DETC Accrediting Commission Meeting - June 2008 Edition

The Distance Education and Training Council was accrediting a limited number of doctorates during their pilot doctoral accreditation project. Since then, a committee within the United States Department of Education has recommended that the Distance Education and Training Council be given expanded scope for the accreditation of doctorates (hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself can chime in on whether the Secretary of Education followed those recommendations, which would be the final approval needed for doctoral accreditation by the Distance Education and Training Council). Anyways, before the Distance Education and Training Council received the United States Department of Education's approval for doctoral accreditation, you had to trash your doctoral programs to get Distance Education and Training Council accreditation, which explains the California Coast University situation. If it were the case that the Secretary of Education followed the committee's recommendations and bestowed United States Department of Education approval upon the Distance Education and Training Council for the expansion of scope for authority to accredit doctoral programs, one would no longer need to trash one's doctoral programs to get Distance Education and Training Council accreditation.

 

With the Jet Propulsion Laboratory controlling that new Mars lander and all of those annoying Nobel Prize winners clogging up classrooms, I can't imagine how DETC could possibly turn California University of Technology down.

 

Did you miss his 'isn't it ironic,' and the smilie?

 

It looks like Yorktown University's website is now displaying the DETC logo and saying that Yorktown is nationally accredited.

http://www.yorktownuniversity.com

 

I think the University of Atlanta is too. Wow.


http://www.uofa.edu/

 

Yikes! This doesn't do a whole lot for my confidence. I see that they are already advertising doctoral programs. That's moving quickly.

U. of Atlanta's contact page does have some nice photos of the Atlanta skyline. It must be a spectacular sight from there in Mobile AL.

 

University of Atlanta DETC Accredited

University of Atlanta is now displaying the DETC Approval stamp.

http://www.uofa.edu/accreditation.asp?sec=accreditation

The University of Atlanta is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), which is approved and classified by the United States Department of Education as a nationally recognized Accrediting agency. As such, all curriculum, faculty, administrators, academic standards and administrative procedures and policies are frequently reviewed to ensure that the University maintains consistent standards of Excellence.

 

American Center for Conflict Resolution DETC Approved

The American Center for Conflict Resolution is now displaying the DETC Logo of approval also.

http://www.accri.org/index.html
QUOTE: The American Center for Conflict Resolution Institute is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), Washington D.C. The Accrediting Commission of the DETC is listed by the U.S. Department of Education.

 

This is a personal attack and really not necessary. You could have made your point without your judgments of me. Or is the fact that it was about DETC that struck such a personal chord?

By the way, I said it was ironic. That was an opinion, not a description of the regulatory atmosphere.

Also, if DETC would stop handing out its accreditation like grandma with the ribbon candy at Christmas to just about every diploma mill that applies, perhaps its standing in the academic world would be somewhat higher than its current berth in educational steerage. Just another opinion.

 

I know. I am trying to defend the program at Harrison Middleton University (HMU) ( which is rigorous..trust me...) and now this. Hummm. Maybe I am totally wrong. Maybe they have really got their act together.

 

Another interesting claim on the University of Atlanta web site is their intention to develop a JD program "designed for those seeking to practice law".

Are graduates from DL law schools based outside California eligible to take the CA bar? If not, where, exactly, would these students be admitted to practice law?

 

As the University of Atlanta is in Alabama, I'm sort of wondering out loud whether Alabama would allow a DETC-only law grad to take their Bar Exam.

 

It offers only one degree, the MA in Government. Odd.

 

University of "Atlanta" in Mobile? Sounds very millish to me. Maybe they'd appear a bit more credible and it would be much simpler if they would just use the name of the city where they're based...

 

Yorktown University

And it has an "MBA Quiz" under Degree Programs. So they want MA Government students to take an MBA quiz as well? (They probably had an MBA program prior to being "accredited"...)

 

I hope this indicates Barrington/University of Atlanta has made some wholesale changes. There have been complaints by former Barrington students of dubious accreditation claims made by the school in the past. At one time, Barrington was headquartered in telephone answering service (perhaps one of the reasons for a DETC site inspection?). In 2000, Alabama threatened to pull Barrington's license.

CCU had something of a sketchy past and they became a reasonably respectable distance learning institution. Let's hope University of Atlanta has done the same.

 

If Barrington/UoA and friends has not made a giant leap somehow, then DETC is bogus and should be no longer recognized as an accrediting agency. Too many recent mills suddenly becoming "accredited". It only feeds the skeptics of distance education and that is not good in my book.

 

Something I wrote someone recently:

DETC has been on a real run lately, accrediting schools that were, for many years, simply unaccreditable. In CCU's case, one can imagine them getting their act together enough to warrant it. But so many others? Have they all really undertaken these amazing transformations? I suspect not. The bar, I think, has been lowered.

It wasn't too long ago that there were schools very serious about remaining unaccredited--the business model clearly supported selling substandard degree programs (especially doctorates) at a steep discount to their customers. But look at how many of them have become accredited! Jeez, it doesn't make sense to remain out in the cold. Southwest, ACIS, AJU, CSU, CCU and just about anyone else. And the final game-maker, the requirement to drop one's doctoral programs in order to apply for DETC accreditation, seems to have been eliminated. Selling unaccredited doctorates is a big business, one that operations like CCU chose to remain in for a long time. I have to think DETC accreditation just became so much easier to obtain that it was finally worth it. But now, there's no choice to make at all. Open the mailbox, call yourself what you want, do want you want, and Mike Lambert will say it's okay. Echhh.

So, what to do? The press seems to be cooling off from its latest diploma mill cycle. Plus, this is a much more nuanced thing--a lax accreditor. It will be hard to get anyone's attention in the press. Government, too. I doubt anyone at Education will listen--DETC has been a contributor for a long time. The regionals? Their parent association, CHEA, recognizes DETC. Perhaps they'll finally step in.

The Chronicle? A crummy DETC accrediting doctorate mills must certainly threaten the integrity of the higher education profession. (Although they've done a good job simply shutting their eyes, it may not be able to continue. After all, they've been able to ignore potential instructors with DETC-accredited master's degrees. Admitting undergraduates with some NA credits was never a big deal--kinda like a scholarship or tuition discount--and admitting NA bachelor's holders into grad school must be a rare issue. But if DETC is opening the floodgates for doctoral degrees to be issued left and right, RA schools might face quite a few people wondering why their DETC-accredited doctoral degrees aren't getting them much traction in getting hired by RA schools. It might not be enough to put up an "RA or No Way" sign at the campus HR office.

Century University must be preparing their self-study while we speak. Oy.


Just an opinion.

 

Quite right; sorry I didn't catch this sooner.

"jagmct1"....this is your official warning about personal attacks. One more rule violation, and you get the axe.

 

Why is that odd?