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The first question I always ask of these weird online universities is, are they regionally accredited? National accreditation is not really a high bar and isn’t

The first question I always ask of these weird online universities is, are they regionally accredited? National accreditation is not really a high bar and isn’t considered competitive; all legitimate institutions of higher learning should qualify for and receive regional accreditation from an appropriate authority before considering such study in one’s best interest. This online learning site is eligible for regional accreditation as of 2020, but they really play up the eligibility in a way that seems suspect. They aren’t clear if they have even applied, but they have 5 years to apply until they have to have a redetermination of eligibility. Not saying this is a scam, but it feels like a scam. This site was very hard to find, for what it’s worth. https://www.uopeople.edu/student-experience/quality/accreditation/ https://www.uopeople.edu/student-experience/quality/accredit...

uopeoplestudent 6y ago
Not yet. They started the process a few months ago.
BigChiefSmokem 6y ago
So what makes regional accreditation so great? Do other countries have it? Why can’t a major regional body go national? Is it the law? It all sounds like a scam from that to textbooks.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- uopeoplestudent 6y ago
  Regional accreditation is the "gold standard" in the US. National accreditation is consider below that. However, the school is accredited by the DEAC which is recognized by the US Department of Education. (Some have tried to claim the school is unaccredited, but that is false.)
- jcrawfordor 6y ago
  To somewhat oversimplify, the regional accreditation bodies (about a half dozen of them) are older and better established than the national accreditation bodies. They generally have 100+ year histories, accredit all of the major universities within their jurisdiction, and in general have acquired a great deal of respect throughout US academia. National accreditation boards in general, and especially those that are not field-specific, are seen as being less rigorous, faster to accredit, and more profit- or prestige-motivated than the regional accreditation boards. Most are relatively new and some of the most prominent (e.g. ACICS) have been involved in specific controversy over the quality of their work. Because the regional accrediting boards are older and better respected, the first question about a university that advertises a national accreditation tends to be "why aren't they regionally accredited?". It is both symptom and cause of this difference that most for-profit and otherwise "questionable" institutions are nationally accredited and not regionally accredited. While some national accreditation bodies are considered rigorous and respectable (e.g. ABET), they tend to be field-specific (in the case of ABET, engineering) and often require regional accreditation as a prerequisite to accredit a university, as they consider regional accreditation to be the indication that the broader learning institution is able to provide a quality program. Usually specific departments or colleges of a university will go to these types of accreditation boards to add a credential to specific programs (e.g. "ABET accredited computer science program") above and beyond the university already having a regional accreditation.
- phaus 6y ago
  Short version: Its not great but if you want your credits to transfer you go to a regionally accredited school. Its old and spent a large part of its history entrenching itself in the American education industry, therefore its automatically granted legitimacy. There are schools with a shit curriculum that have regional accreditation. The reason it matters to Americans is because most large universities are more significantly more accepting of transferring credits that come from a regionally accredited school. I've been to nationally and regionally accredited schools. My degree was from a top 200 school in the US. The classes I took at the "lesser" institution were significantly more rigorous and significantly more effective at teaching skills relevant to the major I was studying. I've known several people that went to schools that have been sued or otherwise have terrible reputations for being predatory for profit schools like ITT and the University of Phoenix. Their coursework was frequently more difficult than mine. To be fair though, those schools were sued partly because of their shady high pressure sales tactics and for tricking people into taking on massive amounts of debt to take classes. That's pretty scummy, but based on the experiences of my friends it seemed like they at least had legitimate work to do in order to graduate. Note: I don't doubt that on average the regionally accredited schools have been more thoroughly vetted. I'm just saying accreditation is not even close to perfect so the only reason it matters in the US is because the credits are easily transferable.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
non-entity 6y ago
> Not saying this is a scam, but it feels like a scam. Not directly related to your specific concern, but every attempt to make a open / democratized degree has felt like that to me, unfortunately. Example: There was an online degree program I saw that awarded a real, regionally accredited degree from a state university. The degree and course work were exactly the same, but the online program was basically open. No admission requirements except to pay for and pass some pre-requisites that would then grant you access to the rest of the degree. The equivalent brick and motar program went through the typical admissions process. My first thought: "this sounds very close to for-profit school".
- uopeoplestudent 6y ago
  I've attended several schools online at both the undergrad and graduate level including a for-profit school. I don't find much different between them because they've all followed an asynchronous approach. However, UoPeople is different in that it's much, much less instructor led. They use a "peer learning" pedagogical approach. It's something I quite dislike about the school. I consider it to be poorly implemented and leads to problems like "revenge grading." However, I tolerate it because it allows me to study in a structured environment for less than I'd pay at my local community college. It's not something I would recommend for weak learners and/or for many who need a regionally accredited degree.
  - misterhtmlcss 6y ago
    I'm there not because I need it either. I graduated from a software bootcamp and I've already been working for 2 yeast, so I'm good. However I found out UoPeople and researched them a bit e.g. called a local college 's HR department to find out if they'd recognize someone with a degree from there to teach and they said yes. My next thought was to review the Visa process for a couple countries; this is my primary interest and motivation. None of them specified where the Degree came from only that it was a sanctioned/Accredited institution. So I don't really care about the details. I learn more, great, but otherwise I'm happy because I just want to be able to apply to get into Europe or Asia as a software developer in the future and not worry about whether I have enough points, etc to pass the rigor. All of that being said, the first course was a gong show with lots of academic violations, but like all things in life it's what you put into it and I plan on graduating with Honors, so even if it's a weak degree I'll still be able to respect my work and effort.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
dhdersch 6y ago
I graduated from Bob Jones University. During my time there, BJU was Nationally Accredited and not Regionally Accredited. This didn't personally affect me very much, but I know of many people who had difficulty getting into graduate school or professional work because of this. A degree from a nationally accredited university limits your options. I'm not saying you'll be completely screwed if you get it, but not as many graduate schools will consider you.
efeoja 6y ago
Uopeople is not a scam . It's like every other institution of learning with qualified instructors . Make your research well before you make any comment.

uopeoplestudent 6y ago

Not yet. They started the process a few months ago.

BigChiefSmokem 6y ago

So what makes regional accreditation so great? Do other countries have it? Why can’t a major regional body go national? Is it the law? It all sounds like a scam from that to textbooks.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
uopeoplestudent 6y ago
Regional accreditation is the "gold standard" in the US. National accreditation is consider below that. However, the school is accredited by the DEAC which is recognized by the US Department of Education. (Some have tried to claim the school is unaccredited, but that is false.)
jcrawfordor 6y ago
To somewhat oversimplify, the regional accreditation bodies (about a half dozen of them) are older and better established than the national accreditation bodies. They generally have 100+ year histories, accredit all of the major universities within their jurisdiction, and in general have acquired a great deal of respect throughout US academia. National accreditation boards in general, and especially those that are not field-specific, are seen as being less rigorous, faster to accredit, and more profit- or prestige-motivated than the regional accreditation boards. Most are relatively new and some of the most prominent (e.g. ACICS) have been involved in specific controversy over the quality of their work. Because the regional accrediting boards are older and better respected, the first question about a university that advertises a national accreditation tends to be "why aren't they regionally accredited?". It is both symptom and cause of this difference that most for-profit and otherwise "questionable" institutions are nationally accredited and not regionally accredited. While some national accreditation bodies are considered rigorous and respectable (e.g. ABET), they tend to be field-specific (in the case of ABET, engineering) and often require regional accreditation as a prerequisite to accredit a university, as they consider regional accreditation to be the indication that the broader learning institution is able to provide a quality program. Usually specific departments or colleges of a university will go to these types of accreditation boards to add a credential to specific programs (e.g. "ABET accredited computer science program") above and beyond the university already having a regional accreditation.
phaus 6y ago
Short version: Its not great but if you want your credits to transfer you go to a regionally accredited school. Its old and spent a large part of its history entrenching itself in the American education industry, therefore its automatically granted legitimacy. There are schools with a shit curriculum that have regional accreditation. The reason it matters to Americans is because most large universities are more significantly more accepting of transferring credits that come from a regionally accredited school. I've been to nationally and regionally accredited schools. My degree was from a top 200 school in the US. The classes I took at the "lesser" institution were significantly more rigorous and significantly more effective at teaching skills relevant to the major I was studying. I've known several people that went to schools that have been sued or otherwise have terrible reputations for being predatory for profit schools like ITT and the University of Phoenix. Their coursework was frequently more difficult than mine. To be fair though, those schools were sued partly because of their shady high pressure sales tactics and for tricking people into taking on massive amounts of debt to take classes. That's pretty scummy, but based on the experiences of my friends it seemed like they at least had legitimate work to do in order to graduate. Note: I don't doubt that on average the regionally accredited schools have been more thoroughly vetted. I'm just saying accreditation is not even close to perfect so the only reason it matters in the US is because the credits are easily transferable.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

non-entity 6y ago

> Not saying this is a scam, but it feels like a scam. Not directly related to your specific concern, but every attempt to make a open / democratized degree has felt like that to me, unfortunately. Example: There was an online degree program I saw that awarded a real, regionally accredited degree from a state university. The degree and course work were exactly the same, but the online program was basically open. No admission requirements except to pay for and pass some pre-requisites that would then grant you access to the rest of the degree. The equivalent brick and motar program went through the typical admissions process. My first thought: "this sounds very close to for-profit school".

uopeoplestudent 6y ago
I've attended several schools online at both the undergrad and graduate level including a for-profit school. I don't find much different between them because they've all followed an asynchronous approach. However, UoPeople is different in that it's much, much less instructor led. They use a "peer learning" pedagogical approach. It's something I quite dislike about the school. I consider it to be poorly implemented and leads to problems like "revenge grading." However, I tolerate it because it allows me to study in a structured environment for less than I'd pay at my local community college. It's not something I would recommend for weak learners and/or for many who need a regionally accredited degree.
- misterhtmlcss 6y ago
  I'm there not because I need it either. I graduated from a software bootcamp and I've already been working for 2 yeast, so I'm good. However I found out UoPeople and researched them a bit e.g. called a local college 's HR department to find out if they'd recognize someone with a degree from there to teach and they said yes. My next thought was to review the Visa process for a couple countries; this is my primary interest and motivation. None of them specified where the Degree came from only that it was a sanctioned/Accredited institution. So I don't really care about the details. I learn more, great, but otherwise I'm happy because I just want to be able to apply to get into Europe or Asia as a software developer in the future and not worry about whether I have enough points, etc to pass the rigor. All of that being said, the first course was a gong show with lots of academic violations, but like all things in life it's what you put into it and I plan on graduating with Honors, so even if it's a weak degree I'll still be able to respect my work and effort.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

dhdersch 6y ago

I graduated from Bob Jones University. During my time there, BJU was Nationally Accredited and not Regionally Accredited. This didn't personally affect me very much, but I know of many people who had difficulty getting into graduate school or professional work because of this. A degree from a nationally accredited university limits your options. I'm not saying you'll be completely screwed if you get it, but not as many graduate schools will consider you.

efeoja 6y ago

Uopeople is not a scam . It's like every other institution of learning with qualified instructors . Make your research well before you make any comment.