College Accreditation: A True False Test

Here's a college entrance exam no accredited college or university will ever give to their entering students.  Perhaps they should if Truth is what they seek. It requires answering three statements with either a True or      False response. Each incorporates major ethical issues plaguing American higher education. The fall out of the  answers may affect potential students everywhere                                  

Number I. A legitimate college degree is only earned through a school accredited by an agency approved  by the US Department of Education.                                                                                      

                                                 True / False                                                                                              

 Number II. A degree of any kind -- Associate of Arts to a PhD -- received from a college or university     other than one accredited by a US Department of Education approved agency is or should be considered a

diploma mill.                                                                                                                                                 

                                                  True / False                                                                                              

Number III. A college/university degree accredited by a US Department of Education agency guarantees graduates a job.                                                                                                                                         

                                                   True / False                                                                                             

The Answer KEY:                                                                                                                                  

Number I. Not one single institution of higher learning in America, not one, is, or ever has been, required    to have accreditation awarded by any agency approved or not approved by the US Department of Education.    In America, accredited schools covet and may even flaunt their regional accreditation so that they can attract    students. The applicants may not be able to afford the education but will easily qualify for federal guaranteed     student loans to pay the school's tuition. Colleges are paid directly from the Feds. The number of students on     guaranteed student aid now exceeds 80 percent of the learner populations in most public and private colleges in America.            

It has been suggested that should the US federal guaranteed student loan program cease to exist tomorrow, the number of students attending American accredited colleges and universities would drop more than half by nightfall. The rest would dwindle by half again by the end of the last paid semester. Tuition costs, even in state  schools, are increasing so rapidly it is prohibitive for most students to attend were it not for the student loan   program. The only way for a college to get on the Government guaranteed student loan list is to be accredited   by an approved by a US Ed Department private agency,                                                                          

Are the schools driven purely by the economic factor to stay in business and prosper? Many suggest the real   motive of American accredited colleges in sustaining accreditation and paying the huge fees demanded by accrediting agencies and dealing with assessment visits from peers to analyze their programs is indeed driven  by economic advantage.                                                                                    

Detractors also suggest the accreditation deception assures a closed higher education monopoly along with the  ability to increase tuition without objection. Historically this is an enabling ongoing unobstructed private access   to billions of dollars of student guaranteed education funding. Thousands of potentially competing schools, among them the best in the world, are left out of the loop. They cannot touch this federal money even though    they are licensed in their home states or accredited by a foreign jurisdiction. These outcasts not only include      new online and distance education schools, they also count in their midst colleges that are older than the USA    and have been teaching and putting out scholars for two, three, and four hundred years.                                   

Number II. Thus, the idea that any school not accredited by a US approved agency must be a diploma or   degree mill is a perception that is also totally false. This mythical conclusion has all the earmarks of an ongoing   conspiracy. It seems to have originated with the FBI's infamous DipScam investigation years back when a lone agent and his staff zealously took on the paper mills -- those schools that would give you a degree for a few      hundred bucks and mastermind a bogus transcript for you to boot.                                                                   

The FBI undercover job has long since been discounted as a grand waste of taxpayer money. Even though the  agent in charge gathered over 200 bogus degrees to prove the point that more money was needed to thwart the growth of mills via the Internet, Congress realized the the problem was not with the mills but with the demand    of the public to seek out and acquire a credential whether it was worth the paper it was printed on or not. it is    the public that demands easy and fast and the mills were only meeting the need. That is Basic Marketing 101.   The public drives the market, not the other way around. The attention, however, did change the way the diplomas were marketed.            

The original diploma mills that survive, reinvented themselves and continue to do a robust business by just          labeling what they offer as FAKE. They sell degrees and transcripts by the thousands just like they used to. It's almost a  billion dollar a year business. It turns out that defining what a diploma mill is and what phonies actually meet the profile is actually pretty easy. It doesn't take a physics professor to point out whether a school has a    place in the cosmos. But those in love with the concept that all colleges need to be accredited choose to propagate the myth that a school not accredited is a diploma mill. Thus, the conspiracy to perpetrate the myth to cast all unaccredited or foreign accredited institutions as degree mills remain unabated.                                    

The attitude is 'accreditation arrogance' because the first principle of American higher education is pretty  simple - Accreditation is voluntary, and a college or university has a choice to seek, or not seek, American accreditation.                                                                                                                  

Number III. The final fallacy is that one must attend an accredited school because employers will not hire  an applicant if the degree comes from an unaccredited college or university.                          

Let's put the cards on the table. Human relation departments are not charged by their CEO's to make sure job   applicants graduated from an accredited school before they are hired although HR departments are becoming    more aware of what is and what is not a good degree and how to prove it. In at least one western state in  America, college graduates must meet this requirement for every job in state government that requires a  degree. Over 150 nations, American states, religious organizations license schools to operate and offer  approved degree programs. Colleges and universities in these nations and those in most of the world find degrees earned from institutions licensed in these countries and specialty organizations perfectly legitimate.        

The question any prospective student should ask is "will my degree be recognized?" not "Is the school        accredited?" USA accreditation guarantees nothing except a perceived status but it alone is not even the    guarantee of a transfer into another so-called accredited school. If you doubt that, stop by the registrar's office at a claimed accredited college and ask if the degree from that institution will guarantee admission into the  graduate program of another 'accredited' school other than programs they possess internally. Sadly, jobs are   never guaranteed for grads, anywhere, regardless of the school, or so-called best of the best.                  

There are absolutely no guarantees.                                                                                                        

The real benefactor in all this is you. Look beyond the scarlet letter from American accreditation fanatics would have you wear if you choose to attend a perfectly legitimate and respected unaccredited institution. If  you can afford to break the yoke of servitude put on by the private regional accrediting agencies and the US Department of Education and get past them without a student loan, then alternative higher education choices become endless and to say the least an endless opportunity.                                                                            

Worldwide 17,000 institutions of higher learning exist that are approved; only about 3000 are USA accredited.   Would you want a degree from a 200 year old international institution that reeks of well known graduates or a   recently accredited university that is five years old. In this lite, accreditation of the type put upon us by the education industry in the USA is nothing but propaganda of the worst kind.                                                      

With the advent of the Internet and instant Virtual education access, selecting a school outside the USA is far  more available then ever before. Do not be afraid to find the College that suits you even if it is located 12,000   miles away.                                                                                                           

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The Author: Dr.Fred DiUlus is the founder  and volunteer director of the Center for Ethics in Free Enterprise, the 15 year old  founder of Global Academy Online, Inc, the international university builder. Dr., D is a frequent public speaker, author  of over 20 books including the Federal Financial Digest and The Federal Financial Register Series that exposed hundreds     of corrupt banks and savings and loans and banks during the 1980's..,He is the author of the popular Free eBook BEST          WORST in ONLINE DEGREE PROGRAM PROVIDERS