US State Licensed & Registered - UK Accredited - Thoughts?

[bjcheung77]

While searching for local, national, and international graduate programs I've been noticing a few schools nowadays that are physically located in the US and even though they are state approved, licensed, and registered, they are not Regionally Accredited nor Nationally Accredited, but accredited by UK agencies such as ACIS or BAC, etc.

UK accreditation is very similar to other commonwealth nations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.  All their degree granting colleges and universities have a Royal Charter from the province or state approving each institution of higher learning.

The main non-degree qualifications for the UK are the following: Ofqual in England and the Qualifications in Wales, The Scottish Qualifications Authority and The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment in Northern Ireland

Then there is the ACIS and BAC, for international colleges and universities worldwide.  Last but not least, the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council (ODLQC) - they have a very small list and I am not sure why some schools who already have ACIS or BAC choose to get ODLQC as well.  Nothing much interests me except the two TEFL providers, List is here:  https://www.odlqc.org.uk/accredited-providers

ACIS International Directory (search by Location): http://www.asicuk.com/international-directory/
BAC has a list of about 230 institutions globally that they accredit, link: https://www.the-bac.org/directory/
(Side Note: Charisma University no longer is accredited by ACIS or BAC)

Anyways, when I searched by location USA, about 25 institutions came up and a few of them are pretty interesting and have been talked about before on such as Atlantic International University, Nexford and whatever is on that list...  The only program that caught my eye is Atlantic International University's PhD programs.

Andragogic and Pedagogic Online Program, the Andragogic ones are affordable for the Phd, at $8,500 tuition.  However, the accreditation, recognition or reputation of the school is the question, would you go for a degree from them?  The pricing just can't be beat... https://www.aiu.edu/Tuition.html

Maybe... But first, I want to enroll in a Neuroscience program from Universidad Isabel I & SAERA partnership, since Universidad Isabel I is accredited by the Spanish authority, this Masters degree is $3500 Euro and is so much more affordable than taking it directly from Isabel I...  And second, a PhD from UCN in Psychology for about the same tuition as AIU.

[eLearner]

ASIC is not an accreditor in the U.S. sense. To my knowledge, they only look after immigration issues related to education in the UK and the rest of what they're doing is actually beyond the reach and scope of what they're supposed to be doing. BAC appears to do some of the immigration stuff as well, and I'm not sure of what legitimacy its accreditation has overall because it's always been my understanding that if a school is not an officially recognized body in the UK they cannot legally award degrees. So for me, this is where I would be looking first:

https://www.gov.uk/check-a-university-is...recognised

As for AIU, that ASIC accreditation has no standing in the United States because it doesn't have institutional accreditation standing in the UK in the same sense that U.S. institutional accreditation would. So, AIU is unaccredited. You'd be better off with the Isabel-SAERA deal and then UCN since proper institutional accreditation/approvals are in place for those programs.

[JWells247]

Interesting. I wonder how WES would interpret credits from the programs at these schools. Neuroscience sounds so cool. Will check out the Isabel SAERA program.

[Sagan]

ASIC accreditation does not grant any form of recognition or equivalence of the degrees issued by an ASIC-accredited school. In other words, it's meaningless when determining the acceptability of foreign degrees used here in the U.S.

[ss20ts]

They sound like diploma mills. If you're in the US, you need something from a NA or RA school.

[Sagan]

They sound like diploma mills. If you're in the US, you need something from a NA or RA school.

Or from a foreign school with comparable recognition. One that would withstand a foreign degree evaluation here in the US.

[SteveFoerster]

They sound like diploma mills. If you're in the US, you need something from a NA or RA school.

Not necessarily, I mean there a few edge cases where state approval is good enough, like those distance JD programs that are bar qualifying in California (and Wisconsin IIRC). But that said, if I were that keen to save money I'd go with UCN before something like this.

[ss20ts]

They sound like diploma mills. If you're in the US, you need something from a NA or RA school.

Or from a foreign school with comparable recognition. One that would withstand a foreign degree evaluation here in the US.

A foreign school in the US without ANY US accreditation? Yup sounds like a diploma mill or a scam. If you have a branch of your "college" in the US, then the US branch should go through the process to get accreditation in the US.

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They sound like diploma mills. If you're in the US, you need something from a NA or RA school.

Not necessarily, I mean there a few edge cases where state approval is good enough, like those distance JD programs that are bar qualifying in California (and Wisconsin IIRC). But that said, if I were that keen to save money I'd go with UCN before something like this.

California is the only state that accepts a degree from an online law school. Purdue Global has this school and says that Cali is the only place you can take the bar. The American Bar Association does not recognize the online degree nor do they recognize any online law degree. A JD is quite a bit different than a bachelor's and master's degree also.

[SteveFoerster]

California is the only state that accepts a degree from an online law school. Purdue Global has this school and says that Cali is the only place you can take the bar. The American Bar Association does not recognize the online degree nor do they recognize any online law degree. A JD is quite a bit different than a bachelor's and master's degree also.

Sort of. Wisconsin will let you sit the bar there if you've passed it anywhere else in the U.S. So, California distance JD, then California bar, then Wisconsin bar.

The same is true of a few other states, but in those cases you have to practice for a number of years first.