Posted on 11/19/2010 6:40:03 AM PST by Academiadotorg
Parents and students who breathe a sigh of relief because the college of their choice is “accredited” may want to wait to exhale. “The main reason for this failure is that the system relies too heavily on colleges to self-regulate,” Andrew Gillen, Daniel L. Bennett and Richard Vedder write in a paper for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP). “For example 83% of the board for Middle States Commission on Higher Education is comprised of people that work for institutions that they then accredit.”
“Similar numbers are just as pervasive in the other regional accreditors.” With insiders grading themselves, it might not be so startling that they view a lighter work load as a barometer of a quality education. Campbell University found itself in the crosshairs of an accrediting agency because the university’s 15-hour-a-week teaching limit exceeded the accreditors’ more humane 12-hour-a-week standard.
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...
Accreditation is large use of administrator time. It is justification for many administrativie positions. Accreditation helps maintain the current cottage industry status of higher education. Higher education is stuck in a time warp, clinging to a cottage industry mentality in the face of new ways to deliver its product.
Nothing demonstrates the mentality more than online course offerings. Online course offerings typically cost more than traditional course offerings. Universities typically contract to third parties to provide course shells and help desks. Students are typically charged $100 per course surcharge.
The only savior for higher education is private sector initiatives that will force a different model. The higher education establishment (both public and private) does not want to change. The recession has barely touched higher education. Next year in Colorado looks like the recession will finally visit my university. My colleagues can only state, “why do the people of Colorado not support higher education?”
And it’s even worse than this.
In a further attempt to maximize profits, colleges are pushing on-line courses. Nothing wrong with that, except that there is usually no oversight when it comes to on-line exams. It’s the honor system.
So you have many people cheating their way through. Either by using materials on closed-book exams, or simply having someone take the exam for them.
Over time, this will greatly reduce the value of a degree, and that will ripple through organizations that require degreed employees.
The solution is simple. Require exams to be given at central locations that can be monitored. But I guess that’s too much of a hassle.
They can start with schools which offer a Doctorate in Social Justice, like UMass/Amherst.
We can file this right next to:
I teach at a for profit college and we are spending an entire year preparing for our next accreditation. My institution takes accreditation very seriously.
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