Liberty drops TRACS accreditation

https://www.liberty.edu/libertyjournal/index.cfm?PID=15758&artid=201

"Liberty University has voluntarily withdrawn from its accreditation through the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS)."

 

That's quite a blow for TRACS. This is probably a case of TRACS needing Liberty U more than Liberty U needed TRACS.

I wonder if this means Liberty will cease accepting transfer credits and degrees from nationally-accredited schools?

 

I don't really think that this was such a good call by Junior, TRACS was specifically oriented towards seminary accreditation, not necassarily the whole school. Bad call Liberty.

 

Steve Levicoff said many times that TRACS was the backup plan when Liberty was on SACS probation. Now that they're back on solid ground with their regional accreditor, the perceived need for TRACS no longer existed.

 

Wouldn't cutting TRACS accreditation be something like a regionally accredited business school cutting ACBSP accreditation as being redundant? I though TRACS only accredit seminaries.

 

TRACS accredits conservative Christian schools (which is not necessarily the same thing as seminaries).

 

So then theoretically TRACS could accredit a Christian School that only offers a BA in General Studies?

 

That is correct.

 

Well then I guess I misunderstood the nature of TRACS. In that case I'm only somewhat disappointed at Liberty for dropping TRACS due to the unique criteria TRACS requires of their institutions from a Christian perspective not generally required by regionally accrediting agencies. Such as those found in Section 1 Foundational Standards, subsection A Biblical Foundations… seen at http://www.tracs.org/files/accreditation_standards.pdf

When TRACS said "Christian Education" I assumed they meant seminary type studies.

Anyways, thanks for clearing that up.

 

I doubt it. Although pure speculation, I believe Liberty will apply for ABHE accreditation. At its core, Liberty is still a bible based institution. The gold standard in bible college accreditation has always been ABHE (formerly AABC). The problem with the ABHE is that its scope of acreditation has been limited to undergraduate degrees. For grad and post-grad, seminaries had to apply to ATS. In 2007, CHEA recognized the ABHE as having authority to accredit institutions through the post-graduate level. The Moody Bible Institute has always held ABHE accreditation in addition to its regional status. Now that the ABHE can accredit through the post-grad level, I think Liberty will be the first of many to jump ship from TRACS.

Pug

 

Liberty would have to make overwhelming changes to its programs, or the ABHE to its standards.

From the ABHE FAQ:

Liberty University, like the name of this class or not!, is a liberal arts university built on a wide range of arts and science and "marketplace" subjects.

The degree plan for Liberty's distance learning B.S. in Accounting, by way of example, requires BIBL 104 Survey of Biblical Literature, THEO 104 Introduction to Christian Thought, PHIL 104 Contemporary Worldviews, PHIL 201 Philosophy & Contemporary Ideas, and otherwise, by course titles, it could be any secular university. This is not to take away from the extent to which Liberty works to integrate its Christian beliefs into many subjects... but to contrast what Liberty does against the distinctives of an Institute of Biblical Higher Education, distinctives the ABHE is built on.

My educated guess is that two or three of the four courses listed wouldn't even be considered Bible as the ABHE means it. Liberty would have to completely rebuild most degree plans to include a whole academic year of Bible study in every bachelor's degree, and probably generally include equivalent study within or as prerequisite to most graduate degrees, at least.

27 000 students are enrolled in Liberty by distance, and 10 500 on campus. Liberty would suddenly have to require all of these students to be involved in ministry formation experiences to ABHE standards. Some students, in both groups but surely especially in the distance learning group, are not Christian.

 

Interesting thought. ABHE may indeed be a viable alternative for conservative Christian seminaries that view the Association of Theological Schools as liberal but may disagree with TRACS' young earth theology. One fairly high profile seminary that is a candidate for ABHE accreditation is the Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies. Their doctoral grads are getting jobs in some pretty good seminaries despite the unaccredited status of the school. http://www.iwsfla.org/

Tom

 

I'm not sure that Liberty would have to change that much, would they? Couldn't ABHE accredit programs within the institution rather than the institution as a whole? For example, the ABHE accredits Briercrest College. In addition to BC's bible programs, Briercrest offers undergrad majors in secular fields like Business Admin, Social Sciences, etc. Moody Bible Institute offers secular majors in Communications, Electronic Media, etc. Liberty University consists of 7 different schools, one of them being the School of Religion. I could be wrong, but I think the ABHE could accredit the School of Religion and the Seminary, much like ATS accredits the Seminary at Mount Saint Mary's, Harvard Divinity School, Duke's Seminary, etc., not the institutions as a whole.

Pug

 

If the ABHE could only look at some programs within a school, that would certainly make it possible to accredit the school of religion and the seminary at Liberty.

At Moody, "Each undergraduate student majors in biblical and theological studies, completing 40 hours of coursework in this area (BA in Music and BMus students complete 34 hours)." (Moody Bible Institute: General Information). The most marketplacy program at Briercrest, the B.A. in Business Administration, has 30 sh of Bible and Theology, 12 sh of Christian Ministry, and 6 sh of Christian World Views.

 

Agreed, we'll have to what ABHE does now that they are in the business of accrediting through the post-grad level. I have a hunch they will accredit specific schools or programs within an institution, if they are not already doing so. AACSB does this. For example, at Maryland University, the Robert H. Smith School of Business is accredited by the AACSB, but the accreditation does not extend to the other schools within the university.

Pug