Rewriting the Rule Book for College Accreditors

ohhhh outsourcing content..... very controversial. I can see why a college would have a strong opinion of their own, but not 100% sure why they would care if this happened at other RA universities besides their own.

 

The British have been outsourcing content for generations with their "validation" process, where you can study at a "Listed body" (College B) for a degree awarded by a "Recognized body" (University A).

https://www.gov.uk/check-a-university-is-officially-recognised

I personally like this when the "listed body" has special expertise in a particular subject. These kind of collaborations can dramatically increase a university's available resources.

The small city of Cambridge England is a hotbed of this in the sciences...

Cambridge's Babraham Institute has a PhD program in Life Sciences, where the degrees are awarded by Cambridge University. Babraham is famous in its own right and hosts lots of research, so it works (not unlike UCSD and the Salk Institute).

https://www.babraham.ac.uk/vacancies-training/phd-programme

The MRC (Medical Research Council) Laboratories of Molecular Biology in Cambridge also offer a PhD that's awarded by Cambridge University.

https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/students/international-phd-programme/

The British Antarctic Survey (also based in Cambridge) hosts research students from many British universities.

https://www.bas.ac.uk/science/science-and-students/nerc-doctoral-training-partnerships/

Another in the seemingly endless supply of these is the Wellcome Sanger Institute located at the 'Wellcome Genome Campus' a short distance south of Cambridge. This one too offers a PhD that's awarded by the U. of Cambridge.

https://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/study/phd-programmes/4-year-phd-programme

There are some technical and engineering schools run by the British military that award other universities' degrees, whose professional recognition is probably more a function of that military connection than the name of whatever university awards the degree.

I personally like the New College of the Humanities in London. I'm not sure who awards all of its degrees, but its Philosophy MA is awarded by the U. of Swansea. Again, NCH probably has a stronger reputation in philosophy than Swansea, based largely on the list of philosophers associated with it (Simon Blackburn, A.C. Grayling, Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer and others teach for them part-time.) It's a place that other philosophers probably will of heard of.

https://www.nchlondon.ac.uk/

But having said all that... most of the "listed bodies" look to my eye to be weaker than the university that actually awards the degrees their students earn. A few even seem to be a little flaky. They don't impress me nearly as much.

Even if a student enrolls directly in a DL program offered by a "recognized body" authorized to award its own degrees, the specific program might actually be taught by something like Laureate Education. The Brits call it "collaborative provision".

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/aqsd/collaborative-provision/laureate/

I've personally never liked that practice, it's a little too close to "bait-and-switch" for my taste. Nope, don't like it.

 

outsourcing content to non-accredited third parties is one thing but easing standards for accreditors could allow poor oversight of marginal institutions.