National Accreditation Board of Dominica's level of acceptance in US

https://iugrad.edu.dm/tuition-and-fees/tuition-and-costs.html

 

Yeah, that's too expensive for me.

 

For an "inconclusive" degree the cost is exorbitant. Imo, the investment is not worth it, financially or professionally.

 

You don't know everyone's motivation. For some, the degree may be worth it, and they don't seem to have trouble attracting students. Generally, though, I agree: their level of utility doesn't justify the price tag.

 

The NAB only accredits two institutions.

Accredited Institutions - National Accreditation Board

These are a University of the West Indies study center offering support for distance learning students (it isn't one of the physical campuses which are in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad) and IUGS.

The reason I wrote the words you take exception to is because I don't anticipate a tiny and relatively poor country of 72,000 people (I'm relying on Steve Levicoff's post for that number) is going to be establishing a whole lot of new domestic universities. At present, what does the local home-grown higher education system in Dominica consist of? One community college? (And it doesn't seem to be accredited by NAB.) That college may roll out some bachelors programs in the future, but I doubt if the domestic higher education system will grow much larger than that. So what's the NAB going to be doing with the rest of its time? We know that the Caribbean is peppered with off-shore universities, often medical schools it seems, that are owned and operated by Americans and whose students are largely non-locals. IUGS is already a Dominican example of that class. (50% of the current NAB accredited lineup and the only granter of advanced degrees among them.)

My question is - if an off-shore school is owned and run by Americans, and if everyone is supposed to accept it as "RA-equivalent" then why isn't it regionally accredited here in the US where the owners live? Why did its owners choose to adopt the off-shore location? My guess is that they know full well that their little project would have very little chance of being accredited by Middle States or whichever regional accreditor it is. Whereas an off-shore approval, as long as it's by a national government, makes the school "RA-equivalent" in the eyes of many university admissions officers and other gate-keepers.

I've long felt that the fatal flaw with "GAAP" is that it confuses political and educational criteria of legitimacy.

 

I think that national government degree-granting authorizations should at least qualify a student for credential evaluation in another country, as long the country is a real country. We all know that the credential equivalency establishing process takes more factors into consideration. Where I reside, you could easily get a NARIC statement of equivalency (you can show that to universities where you seek admission) if your degree was awarded by a national-government authorized/accredited school from a country that is a member of one of the following; OECD, European Union, or EFTA. The graduates of schools from countries that do not belong to one of these organizations have much harder time with getting equivalency, since their equivalency isn't established on the basis of international agreement. They would have to go through the much tougher equivalency establishing process known as "nostrification". Their whole degree would be inspected, so as to check whether the courses are exactly equivalent to a Polish degree (hint: most often they are not, whuich means they have to pass exams and do all sorts of other things); Recognition of degrees | GO POLAND! | STUDY IN POLAND

 

Obviously I don't know "everyone's motivation" which is why I concluded my final comment by stating "IMO"!

 

Heirophant, the fact that when one attempts to obtain supportive information from IUGS reps pertaining to the acceptability of their doctorates in the US, their response is cagey and very defensive. This is not the level of response one would expect from a school that is offering credible, viable doctorates whatsoever. In fact, it's just the opposite, because if their degrees were acceptable in the US they would promote this fact loud and clear.

 

This, of course, is just your opinion. You might bolster the credibility of your opinion if you could show, let's say half a dozen examples where a legitimate non-US university did exactly what you're suggesting.

 

It's a miracle that you were able to get a response from IUGS. When I first learned about the school, I've emailed them a couple of questions. It's been months. No response so far.

 

Just call and speak with their representative. The phone number is listed on their website.

 

Here's my philosophy: Does a school run an online program? Then it better show some respect to honest information-seekers and respond to incoming e-mails within a reasonable amount of time. If not, the school can be sure of one thing: I won't ever be on their list of students.

 

You're right.

Apparently DSC is a candidate going through the accreditation process. Also, NAB also acts as a foreign credential evaluation (or "nostrification"; in many countries that's a government function). I bet most of its efforts go there. Finally, to attract foreign institutions, it may pay off to establish a credible accreditor; other jurisdictions already have the easy incorporation market.

That's very likely true. "RA-equivalent" is a nebulous concept in itself; no, IUGS does not have a level of recognition of an RA university. What it can hope for is acceptability for specific purposes; it likely has that. Sort of like DEAC, different niche.

 

I'm not convinced that any school could provide a definitive answer to that kind of question.

Here in the United States, acceptance of university degrees isn't a national matter or a simple function of accreditation or "GAAP" status. It's up to employers and university hiring committees and is going to involve a great deal of personal judgement. Some employers (I've seen this with my own eyes with tenure-track university and biotech industry scientific hiring) don't pay any attention to accreditation at all, opting instead to consider things like departmental reputation. (It so happens that just about all the departments with sufficient reputation are accredited by credible accreditors, but that isn't a necessary thing.)

In other situations, like state licensing boards in regulated professions, institutional and particular specialized accreditations might be a very major consideration. But even in these cases, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer, since there are 50 state licensing boards in each profession in the US and each of their regulations might be subtly different. Many of these licensing boards have small print exceptions to their accreditation requirements, especially for foreign graduates. In some cases, all that a state licensing board might require is a degree from a foreign school that's recognized by its home government. So some foreign schools with very doubtful academics might be able to sneak in using those kind of exceptions in some jurisdictions.

 

However there are foreign schools such as those from the UK and others that are clearly acceptable by other countries and employers without the need to be concerned whether one's doctorate is credible and viable. There is also the issue of the perceptions of colleagues regarding questionable degrees and it's impact on one's career. However, for the purposes of sole practice, such issues may be inconsequential and a questionable degree may work for them if it is not in violation of state statutes or specific state professional boards.

 

Or . . . it could be the same reason that a lot of other American corporations move out of the US . . . they are trying to lower their costs.

 

I agree, RA accreditation is very expensive so going overseas seem to be a logic step. However, this particular school is not cheap, their PhD in the 30K range while some of the accredited UK options are in the same range but with better reputation and a track of acceptability.
The school is not a member of the common wealth universities association and it is not listed in the UNESCO book that are the two main criteria to recognize a school.
For the price, I think is a risky option but they do have some programs that are unique to this school and also has a doctoral by publication option that might be attractive to some people in need of a legal doctorate.

It seems to have its market, otherwise it would be closed by now.

 

This is not my opinion but my experience with this school, which I have contacted on numerous occasions to discern if I could obtain valid information regarding the acceptability and validity of their degrees in the US, which I never received. In short, my experience with this school does not require me to defensively contact half a dozen non-US universities to bolster the credibility of my experience. I presented my experience with this school, and if you or any other poster wishes to verify the credibility of my experience please call this school and report your level of satisfaction with their response.

 

Well, I'm almost positive that if one contacts my alma mater and asks this question, they would not have an answer. Then again, it's a large public university, in a relatively large country with countless universities, that has all government approvals and comes up second or at least top 5 in most local ratings. I can't imagine any evaluator rejecting my diploma (between my wife and I, we got reports, for various purposes, from WES, WES Canada, ECE Inc., Joseph Silny, and Trustforte Corp.). So the fact that the sales rep you talked to didn't have an answer for you is neither indicative nor particularly surprizing.
OTOH, unlike my school, IUGS does heavily cater to Americans. Researching this issue is one of several obvious steps they could take to help their students with degree marketability. Sadly, I feel that they have all the students they can handle and do not feel pressure on this front.