What kind of employers will accept a DETC degree?

I am curious to know what kind of employers would hire someone with a DETC MBA or doctorate. I know that DETC is a good accreditation but it is not honored everywhere, maybe someday it will be. But until then, where would it benefit someone?

This is a rather trollish kind of post, but it is not intended to be. I do not want to start another war between the DETC guys and the RA guys. PLEASE, do not let it devolve into that. I will stop this thread if it does.

 

I work for State Government. The requirement is: "Must be recognized by USDOE and CHEA". So, my AA RA degree, along with my NA BS and MBA fit the bill perfectly.

As far as private companies? My job entails dealing with HR folks on a regular basis. Since NA issues really interest me, I often conduct informal experiments. I randomly ask HR people how they determine if a degree is valid (I have probably asked about 200 hundred or so over the years). Many turn to the USDOE and CHEA websites. Many check the "big black book" of recognized accreditors. I then asked a few HR pros (over lunch usually) to look up DETC. So far, the five that I asked responded with "Degree valid".

That is my experience. Short and simple.


Abner

 

I think things have probably evolved a bit since Rich and John looked at it back in the early 2000s.

I also suspect that in a lot of cases, the employers that won't accept a DETC degree are following some policy established by somebody at some point in the past, and nobody can be bothered to go back and revisit the policy.

It's also possible that there may be some bias by business owners who hold RA degrees and consider a "correspondence" degree to be substandard.

I don't think we can meaningfully answer the question until someone does another well-designed, statistically rigorous survey of employers.

 

"Kinds of employers":

Federal government (civilian)--yes
Military--yes, usually
State and local governments--lots of them, yes
Private (commercial and not-for-profit)--hit-and-miss; I suspect more hits
Academia (administrative)--hit-and-miss; I suspect more misses
Academia (faculty)--almost always no

 

Good post guys.

I have asked the HR section for State jobs located in Pennsylvania about this same issue while contemplating attending Harrison Middleton University. Their response was:

"As long as it is listed under the Department of Education, your okay."

 

Wow. This tells me that the utility of DETC has increased significantly in the past decade or so.

I'd still say that all other things being equal, RA is better (of course). Things aren't always equal though. Cost is a differentiator.

 

Teachers in NJ RA a must

Hi, RA is a must for teachers in the State of NJ. I do not think that will change. Please disagree with me if you have seen other documentation and post it. Many thanks. Hille

 

You are correct. They point you to CHEA, but then say one of the accrediting agencies must be the RA that they list.

New Jersey Licensure & Credentials - Regional Accreditation of a College or University

 

Thanks, Rich. Very informative.

 

What are you looking to do, Michael?

 

Thanks for the question, but I'm not looking to do anything really. I was just intrigued by the Aspen thread and the extreme low cost of the degrees and that made curious about the utility of a DETC degree.

I'm happy where I'm at, but I've got to admit the prices at Aspen are tempting. (Well, relatively happy anyway; I'm doing upper level statistics right now and that makes me want to commit hari-kari ...)

 

I don't blame you for being tempted. Aspen is a great school, and MBA has really increased my "Stature" in the contract side work that I do. I can know wear an MBA looking suit, and I have the MBA sheepsking as well. I love it!!!!!!!!! And I am not one penny in debt. The State does not reimburse of us education, which is funny because I am in the "Professional" worker designation. Anyway, I have paid for all my education out of pocket. Damn us public workers.

Abner

 

Even more tempting.

 

Just to set expectations: Of course the other thing to keep in mind is that very few jobs at the k-12 level (even in teaching) *require* a doctorate. So be sure that your undergrad and another other graduate degrees are RA. (and don't expect your DETC Ed.D. to help you in NJ)

 

I have interview hundreds of people and reviewed thousands of resumes over the past years and I have interview people with DETC degrees. The positions I was interviewing for were more about experience then the degree. A DETC degree is an accreditied degree so I have no problem with it.

Since many of the interviews were in Florida, a lot of people had degrees from FMU (now Everest) and I treated their degree just like any other. They got a checkmark in the box and I looked for the experience.

 

I work for a regionally accredited 2-year state technical college in Georgia. From what I can tell, they will generally accept both RA and NA degrees for non-teaching positions. Faculty are usually required to have RA degrees, though there are some faculty positions which do not require a degree at all.

I recently got a promotion to a technical position which required a Bachelor's degree, and my DETC degree satisfied the requirement.

 

This and other posts above lead me to believe that many in the business world make little distinction between DETC and RA. Academia is a different story.

 

USDOE is downgrading standards & confusing governments and peoples

As long as DETC is backed by the U.S. Department of Education, the government and employers will accept DETC degrees and will make no distinction between DETC and RA degrees, even if there are differences in quality.

Achieving RA status is significantly harder than achieving DETC status and, subsequently, teaching positions within collegiate-level academia will continue to require the possession of RA degrees.

Since the public and governments don't understand these qualitative differences, they will accept DETC degrees as being equal with RA degrees. The U.S. Department of Education has done a great disservice by further clouding this issue with blanket coverage of DETC degrees in the same category as RA degrees.

Eventually, the U.S. Department of Education will seize all control of all educational standards and accreditations, including k-12 and collegiate-level accreditation. Please worship the U.S. Department of Education and pay this beast homage.

Sing it with me... "We worship you USDOE... we worship you USDOE..."

 

The categorization by the USDOE of DETC doctorates in the same category with RA doctorates is a worst case scenario of dumbing down the American educational system -- and it's happening now. This blanket categorization is perceived by governments and peoples as being "equal."

 

My sense is that the objections in the real world are mostly related to Online v. B&M distinctions, which has nothing to do with NA v. RA, and remains a real obstacle to contend with. This NA v. RA debate, with the exception of academia and teaching credentials, is a red herring.