From the issue dated October 18, 2002
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Missed ConnectionsOnline colleges complain about traditional institutions' tough credit-transfer policiesBy DAN CARNEVALE Columbia Southern University is attracting growing numbers of students
But those students often get a rude surprise if they try to transfer to a traditional college: Its course credits don't count toward anything at many traditional institutions. The problem is that Columbia Southern is accredited by the national Distance Education and Training Council, not the regional accreditation agency for its headquarters in Alabama, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Even though the Education Department recognizes the distance-education council, many traditional institutions don't trust it and other national accrediting agencies, and so refuse to accept course credits from nationally accredited online institutions. Columbia Southern enrolls more than 2,000 students. About a quarter of the few hundred students who attempt to transfer their course credits to another institution every year are being denied, says Tommy Boothe, the university's provost. Many other online institutions have run into the same problem. A large number of their students are initially rejected but can eventually persuade the traditional institution to accept their credits -- but some find that ultimately they cannot do so, and that the time and money they spent has been wasted. Because federal aid is involved in some cases, taxpayer dollars may be wasted as well. The policy also may be scaring off potential students, slowing the growth of online education. A Longstanding Dispute Long before online institutions existed, regionally accredited institutions were resisting credit transfers from nationally accredited institutions, generally for-profit colleges and universities. But with the growth of online institutions, many of which are also for-profit institutions, like Columbia Southern, which are not limited to a geographic area covered by one of the six regional accrediting bodies, the number of nationally accredited institutions has increased. More students are enrolling in the nationally accredited online universities, often at the same time they take classes at their local, regionally accredited institution. Although traditional for-profit institutions have faced the transfer-of-credit issue in the past, online institutions have to cover the same ground while trying to persuade state colleges and universities that their course work is legitimate. Even though the Department of Education recognizes the distance-education council and other national agencies along with the six regional bodies, individual institutions can decide on their own which transfer credits to accept. However, officials at many traditional institutions say they don't have the time or the personnel to determine which nationally accredited online institutions are legitimate. Regionally accredited institutions have always held high standards, they say. An online college that wants its credits transferable to other institutions should seek regional accreditation, they argue. Officials from nationally accredited online institutions say their courses are as rigorous as any from regionally accredited universities, and, says Mr. Boothe, "our faculty have to meet the same qualifications as the faculty at regional schools." Some distance-education programs -- such as the University of Phoenix and the University of Maryland University College -- don't suffer from the problem because they have regional accreditation. For the University of Phoenix, the headquarters earned regional accreditation that applies to its satellite campuses across the nation. As students at nationally accredited online colleges find that their credits aren't transferring, they seek help from their institutions and from national accrediting agencies like the Distance Education and Training Council, which alone gets hundreds of inquiries from students every year. "This is a daily event," says Michael P. Lambert, the council's executive director. "You get a steady diet of this, you become very frustrated." Mr. Lambert tells institutions that refuse to accept credits from a college that his agency has accredited that the distance-education council uses the same standards as regional accrediting bodies. For instance, accreditors survey students who enroll at the institution, and subject-matter experts review the curriculum. About one out of every three students who tries to transfer credits from a college accredited by the distance-education council is initially rejected by an institution, he says. After Mr. Lambert or the student's college intervenes, most institutions agree to let the credits transfer. But some never agree to accept the credits, he says. Mr. Lambert says many traditional institutions just aren't comfortable with online education. "There's still a lot of prejudice against distance education," he says. But Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of external relations for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, says officials at colleges and universities need to maintain a strict transfer policy to make sure the quality and accreditation of their own institutions remain secure. "What should or shouldn't transfer is ultimately the decision of the institution," he says. Colleges' Decisions Gil Linne, vice president for academic affairs at Northcentral University, which grants transfer credit only for courses from regionally accredited colleges, says it is difficult to know which of the nationally accredited colleges and universities are reputable institutions and which are not. At some nationally accredited institutions, he says, students pass a course by simply taking a test at the end of the semester. Another institution, the University of Central Florida, accepts credits from nationally accredited institutions, but under strict conditions. Students are asked to provide the college catalog, official student transcripts, the name and description of each course to transfer, teaching credentials and college transcripts of each professor or evaluator who taught the courses, a syllabus for each course, a description of the extent and nature of library holdings and technical support at the college, the college mission statement, and a copy of the institution's most recent accreditation self-study. "If you're going to accept courses from an institution outside the regional, you've got to be able to justify that the course meets the similar standards," says Mark Allen Poisel, assistant vice president for first-year transition at the University of Central Florida. The student doesn't have to submit every single piece of information in order to transfer credits, but few students bother trying at all, he says. "It tends to be a little hard to provide that documentation." Students can automatically transfer all credits earned at regionally accredited institutions to the University of Central Florida, although some may not count toward a degree program. Institutions that feed into the university, such as Seminole Community College, use the same transfer policy. "A student does not normally like to go through this process, and I don't like to put them through this process," says Travis Spaulding, director of enrollment services at the college. "But either we're going to maintain a quality education or we're not going to have standards." The Military Approach But Jim Etter, chancellor of American Military University, says taxpayer money is wasted when colleges refuse to recognize courses from nationally accredited institutions. American Military University is an online institution accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council. It mainly serves members of the armed forces, who earn undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates. Most of its students have tuition assistance from the government. If a student completes a course at an online institution but that course doesn't transfer to another institution, the government won't pay for the student to take it again, Mr. Etter says. With thousands of students over the years having to retake courses, the cost to taxpayers adds up, he says. "The government has just thrown away millions of millions of millions of dollars," he says. In some cases, students who couldn't transfer course credit have ended up retaking courses from the same professors, at traditional colleges, he says. The reluctance of other institutions to accept transfer credits also hurts enrollment at American Military University. When students find out that the courses don't transfer, they are less likely to enroll, he says. By contrast, military personnel in the Defense Department's largest online-education venture don't have credit-transfer problems -- at least not yet. All of the colleges participating in Army University Access Online, also known as eArmyU, are regionally accredited. The program does allow nationally accredited institutions to participate so long as the accreditation agency is recognized by the Department of Education. But no nationally accredited institutions have joined eArmyU so far. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation is trying to persuade regionally accredited institutions to loosen their transfer policies. In 2000, it released guidelines encouraging institutions to take more than accreditation status into consideration when they decide which credits to accept. But few institutions have used the guidelines to reform their transfer-of-credit policies. The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers is also developing guidelines to encourage institutions to accept more credits. The association maintains a list of the credit-transfer policies of one institution in each state, to serve as a reference for other colleges. But such limited information can hurt online institutions, says Mr. Nassirian, of the registrars association. If the one institution listed for a particular state doesn't accept credits from online colleges, the rest of the institutions in the state are likely to follow suit. So the association is creating an online database of multiple institutions from each state, so colleges can study the transfer policies of two-year, four-year, public, and private institutions. In addition, a group of higher-education officials will look into the issue more thoroughly. But results could take months to years, he says. Mr. Nassirian recommends that online institutions start forming articulation agreements -- contracts for automatic course transfer -- with institutions. Community colleges have done this to overcome similar resistance that they have faced from four-year universities. But, he admits, that has a limited impact, and the agreements are difficult to complete at times because they involve extended analysis of institutions' courses to make sure the rigor and quality are comparable. "Those things are very hard to negotiate, very difficult to establish," he says. "Then it takes the slightest change to throw things out of whack." Mr. Nassirian says officials at online institutions shouldn't hold their breath waiting for the day when all credits would be transferred seamlessly. "Distance-education courses are an area of concern." Mr. Lambert, of the Distance Education and Training Council, also doesn't expect higher-education institutions to change overnight. But he hopes more will begin to gain respect for distance education. "The culture is difficult to change," Mr. Lambert says. "You can have all the policies, but the culture is systemic. It will take years." TAKING CREDIT Students who take courses from online colleges that have national accreditation, rather than the regional accreditation held by most traditional colleges, often have difficulty transferring their credits to traditional colleges. Here are some of the institutions that have granted transfer credit, or have agreed to transfer credits in the future, for courses taught at American Military University, which is nationally accredited but not regionally accredited:
SOURCE: American Military University
http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Volume 49, Issue 8, Page A35
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Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education