Chapter 7

Accreditation (Chapter 7)

As was mentioned before, the accreditation of an online master’s degree program and granting institution is key to having a respected master’s degree and, in some cases, necessary to being able to practice a profession.

In the United States, institutions of postsecondary education are accredited by regional and/or national agencies. The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit these institutions, as it is a voluntary process, but it is required to provide a list of accrediting agencies it determines to be reliable. There are several websites that can help you check an institution’s accreditation, but a good place to start is either the U.S. Department of Education’s database of accredited institutions in the U.S. (http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/) or the Council of Higher Education Accreditation’s databases and directories ( http://www.chea.org/).

The purpose of an accrediting agency is to ensure the quality of higher education institutions through the setting of evaluation criteria and through peer evaluations by faculty from accredited institutions. These evaluators will look at an institution’s mission, its admissions requirements, its support services, and the quality of the faculty and of the education offered.

In general, if an institution is accredited by an agency listed by the USDE or by CHEA, then a degree granted from that institution is more likely to carry weight. Be wary, however, as there are now accrediting mills that have sub-par standards and whose accreditation is looked down upon by the USDE and the CHEA. Institutions that do not have accreditation, but want it to appear as if they do, will use phrasing such as “pursuing accreditation,” “chartered,” “licensed,” or “approved.” In some cases, accreditation is not necessary. If you enroll in a program to learn a particular vocational skill, such as word processing, the program need not be accredited. For a master’s degree program, however, it’s best for it to be accredited.

In some fields of study, accreditation of an institution and a program are necessary in order to practice within that profession. Psychology, counseling, and social work are three such fields. Any field in which you might work with patients or with clients in a sensitive nature, you will likely need to pursue a master’s degree from an accredited school. Each profession has a governing body that administers programmatic accreditation.

Even with the ability to investigate the reliability of accrediting agencies and degree/diploma-granting institutions, accrediting and degree/diploma mills continue to operate. Aside from checking the databases and directories mentioned above, there are several red flags that can warn you of these mills. They include offers to purchase accreditation and degrees, lack of physical addresses, and suspiciously few assignments needed to complete a program. Essentially, if something about an agency or an institution seems off, it probably is.