC ?. Thank you

 

I believe at one time Liberty University and Regents University did. I think I also saw someone post here that one or more of Capella, Northcentral, or Walden did. There are likely others.

Some may have blanket policies of accepting appropriate credits from schools accredited by US DoE/CHEA accreditors. Others will be on an individual basis.

Are you trying to finish a bachelors somewhere else, gain admission to a Masters or enter a doctoral program?

 

I just started doing my associate degree, so I might want to transfer to another university in the future or just transfer m credit. Thanks for the info though

 

In April 2016, the university signed an articulation agreement with the University of California, Berkeley regarding top associate degree graduates. [10]

In 2017 the University of Edinburgh partnered with the school so that graduates of the University of the People could complete a bachelor’s or postgraduate degree at the University.[18]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_People

 

• If you hold an Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS), or Associate of Applied Science (AAS) from an institution that is recognized as nationally or regionally accredited by the U.S. Department of Education, you should clear most of the lower-division general education requirements for a bachelor’s degree in business or information technology. For the Health Professions and Teachers College programs, a course-by-course evaluation is typically required for college credit transfer. See a list of USDE-recognized national and regional accrediting agencies.
  
• 
  
• If you’ve earned an A.A.S. (or other applied associate degree), you may be able to clear a significant portion of WGU’s lower-division degree requirements.

https://www.wgu.edu/admissions/transfers.html

 

Many years ago (2000) I did the necessary research to answer Fares' question: surveyed hundreds of regionally accredited schools to ask if they would accept DEAC degrees always, usually, sometimes, rarely, or never. At that time, about 40% of the schools accepted it always or usually. To my knowledge, no one has done this research since then, but I'd guess that the DEAC percentage has improved over the years. (PS: Doing that research now would be a terrific Master's thesis project.)

 

Just a quick note, credit and degrees are very different propositions.

Accepting credits for transfer can vary widely even among RA schools. There are many considerations including programmatic accreditation (i.e. RA/non-AACSB has very limited business transfer to RA/AACSB), switching majors etc. Not to mention, Harvard may not be keen to bring you in as a Junior based on the two years you studied at Hunter.

Whether a degree is considered acceptable to accepting you into another degree program is another matter entirely. One that, again, could be complicated by programmatic accreditation in ways that were previously unheard of.

I honestly don't know what would happen if you took the ABET/DEAC degree from Grantham and then tried to apply to an RA/ABET Masters program. Or the CCNE/DEAC BSN from Aspen to an RA/CCNE MSN elsewhere. It wasn't something that COULD happen in the past. And I doubt there is a whole lot of data surrounding what this could mean if it becomes a more common reality. Imagine if you could get an AACSB/DEAC degree, for example. With the way many CPA requirements are written, it would be fully eligible for licensure.

Just the same, I think the conventional wisdom here has always been that if your goal is to further your education beyond that first degree, RA is probably your safest bet. And, of course, there's always the DEAC/ACE options like Penn Foster which can flip to the big three with relative ease.

 

Well, I can say something about that. IIRC Grantham has a bunch of Engineering Technology degree programs (not to be confused with Engineering degrees). The difference, briefly, is that while the ET programs focus more on applications, practical problem solving and processes, Engineering degrees focus more on theory, research and science. A person with a BET (like me) applying to a Masters program in Engineering (not Eng. Tech) would likely need to catch up in areas such as upper division Math and Physics courses. This would be true regardless of the "DEAC to RA" issue. Even an RA BET to an RA MS Eng. situation would likely require remedial coursework of that sort. I'd guess it could be something on the order of 12 credits depending on area of specialization. Anyway, I know that's not the point you were aiming at but I was just trying to point out that there likely would be some confounded variables in the equation.

 

Excelsior will consider taking your NA credits. I remember someone saying that Excelsior rejected many of their NA credits. If I remember correctly, Excelsior also has a limit on how many NA credits can be used toward a degree.

 

This question is one of our favorites so you will get many feedback. My opinion, if one is planning to do a transfer of credits, or pursuing graduate school, then DEAC is not the best choice at the undergraduate. DEAC will eventually gets the recognition it deserves.

 

Perhaps they already do.

 

That is excactly why over the last 4 years, the company I work for have only hired Eng Tech people, at the same pay scale as BSME and BSEE’s.

Some of the best Electronics Techs I have worked with have ITT-Tech degrees, because of the hands-on experience.


- Michael

 

I think that DEAC will get there when questions/ concerns such as those of the OP are no more. There are still more obstacles, real and perceived, going from Deac to RA, than from RA to RA, or from RA to DEAC

 

As of now, DEAC gets lumped in with all the other national accreditors. When a college, employer, or licensing board requires RA degrees, there are rarely exceptions for DEAC.

 

Right on! In other words . . .

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

I've never been a fan of DEAC and have had the same opinion of them through two name changes. Occasionally, they do something right (like busting the chops of William Loveland College after David Lady tried to carry over the prior accreditation of another DEAC school before he got caught at it). I also never had a problem with DEAC in the days when they accredited trade programs and selected bachelor's degrees. But when they started to accredit mater's degrees and higher in professional and/or clinical fields, they went beyond the scope of what I felt was legitimate.

Therefore, I continue to be "RA or the highway," just as I have been for the past 30 years. To those who don't like it, see the "Bwa-Ha-Ha..." line above.

 

This is true as far as transfer and even public perception is concerned. As a personal preference, I look at a national accrediting body that is recognized by both the USDOE and CHEA as being a rung above the rest. This, combined with ACE approved courses, gives the green light to me.

 

Hi Steve:
The statement "When a college, employer, or licensing board requires RA degrees, there are rarely exceptions for DEAC" is absolutely true. After all, exception are rare by their very nature. I also do understand the humor behind your post. What I don't understand is the "RA or the highway" approach. To me, that looks like elitism, and that suppresses progress. Consider how far DEAC has come as it relates to professional acceptance, for example. As has been highlighted in this forum, and as you acknowledge in part in your post, DEAC has been elevated to the extent that a growing number of professional industry certification boards accept its accreditation as meeting their requirements (ABET, CCNE, etc). That would have been unheard of 30 years ago. What are these professional organizations (and others) seeing that assures them that DEAC credential are equivalent to the regionals? It makes no sense to hinder that progress, which would certainly have occurred had these organizations adopted an RA or the highway approach.
If DEAC continues to up its game, is that a good thing or a bad thing? To me, it's a good thing.

 

It's a difficult question to answer since many universities aren't quite upfront about what their policies are. Some of them might not actually know, and treat each applicant as a special case. Some will say that they do accept not-regionally-accredited bachelors degrees for graduate admissions, but perhaps in real life never have. Or some will say that they don't accept them, but actually will if applicants jump through additional hoops.

I know that in the past, the California State University publicly said that they only accepted graduate applicants with regionally accredited degrees (or the foreign equivalent, whatever that means).

But... they would accept individuals with non-RA degrees as undergraduate applicants. (I imagine that the rules against earning a second bachelors degree in the same subject didn't apply if the school didn't recognize the first degree.) Then the would-be graduate students could ask their department head to specify some upper division undergraduate coursework for them to take, and if they passed these more advance undergraduate classes with B's or better, they could petition some Deans to be transferred to graduate status.

I don't know if that small-print back-door policy is still in effect. (I expect that it probably is.)

But all in all, I agree with the others who have responded. While many/most employers don't make a distinction between RA and NA degrees, many/most universities do. (It's a distinction of more interest to academics than to people in real life.) So if a student's ambition is to go on to graduate school, a DEAC bachelors degree might not be the best choice. (But it won't be a total deal-killer either, though it will limit your choices and create more hassles.)

 

I will recommend RA for the undergraduate if one is thinking about pursuing higher education. RA or Deac for graduate degree based solely on the situation. A Deac master should be fine for most employers and for professional development.