In Defense of Unaccredited Universities and Colleges

[Virtual Bison]

And no, I am not talking in defense of diploma mills here.

You may be wondering why I am posting a commentary with this title.

And lets face it, unaccredited institutions of higher learning get little respect these days.

We are constantly shown stories about how people who have “fraudulent” or “fake” degrees are being disciplined for one thing or another. Very often these are people in public sector jobs who are under fire for spending public money in pursuit of their education.

We are even seeing examples of states, such as Oregon which are attempting to make it a crime to claim education at such institutions on applications for employment (public or private), or resumes.

But I think its about time we all sit down and ask ourselves why this is?

When I talk about Unaccredited Universities, I am not referring to Diploma Mills, which are fake institutions which will sell degrees for money only and require little if any actual work. I would not myself “buy” a degree, nor would I advise others to do so.

Rather I would refer to institutions which, for one reason or other does not chose to be associated with accreditation bodies.

Can it really be said that unaccredited degrees are of any value? The answer is hard to say. For some, institutions which are not accredited do require considerable work to earn degrees. They may even be well recognized in certain fields. Some schools offer degrees in controversial or unproven fields of study such as herbal medicine. This does not mean that students who attend these schools are not actually working towards degrees.

We need to remember that Taliesin, the school and studio founded by Frank Lloyd Wright was not accredited. The same is true with a great many schools.

Many religious institutions shun accreditation due to religious reasons as well.

I believe that it is important for schools to maintain a spirit of independence and by avoiding accreditation many can pursue their own mission in their own way.

The lack of freedom and the enforced conformity which the accreditation cabal wants all students to follow can be harmful to academic freedom and individual liberty. We are seeing, through the many laws regulation academia, an increase in the suppression of freedom.

It is true that many people may misuse their freedom and apply for positions they are not qualified for. But should this be the responsibility of the state to determine who is qualified for a particular job, or should it be with the employer.

I think many should be reminded that it was once possible for an individual to become a lawyer without attending law school. Abraham Lincoln never had a Doctor of Jurisprudence, nor did Clarence Darrow or many other lawyers. In fact its still possible today to take the Bar exam in California without having attended law school.

So why do people attend non-traditional and non-accredited schools?
The reasons are many but here are a few:
1 Cost: Cost is less for a lot of students, since accreditation requires considerable overhead to maintain standards.
2 Convince: Many non-accredited universities operate Distance Learning programs which allow students to study on their own time and at their own pace.
3 Programs available: Many controversial programs are offered in unaccredited programs which could not otherwise be offered. Herbal medicine is just one example.
4 Liberal admission standards. Consider that many students, particularly those outside of the US are unable to be admitted in local schools and cannot get entry visas into the United States, non-traditional schools are ofter what is needed.

I can continue but this is a short list of why unaccredited institutions are really needed.