University of the People - Now RA (WASC)

[armado]

I just saw University of the People running ads claiming they now have RA (WASC)

[SteveFoerster]

I just saw University of the People running ads claiming they now have RA (WASC)

I wonder why? And I don't even mean that ED stopped recognizing that distinction five years ago. I mean that outside of forums like this full of degree nerds like us, few people have heard even of the perceptional difference between those categories. So who is that message for?

[Tomas]

I just saw University of the People running ads claiming they now have RA (WASC)

I wonder why? And I don't even mean that ED stopped recognizing that distinction five years ago. I mean that outside of forums like this full of degree nerds like us, few people have heard even of the perceptional difference between those categories. So who is that message for?

One of the reasons: Majority of UoPeople students are not from US. For many of them main concern is migration to another country or use in their home country.
In many countries nationally accredited degree has lesser value than regionally accredited. For example, while NA makes degree and use of the title legal, it might not be sufficient for recognition as equivalent to bachelor or master degree on local institutes, thus useless for further study or other purposes where such recognition is needed.

[DeanLewis]

I just saw University of the People running ads claiming they now have RA (WASC)

They also withdrew from DEAC recognition last month:

https://www.deac.org/wp-content/uploads/...ission.pdf

[SteveFoerster]

I just saw University of the People running ads claiming they now have RA (WASC)

I wonder why? And I don't even mean that ED stopped recognizing that distinction five years ago. I mean that outside of forums like this full of degree nerds like us, few people have heard even of the perceptional difference between those categories. So who is that message for?

One of the reasons: Majority of UoPeople students are not from US. For many of them main concern is migration to another country or use in their home country.
In many countries nationally accredited degree has lesser value than regionally accredited. For example, while NA makes degree and use of the title legal, it might not be sufficient for recognition as equivalent to bachelor or master degree on local institutes, thus useless for further study or other purposes where such recognition is needed.

Perhaps. But as we've discussed before, we really don't know how true that still is given that the US Department of Education stopped recognizing the distinction five years ago now. 

There really is a clear need for fresh research on this, both domestically and internationally.

[bjcheung77]

It was recent news that they are WASC now, I don't think they'll continue with DEAC either, they don't really need the extra accreditation. I remember way back when WGU had accreditation from 4 RA agencies and also DEAC at the same time.

[SteveFoerster]

It was recent news that they are WASC now, I don't think they'll continue with DEAC either, they don't really need the extra accreditation.  I remember way back when WGU had accreditation from 4 RA agencies and also DEAC at the same time.

Which meant they needed to go through five times as much bureaucracy to make program changes. There's no incentive to have more than one institutional accreditor.