Accrediting Agency Under Scrutiny

Middle States Commission on Higher Education

Diploma mills have long been criticized for their lack of accreditation, but now a regional accrediting association has itself come under scrutiny.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, headquartered in Philadelphia, nominally accredits colleges and universities located in Washington, D. C. and in Middle Atlantic States north to New York.

Problems with Middle States began in 1981, when it accredited a small, for-profit business college in Washington, D. C.  That college subsequently relocated to Arlington, Virginia, and quickly opened branch campuses throughout the southeastern states, including Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida.  The institution renamed itself a university, and downgraded its original Washington, D. C. location to merely one of its 43 branch campuses.

The states in which the university expanded, however, are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), not by Middle Atlantic.  Nevertheless, the original 1981 accreditation of a small business college has been stretched like a rubber band to cover 27,000 online and on-campus students in 10 states.

Some educators have argued that SACS would never accredit this new university because of the following:

• The school has no library to speak of.  It maintains various “Learning Resource Centers” that collectively have 32,000 volumes or about one book for each of the estimated 27,000 students who study online or at satellite campuses.  Indiana University’s library system, in contrast, has 8.2 million volumes.
• Quizzes and exams are online, open-book and unproctored for online students, who routinely enlist others to help them at exam time.
• There is pressure on instructors to give high grades and thereby maintain full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment numbers.  Instructors who have the temerity to give grades of C or D are called in for counseling.
• Online students never meet or have direct contact with instructors.
• The school has an open-enrollment policy which encourages unqualified or marginally qualified applicants.  Nevertheless, approximately one-third of all students graduate with “honors.”

When asked about these factors, a spokesperson for Middle States claimed the institution in question was still located in Washington, D. C. and therefore under its purview.  In fact, however, the institution has registered with the Virginia Corporation Commission as being located in Arlington, Virginia.  Further, the institution’s main phone numbers are in area code 703, which is Virginia.

Gary Jacobsen, B.S., M.B.A.

Member, American Association of University Professors