NCU or Columbia Southern for DBA - Warning...Long Winded

I exchanged a few emails with Belle S. Wheelan, SACS president about a year ago and this actually is not the case, appropriately accredited, if my memory serves, was the term used.

Do you have a reference about the RA terminal degree's?

 

True. NA docs of course just came on the scene, so to speak. The true test of their viability and utility will be in five to ten years perhaps. This should be enough time for the NA doc users to start entering either the corporate realm, or the academic realm. There is one gent who just received an RA doc, and will receive an NA doc next year I think. He is already a Professor, though I am not sure. This is a good example of NA degrees entering academe. This Prof has good standing, and so will his credentials, RA and NA. We will probably see more and more of this. So yes, it is probably a good time to come up with a fair policy.

Abner

 

I don't see the RA requirement:

http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/PrinciplesOfAccreditation.PDF

but I have often heard that RA degrees are required, and in fact see it in job postings.

 

older standard

http://www.epcc.edu/SACS/criteria.htm

"4.8.1 Selection of Faculty

An institution must show that it has an orderly process for recruiting and appointing its faculty. This process will normally involve developing a pool of qualified candidates and interviewing those who appear to be best qualified. Institutions are encouraged to recruit and select faculty with highest degrees earned from a broad representation of institutions. Recruitment and appointment procedures must be described in the faculty handbook or other published documents.

It is expected that an institution will employ faculty members whose highest earned degree presented as the credential qualifying the faculty member to teach at the institution is from a regionally accredited institution. If an institution employs a faculty member whose highest earned degree is from a non-regionally accredited institution within the United States or an institution outside the United States, the institution must show evidence that the faculty member has appropriate academic preparation."


embolding is mine. It seems that SACS has changed their current standard to remove the RA language.

 

don't see it here:

http://SACS Faculty Credentials

 

It looks like they completely revamped everything from the former Criteria for Accreditation:

http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/COC%20Research%20Project.pdf

 

Vey interesting! Especially since Wheelan SPOKE at this years DETC conference about accreditation! Also different from what she said a year ago, I’ll try and remember to go dig out those emails..

 

Wait, I'm confused. The link with the RA requirement is the CC's reposting of the SACS guidlines, but it isn't in the SACS posts, right? I know the link she sent me to the stuff on her website didn't have it as recently as 12 months ago..

 

Dave,

That is the OLD standard that was being referenced. I dug it up from the school's public files. I was trying to find a reference for what some of us have always heard about SACS requirements. The NEW standard does not have the RA requirement.

Sorry if I confused you.

 

This is correct. The SACS faculty credentials link has the current standard, which does not specify regional accreditation.

I did a little bit of looking and even found an individual whose highest degree is an MBA from a DETC-accredited school having recently been named a Department Chair at a SACS-accredited school. Granted it is a community college, but it is a SACS-accredited school nonetheless.

www.gtcc.edu/publications/pressReleases/docs/HollomanChairCriminalJustice.pdf

 

An opinion

Folks - I'm sure there are exceptions to the norm of faculty coming from RA schools. Accreditors may permit folks with NA degrees to "count" as faculty. But these are truly exceptions to the norm. Do you really want to battle the "NA" label in addition to the "DL" label? If so, good luck in searching for a job.

A better track is to obtain a degree from the highest quality institution that you can reasonably complete.

Regards - andy

 

False assertions should not go uncorrected, even if one has no intention of ever entering academia. I don't think anyone would contest that someone with a NA degree would have a very difficult time obtaining a tenure-track appointment at an RA school. It's quite another thing to say that an accreditation standard prevents that from ever happening when in fact it does not.

 

Randyp - I totally agree. Every so often I hear someone (at my institution or at another) say "we can't do... because of accreditation". The accreditation boggy man shows up whenever someone wants to do something that someone else doesn't like.

There are some things that accreditors will say "no" to. But there is a lot of folklore about things that "...we can't do because the accreditors won't let us.". Far more likely are things that institutions are unlikely to choose to do - like hire folks with NA doctorates for tenure track positions.

Regards - Andy

 

Although I teach at a small rural community college - I thought I would weigh in on this...

I posed the NA question to our assessment coordinator - who also does site visits for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). I posed the question because of the tuition-free program at Andrew Jackson University (AJU) could we use AJU to upgrade some of our faculty credentials.

After posing the question to some of her colleagues - the answer was yes. In most cases, HLC defers faculty qualifications to the institution. This is an institutional decision.

That being said, if you want to teach, there will be far more opportunities for the RA degree in academia than NA. Not saying that's fair, but that's the way it is...

Shawn

 

Seems like a perfect opportunity for your employer to craft an agreement with AJU.

 

I agree - but academia moves slowly...

We have a few other things we need to focus on first...

Shawn