Understanding the Buzz About Accredited Online Colleges

“Accredited online colleges” has become a buzzword for many people when talking about online education because of the importance accreditation has meant to the industry.  Accreditation is never really talked about in regards to traditional universities because it is typically understood that a stationary campus-style university has accreditation.  However, online universities lack a campus and only exist via the internet (aside from their headquarters) and can technically spring up overnight.  Therefore, accreditation is an important factor for many potential students of online colleges. 

Accreditation is a relatively easy but time-consuming process for online colleges.  To gain accreditation, the school must present itself as a typical university, albeit an online university.  In order to meet the levels of accreditation, the school must have ordinary faculty who could be employed at any traditional university and are well-equipped to teach the course they are in charge of.  Additionally, the school must have standard degree programs unless it has marketed itself as a vocational school or a school that only specializes in one area.  The school does not need to have continuing education degrees, but must maintain the ordinary liberal arts and math/science degrees that typical universities offer. 

Many online schools also display that they are accredited institutions but use accreditation standards that are not recognized by many national accreditation corporations.  These schools are typically easy to spot, but have managed to rope in many students to their programs and cannot offer them an accredited degree by the time they graduate.  While this sounds like it should be illegal, there is little that you can do once you find yourself in this situation and it will only mean wasted time and money in the long run.  There are ways to protect against this potential loss by simply becoming knowledgeable about the accreditation process, including researching every school’s accreditation institution and ensuring that no other student has gone through a “diploma mill” scenario through the school’s degree programs.

Because online universities are a new part of the education process, they are more susceptible to scams than traditional universities and therefore require increased research by potential students.  Accredited online colleges are pretty easy to spot, and are the universities that have been around the longest or are traditional universities that have begun to offer online degree programs for distance learning students.  However, as a potential online student, you should never take this accreditation for granted and you MUST research further into every degree program in order to guarantee that you will walk away with a degree that will propel your career goals.  Employers know which schools lack accreditation and if your degree is from this type of school, you will typically not be chosen for a highly competitive spot at a firm.  However, simply understanding the accreditation process can go a long way in protecting yourself against any potential scam universities.