Regional Accreditation vs. National Accreditation

It should be clear that anyone considering an online degree should stick exclusively to those from accredited institutions.Using unaccredited credentials can be seen by potential employers and others as fraudulent, and in some states, it can even be against the law. But it's not enough just to decide to select only among accredited institutions, as accreditation in the United States is an extremely complex issue.There is national accreditation, regional accreditation, and specialized accreditation. Confused?Don't worry, we'll cover the basics, list some pros and cons, and soon you'll have the information you need to make the decision that's best for you.Not surprisingly, all the schools I talked to (all of whom are regionally accredited) accept credits and degrees from other regionally accredited schools. Regional accreditation is both the minimum and maximum standard in most cases. While they generally don't make distinctions between the quality of one regionally accredited school over another, some schools place qualifications and limits on the kinds and amounts of credit they will accept.Some schools put a limit on how old credits may be. Excelsior, for example, requires credits transferred into its business programs to be less than 20 years old. Walden University requires credits transferred into their graduate programs to be less than 6 years old. But this isn't always the case. "Unlike Excelsior, we transfer credits no matter how old they are," said Graham Irwin of The Union Institute. This can be an important consideration for the returning student who's been out of school for a long period of timeTwenty-five years ago, the six regional accreditors were the only agencies that accredited degree-granting institutions. Since then, other recognized accrediting agencies, often specializing in specific fields or certain kinds of education, have gotten into the business. Not having a regional focus, they are known as "national accreditors." (The fact that "national" denotes a level below "regional" is another confusing and counter-intuitive aspect of accreditation.) Relevant to our discussion is the Distance Education and Training Council, or DETC. DETC began in the 1950s as the National Home Study Council. Its original purpose was to establish industry standards for correspondence schools offering primarily trade and vocational courses. As time went by, some of its members began offering specialized associate's degrees. By 1980, the agency accredited two bachelor's-granting programs. Today, DETC accredits dozens of schools that grant degrees, including a few offering professional doctorates.Because DETC is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, it satisfies the conditions of GAAP. Despite this, DETC accreditation has always been controversial and has never gained the wide acceptance of regional accreditation. Still, when I asked seven schools if they accept DETC-accredited degrees or credits, I was surprised that the response was so uncontroversial: almost unanimously, they do not.