The Language Teacher

Because nontraditional universities have either no residency requirements or very short ones, mid-career professionals can earn bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees without sacrificing their jobs or professional networks. Many nontraditional universities are headquartered in the United States and there are others in Britain, South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and other countries. This article is a quick introduction to nontraditional education. For further information please consult the reference section.

Self-Directed Course Work and Credit for Life Experience

Nontraditional degree programs vary greatly in their educational philosophies. Some are highly structured, while others make students entirely responsible for designing their own course of study. At Regents College, the nontraditional college of the University of the State of New York, for example, students can earn credit for Associate and Bachelor degrees in a variety and combination of ways: by attending classes at accredited institutions, through accredited correspondence courses, or by certifying equivalent learning acquired through life experience.

A number of nontraditional schools, like the Fielding Institute, have highly structured programs in which students complete course work for the equivalent of traditional core requirements and then design their own elective programs around their particular areas of interest. Others, like the Union Institute, require students to develop their entire program on their own, while stipulating that their programs must be qualitatively equivalent to similar programs in traditional institutions. All students enrolling in nontraditional degree programs should expect to direct their own work more than they would in traditional ones.

A Word about "Credit for Life Experience"

Many nontraditional institutions allow academic credit for documented personal and professional experiences. Procedures and standards vary from institution to institution and from degree to degree. At accredited institutions, for instance, life experience may be more commonly accepted and liberally evaluated in undergraduate programs than in graduate programs, where it may simply be evaluated for admissions qualifications, particularly for doctoral applicants with a great deal of professional experience but no master's degree. In general, however, reputable schools do not award credit for life experience itself, but for the academic learning provided by that experience, and then only if it is objectively and rigorously documented.

One reliable way to recognize a degree mill -- see below -- is by its eagerness to dispense credit in return for life experience and cash. For example, in a section entitled "Common Misconceptions," the 1994 Regents catalog emphatically warns that "Regents College does not . . . grant credit for life experience rather than learning" (p.17). At Regents, the student can certify this learning in various prescribed, acceptable forms: through standardized tests like the College Level Equivalency (CLEP), Defense Activity for Nontraditional Education Support (DANTES), or Graduate Record (GRE) Subject Examinations), professional courses and examinations reviewed by the American Council on Education, or through special assessment examinations. (For example, Regents College awards credit for university study completed in other nations, provided it is favorably evaluated by the standards of the National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Credentials.) It should be noted that while most nontraditional schools will employ these basic methods for evaluating and awarding credit for life experience, they vary greatly in their educational philosophies and many may have additional methods for the evaluation of this kind of credit. Legitimate schools will require a good deal of new work and don't grant degrees entirely on the basis of life experience.

In most accredited nontraditional graduate programs, life experience course credit is given only for learning that occurs after matriculation and is subsequently documented and included in the program. Students entering any nontraditional program will enjoy more freedom in program design and scheduling, but they should be prepared to spend much more time than traditional students on administrative details such as course design or preparing transcripts. All told, however, nontraditional students can complete their programs more quickly than students in a traditional program. Generally speaking, their professional experience in their chosen field prepares nontraditional students better than their younger counterparts in traditional schools. Furthermore, nontraditional programs are better equipped to allow students to take advantage of this preparation.

Nonresidency or Short Residency Requirement

A typical traditional American MA or PhD program usually requires at least two continuous semesters on campus and regular class attendance. Nontraditional universities, on the other hand, either grant degrees externally through correspondence and self study with no residency required or require only a few short face to face meetings with your faculty advisors and fellow students. The Union Institute's and Walden University's doctoral programs, for example, require just over a month's residency -- done in blocks from several weeks to a few days at numerous sites throughout the United States. Fielding Institute (MA and PhD) and Antioch University (MA) have very short residency programs. Bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees can also be earned entirely through correspondence from the Universities of South Africa and London.

Many universities offer bachelor's degrees with no residency requirements and a few accredited schools now have non-residential masters degrees, such as California State University, Dominguez Hills. At this writing, however, no accredited U.S. PhD programs are offered entirely through correspondence. There are however a number of good non-accredited universities (see below) which do offer entirely non-residential PhDs.

Accreditation, Recognition, Approval

In every country except the U.S., the national government has the first and last word on a school's operation. In the United States, however, the U.S. Department of Education does not directly approve schools. The ultimate legal power for this function lies with the individual states. A universally recognized system of quality control for all educational institutions called "accreditation," however, does exist. Accreditation is carried out by private agencies. These agencies have no legal authority, and accreditation is not legally required for a school to operate. The force of custom, however, has made accreditation a necessity for many institutions. There are laws and institutional regulations predicated on accreditation. Federal loans and grants are only available to students attending accredited schools and colleges. Educational guides, and government catalogs generally only list accredited institutions. Additionally, many employers will not recognize unaccredited schools and often professional licensure requires an accredited degree.

There are six regional and dozens of professional accrediting agencies. Accreditation by the regional agencies is generally deemed the most important because they accredit the entire institution and all degrees up to the doctorate. Accreditation by a specific professional accrediting body may be required for licensure in some fields such as medicine, clinical psychology, and law.

Who accredits the accreditors? This is done by either the Commission on Post Secondary Accreditation (CORPA) or the Department of Education or both. There are also unrecognized accrediting agencies, but only a few of these are reliable. Many of these agencies are fronts for degree mills (see below). Before an agency can become recognized it must first prove its worth, just as schools must be in operation for a period of time before they can be deemed worthy of accreditation.

Every school was at one time unaccredited. Before schools become accredited they are often given pre-accredited status while their programs are evaluated. Accreditation is an assurance that a school provides a good quality education (though there have been exceptions). This does not mean, however, that an unaccredited university is bad. Accrediting associations are conservative and are not prone to approve innovative, non-standard programs. For many years, schools like the Union Institute were unaccredited or pre-accredited because accreditors were wary of PhD programs where students and not the institution were the primary program designers.

Today they approve prior learning at the bachelor's level but are still extremely wary and generally disapprove of granting this kind of credit for the masters and especially for the PhD. Someday they may approve completely non-residential doctorates similar to the ones in Britain and South Africa (which are over 150 years old) and at many universities in Japan.

There are many good nontraditional universities like Greenwich, Columbia Pacific, or California Coast which are unaccredited not because they have low academic standards but chiefly because they offer completely non-residential doctorates.

Is accreditation very important? Yes. It assures you of virtually universal recognition. But should you rule out a good unaccredited degree which would generally be much less expensive and more flexible than an accredited degree? Our rule of thumb follows. If you clear it with your employing institution and you feel confident that an unaccredited degree meets your needs and will be accepted in your professional milieu, then take it. If you are in flux or you believe that you will be making major career changes later in your life and, finally, if there is any uncertainty in regard to how your profession will react to your unaccredited degree, then you should probably take the accredited degree. There really are no hard and fast rules. Nontraditional schools, both non-accredited and accredited, draw from mid-career professionals. You should take note, however, that schools are especially sticky about accreditation. So if you are a teacher or seeking professional licensure you would do best to stick to accredited degree programs.

How does U.S. accreditation rate in Japan? Like so much else in Japan this is ambiguous. The Ministry of Education has no official policy dealing with accreditation. It is our impression that few Japanese universities know what accreditation really is, though this situation may well change in the near future.

If you are planning to enter a nontraditional degree program it is important to realize that accreditation is a highly specific term applying only to the U.S. and that the terms "accepted," "recognized," "chartered," "licensed" do not mean "accredited." These terms generally refer to some kind of permission to operate granted by the state.

Degree Mills

Good unaccredited nontraditional programs will be honest about their accreditation status. Degree mills are not. These dishonest "schools" are concerned with money not education. They lack an educational philosophy and tend to require little or no work. Such operations are generally illegal, and even if they do operate legally (through the use of legal loopholes) you might still be held liable for fraud if you use their degrees. Under no circumstances should you have anything to do with a degree mill.

How can you avoid involvement with a degree mill? This is sometimes very difficult, if you don't know what to look for. Keep in mind that inevitably degree mills are insincere, academically and educationally sloppy operations functioning on very low budgets. Many advertise nonexistent faculties or accreditation from phony accrediting agencies, and they will tend to be evasive in regard to the particulars of their school and its programs. The best ways to ascertain a school's quality is to ask a lot of questions and if you don't like the answers move on. It's a buyer's market. In addition to this, check it out by writing to the regional and/or professional accrediting agency or to the department of education of the state in which the school operates, or to the ministry or department of education for schools outside the U.S. This will go a long way toward identifying these bogus schools.

Resources

Suppose that you have chosen a nontraditional university. You must consider the resources you will need in order to complete your program. Keep in mind that even the best nontraditional school doesn't have a library or laboratories (though many can get books through interlibrary loan). You must design a program in which the materials for the completion of your degree are both available and accessable. Access can be a major problem in Japan, as special permission may be needed for people who are not students or faculty to utilize university libraries, and public libraries often lack the English research materials you may need. Even if they do have these materials they may be in such disarray as to be of little or no value.

The role of the internet in education has greatly reduced the importance of distance as a bar to academic contact. You may want to consider the kind of on-line research materials available, and whether or not the nontraditional program can offer you close and continuous e-mail contact with teachers or advisors. It would certainly be unwise to ignore this educational opportunity, even if you need to buy a computer to take advantage of it.

Preparing for a Nontraditional Degree Program

If you are seriously considering entering a nontraditional degree program the first step you should take is to evaluate your personal learning style. Some people do better in programs which prescribe course work and set deadlines, while others do better with minimal supervision.

You should also consider at this point whether an accredited degree or unaccredited degree best suits your needs. Unaccredited degrees are usually much less expensive than accredited degrees, but if you opt for an unaccredited degree you will have a much greater responsibility for documenting the quality of your work. One way to ensure that your work will be recognized is to surpass the requirements of accredited programs. Do some research and find out the requirements of traditional accredited institutions in your field. Another way to ensure that your work will be accepted is to publish as much of your work as possible in reputable refereed publications.

After you have considered these points you are ready to begin looking for an institution in which to pursue your degree. At all costs avoid degree mills, as a degree from one of these institutions could quite literally destroy your career even if the work you did was valid and published. If the degree you receive is not legitimate then you are liable for fraud. If you follow the steps listed in this article then degree mills are really not difficult to avoid.

Once you have decided on the institution, you should do a preliminary study of your field of interest -- including learning the requirements of traditional institutions offering equivalent degrees in your field, and make a general plan as to how you are going to tackle the studies necessary to obtain your degree. This will increase your chances for admission as well as greatly reduce both the time and expense involved in completing your degree.

References and Further Reading