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Part of 7 things to check before choosing online programs
Online programs accreditation: how to read the record
Online programs accreditation record: the five fields to read in an accreditor's entry, how to confirm the agency, and which questions the record cannot answer.
An accreditation entry is short, and every field in it answers something. This page reads one entry the way a distance student should: field by field, then against the Department of Education's own list.
Accreditation is one of three permissions that get blurred together. It is the one with a public record you can read in ten minutes.
What to take away
- The entry names the accreditor, the award levels, the locations, the current status and the date of the last action. Read all five.
- A distance division is normally inside its institution's accreditation, but the record states coverage by location and level, so read it.
- Confirm the accreditor on the Department of Education's recognized-agency list, then cross-check with CHEA.
- Business-school accreditation is a separate record from institutional accreditation.
- Two common questions are answered by nobody in the accreditation system: licensure, and whether the degree matches the campus one.
Why the record looks like this
The United States has no ministry that approves institutions. Private agencies do the quality review, and their own standing is recognized separately by the Department of Education. Permission to operate is a state matter.
The practical consequence for a distance student is that no one record answers every question. You need two or three, and each answers one question.
Find the entry, then confirm the agency
Look the institution up in the accreditor's own public directory, then search the Department of Education's Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP) and check which accreditor is recorded. The two should agree.
Then confirm the accreditor itself on the Department's recognized-agency list. An agency absent from that list is not federally recognized for Title IV purposes. Transfer credit is a separate decision made by the receiving school.
Examples of institutional accreditors listed by the Department include the Higher Learning Commission, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. These are examples, not a complete list.
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) also maintains a directory of accredited institutions and programs. Use it as a cross-check, and verify federal recognition through the Department's list.
Read the five fields
Check the accreditation entry
- Award levels covered
- Locations covered
- Distance division named separately
- Current status
- Date of last action
An entry can look reassuring while saying something narrower than the marketing page. Each field closes a different gap.
- The accreditor namedit must be the body you confirmed on the Department's list.
- The award levels covered, since an institution can be accredited for some and not others.
- The locations covered, including whether a distance division is named separately.
- The current status.
- The date of the last action.
A distance division is usually inside the institution's accreditation rather than accredited on its own. If the entry says something different, ask why, and read the answer carefully. The general checking routine, where the stakes are usually transfer rather than licensure, is set out in associate degrees accreditation.
Business-school accreditation is its own record
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) and the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE) accredit business schools or programs. Check the relevant accreditor's directory for the school or program.
A business listing says nothing about the institution's own standing, so read both entries. Accreditation is a floor and not a guarantee, an argument made at length in business schools online.
A fully online institution has an unfamiliar record
A distance-only institution shows one location, sometimes an administrative address in a state with no students, and an accreditor you may not recognize by name. The online programs guide covers planning around that.
None of it disqualifies the institution. Run the same checks in the same order: is the agency recognized, is the institution listed, what is the status, and what is the date?
Pay extra attention to transfer, because a receiving institution's policy sometimes distinguishes between accreditors in ways federal rules do not. A Government Accountability Office report found that receiving institutions consider the sending institution's type of accreditation, among other factors. Ask the institution you might transfer to, before you enroll rather than afterward.
Which question the record answers
Which permission answers it
- Will federal aid be available?
- Accreditation, by a recognized agency
- Will another institution read my transcript?
- Accreditation, plus that institution's own policy
- May the program teach me where I live?
- Authorization, possibly through reciprocity
- Does this satisfy a license where I live?
- None of the three; the board decides
- Is the degree the same as the campus one?
- None of the three; the institution decides
Where you look
- Will federal aid be available?
- The federal database entry
- Will another institution read my transcript?
- The register, then the receiving registrar
- May the program teach me where I live?
- The institution, in writing
- Does this satisfy a license where I live?
- The licensing board's own requirement
- Is the degree the same as the campus one?
- The institution, in writing
Which permission answers what
Question
- Federal aid available?
- Accreditation
- Transcript accepted?
- Accreditation + policy
- May teach where I live?
- Authorization/reciprocity
- Satisfies a license?
- None of the three
- Same as campus degree?
- None of the three
Permission
- Federal aid available?
- Federal database
- Transcript accepted?
- Register, registrar
- May teach where I live?
- Institution, in writing
- Satisfies a license?
- Licensing board
- Same as campus degree?
- Institution, in writing
Where to look
- Federal aid available?
- Transcript accepted?
- May teach where I live?
- Satisfies a license?
- Same as campus degree?
Two rows in that table are answered by nobody in the accreditation system, which is exactly why people get caught. For a licensed occupation such as accounting, check the board of accountancy in the state where you seek licensure.
No single record answers every question, and knowing which record answers which question is most of the skill. Use the table as a map before you start reading entries.
The other two permissions, briefly
State authorization is permission from a state to operate there, and reciprocity is an agreement that simplifies it. Neither is accreditation.
Under federal rules, a school offering distance education to students in a state where it is not physically located must meet that state's requirements to offer it there.
Ask the program, in writing, whether it is authorized in the state where you will physically be and under what arrangement. Ask what happens if you move. The state authorization rules for online management degrees are covered separately.
Reciprocity addresses authorization to operate. It does not decide whether a program meets a professional licensure requirement in a given state, which is a board's decision. Participation is a fact about the institution at a moment in time, so an old page claiming coverage is not evidence of current coverage.
