What happens if a school loses accreditation?

Hello,

I've applied and been accepted to Touro University International in the BSBA program and have registered for my first two classes starting December 8th.

I'm wondering, what happens if you earn a degree from an Institution that is RA but loses accreditation for one reason or the other? Does that mean your degree is now worthless? What if the school "goes out of business"? Again, is your degree worthless?

Is this something that happens very often or am I worrying too much? I hate to spend the next 2-4 years and all that money earning my BSBA and MBA to someday find my efforts were wasted.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thank you,

 

If a school loses accreditation, it dies a slow and painful death. If you graduated from that school, every one of your family and friends will continually laugh at your through the rest of your life. Your professional colleagues will point at you and snicker, and everyone will blame you for the school's loss of its credibility. You will lose your job, and even strangers will treat you as if you had the plague. Potential employers will refuse to interview you, let alone hire you, reasoning that if you had the stupidity to choose a school that lost its accreditation, surely you cannot be trusted to make sound business decisions. You will be reduced to welfare and food stamps, and your only friend will be the social worker whose job depends on your continued failure. Your diploma, even though framed and on the wall, will begin to deteriorate, serving as a constant reminder that you made a wrong decision that had lifelong consequences. You will suffer sexually, and will begin to fear even looking at yourself in the mirror. You will begin to drink yourself into a stupor using the old pewter beer mug you thought would bring you pride in your accomplishments. But there is hope - you will finally buy a copy of USA Today, find a degree mill advertising in the classified section, and buy one of their diplomas for $99. And even though your new credential has no credibility, at least you will recoup a sense of pride knowing that, since your new alma mater was never accredited in the first place, it has no accreditation to lose.

 

I am not an expert, however I would say that nothing happens. The accrediting agency should have a record of the schools that have passed on or lost their accreditation. If you graduate while your school is accredited, then you have an accredited degree. I would buy a copy of the ACE manual, "Accredited Post Secondary Institutions" for the year of graduation and keep it just in case.

 

Nothing happens, but it can be a bit of a hassle. Because employers tend not to look anyway, it likely will cause no problems. But if they looked for the school and didn't find it, you may or may not get to explain what happened. While not ideal, such a thing would seem to be rare.

 

There has to be something seriously wrong with the administration of a university for it to lose accreditation. Having said that, I honestly doubt that TUI will lose its accreditation. TUI has a better chance of becoming bankrupt than losing its accreditation.

 

Steve has expressed one set of possibilities. Rich has expressed another. I like them both but, for very different reasons.

The official answer (which is probably even less relevant than the entertaining answer) is that one's degree would remain accredited.

Regarding the question about records if the school goes away. This has happened in the past and the records have been passed to another RA school for adminstration purposes. I note that this is unlike unaccredited schools (if they ever kept records in the first place) when they go away the records are also lost.

 

One more option .

If the school lost accreditation, act fast and send your transcript to Credit Bank.
Maintain the transcript with UOSNY, EC for example.
Most of your RA credit will be on the current valid transcript.
ready to be sent to other schools and employers.

Maybe after taking additional class you will get additional RA degree from EC.

 

That RA credit on the current transcript will still be from a school that lost its accreditation. What's the point of transferring to a credit bank? In case the school shut down?

Bill

 

Steve

I couldn't stop laughing at your response. You made my day!

 

When I was doing admission/advising at a local university, I would regularly see credits from a junior college in town that had lost it's accreditation and closed shortly after. They did have all of their records transferred to another school. So, we would accept any credits that were taken there while they had their accreditation. I think the students had to pay a very hefty feel to get those transcripts, though. (The institution that took on the records had no connection to these students, so charged a rate significantly higher than the norm for their transcripts.)

 

And that was a response that was made nearly 10 years ago!

 

Earlier posts in this thread, from 2003:

Just to follow up ... what actually happened to TUI after those posts were written in 2003 ?

2005: Touro University International switches regional accreditation from MSCHE to WASC
2007: TUI sold to a for-profit company, re-established as "TUI University"
2009: Name changed to "Trident University International"
2011: Trident's accreditation nearly revoked, accreditor issues "show cause" letter.
2012: Accreditor withdraws "show cause" letter, but keeps Trident on probation.

So you never know what might happen. Right now, it does not appear that Trident will lose accreditation.
But they came darn close, and they are still on probation today.

 

Its very very difficult for a university to lose accreditation.

 

Wow! A ten year old thread!

 

For clarity - Trident almost lost their accreditation, not Touro University International. Touro University International no longer exists.