University of London

Is the American Accreditation the University of London holds any good? Would you still have to get your degree evaluated? They have it through the American academy of liberal education or am I reading this wrong?

American Academy for Liberal Education: Accredited and Certified Members

 

AALE is a legitimate accreditation body recognized by USDE:

http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg8.html

So, it's legit, anyways ... dunno how recognized it would be. My guess (having no experience with this sort of thing) would be that you'd still probably need to have it evaluated.

 

Evaluate for what? The U of L is an internationally recognized institution on its own merits and fully meets GAAp standards. I have no idea why the feel this minor accreditation will be of any benefit.

 

You have to get an international degree evaluated to enter US masters programs, government licenses..etc. GAAP means crap. I'm guessing this would save someone from having to do that step. GAAP? Was that a joke?

 

AALE is a USDoE-recognized accreditation agency that focuses on undergraduate liberal arts programs. For US purposes, it represents NA. AALE currently accredits only about 10 schools in the US, mostly small religious schools.

AALE also accredits a number of non-US schools, including the University of London's "External Programme". Not sure what the advantage is to UoL. It may be that holding USDoE-recognized accreditation allows Americans who enroll in UoL distance programs to qualify for Federal financial aid.

 

The term "GAAP", for "generally accepted accrediting principles" (or "generally accepted accrediting practices"), is often used to describe foreign schools that have the equivalent of US regional accreditation. For example, the degreeinfo website advertises for sponsors using this term:

 

What's wrong with its British accreditation? It's overseen by the QAA and all that. I think that pretty much every American university will consider it RA-equivalent just as a matter of course.

Quite likely. The evaluation wouldn't really be concerned with accreditation. It would be more to determine whether the content of the overseas degree corresponds to what's expected in a domestic degree. That shouldn't be a problem with the U. of London. It's more of an issue if somebody has an unfamiliar foreign degree title like 'Laureate' that leaves people scratching their heads and wondering what it is.

The evaluation would also be concerned with more mundane issues like how many American course-credits each British 'module' should receive. That way, if an American university wanted to credit some but not all of your British modules towards their domestic program, they would have an idea how many units to transfer in.

 

Its seems to hold AALE accreditation as well Bill. What is that worth?

 

I don't see the point of AALE accreditaton for UoL.

As noted above, there are only about 10 schools in the US with AALE accreditation, generally small religious colleges and/or "Great Books" schools. And of these, about half are also RA. So there are only about 4-5 schools in the US that rely exclusively on AALE for their accreditation, and they are probably schools that you have never heard of. So even in the US, AALE accreditation is nothing to get excited about.

AALE says the following about their accreditation of international schools:

The AALE "seal of approval" might possibly be helpful for a new and unknown foreign school seeking to attract US students by DL. However, I don't think the University of London needs AALE to lend it international credibility.

 

The more I think about it must have something to do with FA.

 

Not at all US schools.
When I was at CSUDH two fellow students entered the MSQA program, one with a three year UK BS degree and one with a three year South African BS degree. They admitted without having to go to an external evaluation service (there was a few minor hurdles but the dept head assured admin that both degrees were acceptable).

 

Here's another puzzling point about the relationship between AALE and UoL.

Every USDoE-recognized accreditor has a specifically-defined geographic or academic niche. For example, WASC's niche is regional accreditation in the western states. ABA's niche is legal education, ABET's niche is engineering, etc.

AALE's officially recognized niche is "institutions of higher education and programs within institutions of higher education that offer liberal arts degrees at the baccalaureate level." In other words, AALE accredits bachelor's programs in liberal arts. Not surprisingly, the schools accredited by AALE in the US are generally liberal arts colleges.

But most UoL external degree programs don't seem to fit this mold. It's true that UoL does offer bachelor's degrees in fields like history or philosophy, and it might be reasonable for AALE to accredit those. But most of the interest in UoL on this board seems to revolve around their graduate and professional degrees, like the LLB/LLM, the MSc in Organizational Psychology, the MBA in Banking, etc.

AALE is simply not a credible accreditor for programs like this. AALE has USDoE recognition as an accreditor, but only for BA degrees in liberal arts. It's difficult to see how AALE recognition could be applicable or helpful for UoL's graduate or professional degree programs, given that AALE has no authority to accredit such degrees in the US.

 

Is this something they just did? or has everyone know about this already?

 

AALE apparently accredited UoL's "External Programmes" (now renamed the "International Programmes") in 2004. However, no one seems to have noticed, most likely because UoL doesn't seem to advertise the connection. Maybe they did so in the past, but now the only mention of it that I can find is at the AALE website.

 

If I earned any type of degree from any non-US university then I would have it evaluated for US equivalency by an appropriate agency. The reason for this is simple. If I'm in a job interview and the question is raised, then I produce the report and the matter is settled. Also, it creates the impression that you cover all your bases and anticipate situations well.

 

AALE's accreditation of the UoL DL programs remains valid through 2014. Yet as far as I can tell, UoL has no mention whatsoever of this accreditation on its current website.

If UoL doesn't think that their AALE accreditation is worth advertising, then maybe that should tell you something about its potential value to American students.

 

What are you trying to say? Please be explicit.

 

British university degrees typically lack US accreditation. However, the University of London's DL programs (the "International Programme") are currently accredited by AALE, a US accreditation agency. AALE is a relatively small and little-known agency, but it does have official USDoE recognition.

The Original Poster asked if the AALE accreditation added any value to UoL degrees. The answer appears to be "no".

If the AALE accreditation was valuable, then presumably UoL would make of point of telling people about it -- especially Americans. But instead, there is zero mention (that I could find) of AALE at the current UoL website. In fact, UoL even has a page specifically for potential DL students from the USA. This would obviously be a perfect place to highlight UoL's American accreditation. Yet AALE is not mentioned at all.

For some unknown reason, UoL decided to pursue AALE accreditation in the early 2000s, and it was awarded in 2004. But it would seem that UoL no longer cares about this accreditation (although AALE indicates that UoL still has it). UoL is still shown as an accredited school at the AALE website -- but the UoL website does not seem to acknowledge this relationship at all.

 

............................