Monday, April 6, 2009

Higher Education Reauthorization Act

This came up in class on Saturday, about how schools are now required to take all credits from institutions regardless of accreditation. I looked more into the specifics and here is a brief summary:

"Student achievement: The act reflects the essential historic distinction and collaborative relationship between institutional standards and accreditation standards regarding student achievement. An institution sets its own specific standards and measures consistent with its mission and within the larger framework of the accreditation standards. In consultation with institutions, accreditors set common standards that are used to review all of the institutions they accredit."

Basically, as Dr. Syb pointed out, it puts the responsibility back on the school to determine the academic nature of the course and whether to give credit. The act dictates that schools are required to review all credits that a student has taken. So, before when a school would not even look at a transcript because the institution was not accredited, now it is required to accept and review all transcripts. The question becomes, does doing this lower the standards of higher ranking schools that pride themselves on academic responsibility?

Ginger

3 comments:

  1. Being a tansfer student i actually understood why all my classes were not all compatible with TSU's requirements for my field of study because the same subjects may study different areas but it would have been nice to be able to use my credits as electives that would have knocked off at least a semester.

    Angela Branch

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  2. I think this lessens the value of the institutions’ degrees if they start taking unaccredited college credits. If people can take electives from some “online program” for $200 then they are going to do the cheapest method. If they can then transfer them as electives to their desired school they want to graduate from get ready for an influx of “educated” graduates.

    Lori

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  3. Well, I do think the schools should be accredited that we accept credits from. If they are not, the standards would not be equal. On the other hand, since the university can decide if they actually go to the major or not, giving them as electives is not so bad. You only need a limited number of electives so we could still hold our general education and major courses at the high standard.

    I am thinking this keeps universities from denying credits so students will have to retake the classes and generate income at the new univeristy. I would say that happens in some instances. (not here, of course)

    Nanci

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