Accreditation Guru: Michael P. Lambert

Michael Lambert was interviewed by Diana McGonigle, MAE editorial coordinator.

Q: What is the Distance Education and Training Council [DETC]? How long has it been around?

A: DETC is the nationally recognized, non-profit accrediting association of educational institutions that provide instruction by the distance learning or online method of instruction.

DETC has been the standard-setting agency for first what were called correspondence schools in the 1920s to 1970s, and later called distance education institutions, since it was established in 1926. Its purpose was, and still is today, “to foster and preserve high quality, educationally sound and widely accepted distance education and independent learning institutions.”

The more than 100 DETC member institutions, located in seven countries, offer more than 500 different academic, vocational, and avocational courses by mail or by telecommunications. These courses often make use of specially written learning texts and quite often include audio-visual training devices, job enhancing materials, tools, computers and other equipment. Course length ranges from a few weeks to over four years of study. Although most distance study institutions teach students entirely “at distance,” some institutions offer courses which feature a combination of distance study and resident training. DETC institutions vary in size. Various Armed Forces distance study institutions have enrollments of more than 200,000 students, while other schools may have fewer than 200 students. DETC institutions include nonprofit institutions, trade associations, for profit companies, colleges and universities and military organizations.

The range of institutions in the DETC makes it unique. There are universities owned by national governments, schools dedicated to offering tuition-free programs for the blind and for parents of deaf children, church-owned schools of theology, and schools teaching in Spanish and even a university in Japan that offers degrees in translation.

DETC accredits some of the very largest educational institutions in the world, including the military distance learning institutes operated by the Air Force, Army and Marine Corps. Since World War II, millions of veterans have studied with DETC institutions earning degrees and job-enhancing skills as they prepared to reenter the workforce.

The DETC conducts a continuing professional development program for distance study educators. Seminars and conferences devoted to distance education are held each year and are open to any individual with an interest in distance education.

Q: What does it mean to be recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and Council for Higher Education [CHEA]?

A: Both the Secretary of Education and CHEA have formal recognition programs where the policies, standards and procedures of an accrediting body are evaluated against a set of specific criteria that are benchmarks of quality. DETC has been recognized by the Secretary since 1959 and by CHEA since 2001.

The federal recognition entitles DETC accredited institutions to become eligible for certain federal funding programs, such as Title IV federal student aid, the G.I. Bill and the tuition assistance programs for voluntary tuition assistance for members of the U.S. military.

CHEA recognition provided students and the public with assurance that an accrediting association is competent, fair in its processes and worthy of confidence.

Both recognitions are the very highest forms of endorsement and approval for any voluntary accrediting association.

Q: What does accreditation mean?

A: Distance education accreditation is certification by a recognized body that a distance education institution has voluntarily undergone a comprehensive study and peer examination that has demonstrated that the institution does in fact meet the established standards. The institution must perform the functions that it claims: that it has set educational goals for students who enroll, offers formal, organized learning experiences and services that enable students to meet these stated goals, and can, in fact, show that students and graduates have benefited from the learning experiences provided. Basically, accreditation is a process that gives public recognition to institutions that meet certain standards. It is a promise that an institution will provide the quality of education it claims to offer. Accreditation assures the student that the institution operates on a sound financial basis, has an approved program of study, qualified instructors, adequate facilities and equipment, effective recruitment and admission policies, and advertises its courses truthfully.

Or, to put it succinctly, “Accredited schools deliver on their promises to their students.”

Q: What is the process of getting accreditation by DETC?

A: DETC’s process begins with a voluntary application for accreditation from a distance education institution that meets the basic eligibility requirements for DETC accreditation.

It includes the submission by the applicant of a comprehensive, analytical Self Evaluation Report, undergoing a Readiness For Accreditation evaluation, submitting a list of random student names for survey by DETC, submitting all curricula materials (including passwords for virtual programs) for evaluation by subject matter experts [normally professors at colleges] and then undergoing a multi-day on-site review by a committee of peer group evaluators. The evaluators prepare a comprehensive Chair’s Report. The applicant is asked to respond to the report and the independent nine-member accrediting commission of DETC makes the final judgment to accredit, defer accreditation, deny accreditation or withdraw accreditation. The process is repeated [every] five years.

The DETC process is the result of over a half century of being perfected, it is collegial, voluntary and exhaustive. Dozens of highly qualified experts, professors, administrators retained by DETC are involved in the process to look at a single application. In a typical review of a larger institution, it is not unusual to have over 40 people involved, and this includes the onsite evaluations, each of whom donates about 10 workdays to DETC to serve on accrediting teams without compensation, other than expense reimbursement. Only about one in three applicants are able to earn DETC accreditation, and in the past five-year period, 5 percent of the DETC institutions had their accreditation withdrawn for cause. So accreditation is not easy to earn, and once granted, must be earned every day.

Q: What is the difference between regional and national accreditation?

A: There is no fundamental difference between the two forms of accreditations. Both are conducted by non-profit associations established by consent of a group of institutions. Both accreditations are based on the principle of voluntary application by an institution, both are institution-wide in scope, and both use peer reviews to judge whether an institution meets published standards of academic quality and institutional integrity.

DETC enjoys the precisely same national recognitions as the regional bodies do, and DETC has the same kind of accreditation standards which address curriculum quality, faculty qualifications, student services, and ethical and business practices.

There are some interesting differences: DETC is expert in distance learning technique and specializes in accrediting distance education instruction. It has over a half century of experience in doing this. DETC evaluates institutions completely every five years, while regional accreditation is conducted once each decade. Between five-year reviews, DETC does a comprehensive subject specialist curriculum evaluation of every new program before students may enroll, while the regional associations do not. But at the core, the accreditations are very similar, and both are virtually identical in philosophy and scope of activity. To term one more acceptable or better than another is not at all accurate.

Q: Why would a new distance learning college decide to seek DETC accreditation instead of regional accreditation?

A: Basically, it a new institution would come to DETC because it has long experience in the field of distance learning. We were there first in the field, and have been there for eight decades.

Free-standing distance study institutions—that is, institutions that are completely teaching at a distance—have studied the accreditation landscape thoroughly before deciding to seek accreditation. They come to understand “who is who” in accreditation, and what each accrediting group has to offer them in the way of services, perceived prestige, and relevant accreditation criteria. They know they have choices in accreditation today.

DETC has been a leader in the field of distance learning for 80 years. In that period, it has forged a defined, discernable corporate culture, has developed a large body of literature, and has perfected a sound and pragmatic approach to the distance study accreditation. So applicants who come to DETC soon find out that there is a deep understanding of the unique requirements and an appreciation of the unique challenges that face the distance educator.

More importantly, they realize that DETC provides a sophisticated and well-developed network of experts in the distance field that—if they can gain DETC accreditation—they can have ready access to. They quickly discern the esprit de corps in DETC and the open sharing among the professionals in the group. There is a deep reservoir of knowledge in the DETC group that anyone can see.

So from my viewpoint, any serious distance education institution will carefully evaluate the options available to them, and most of them will end up selecting DETC as their accrediting body of choice. In one sense, DETC represents the most relevant and practical avenue for most distance institutions.

Q: Are any schools accredited by DETC and a regional accrediting board?

A: Yes, there are a number of DETC institutions that enjoy dual accreditation from DETC and another regional body. At the university level there are two institutions [Western Governors University and American Military University]; at the non-degree postsecondary level, there are four institutions; and at the high school level, there are six schools.

DETC has recently signed a memorandum with the Middle States Association-Commission on Secondary Schools, to provide dual accreditation to any high school or non-degree DETC school in the MSA service region. To date, 4 institutions are dually accredited by MSA and DETC. Recently, more regionally accredited online universities are expressing an interest in seeking DETC accreditation as a second accreditation, which they view as adding value to their institution. Dually accredited institutions will be more common in DETC.

Q: Will the credits a student receives from a DETC-accredited institution be accepted by a traditional college or university? What dictates this?

A: There is never any guarantee any accrediting association can offer that a student’s credits will transfer to another institution. This is because each institution reserves the right to make its own decisions on which credits to accept and which to refuse. Sometimes, a regionally accredited college will reject DETC institution credits based on the fact that the institution where the credits were earned is not regionally accredited.

The fact that some regionally accredited colleges refuse to accept credits from another school solely because it is not regionally accredited flies directly in the face of national policies advocated by American Council on Education (ACE), the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), et al. The real issue here has less to do with the academic quality of the sending institution, and more to do with anti-competitive business practices of the receiving institution. Competition is heating up in higher education, and there are forces at work to control the inroads being made by “upstart” operators. Congress, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice have been looking into this anti-competitive practice by higher education, and we suspect we will see significant activity in the coming months on this matter.

I know first-hand the quality and the rigor of the academic degree programs of the DETC institutions. Each DETC institution program is evaluated by several professors who teach at regionally accredited institutions. These professors are asked to respond to over 200 questions about the programs they are evaluating. There is no question that at the end of this process, the DETC program is comparable to the quality and rigor of a similar program offered by a RA college.

So, when you look at the reasons provided by a college for rejecting DETC credits, “That it is not offered by a regionally accredited institution,” the reasons boil down to prejudice, ignorance or anti-competitiveness. Or better put, it is the result that the receiving institution person simply does not accept DETC accreditation as being legitimate, despite what the Secretary of Education or CHEA has decided.

The challenge DETC graduates face in transferring credits is to convince the receiving institution that their academic work is truly legitimate. I am happy to say that of the DETC graduates who try to transfer their credits, about 70 percent are successful today. This percentage will continue to increase as the hundreds of thousands of DETC institution alumni are able to convince skeptics that DETC accreditation is a “real” accreditation, and that people can place their faith in it.

Q: Do you have a list of colleges or some examples of who will accept credits or degrees from DETC-accredited schools?

A: Because the list would be out of date the moment we published it, we do not try to maintain such a list. Some DETC institutions will provide their students—who request it—a list of colleges that have accepted their credits and degrees.

The best resource for such a list is the Higher Education Transfer Alliance (HETA), a list of cooperating colleges—which includes many DETC institutions—that agree to consider for acceptance each other’s credits. The HETA participants agree not to reject credits outright based solely on the source of accreditation of the sending institution. The HETA list of participants is maintained as a public service by CHEA and may be viewed at http://www.chea. org/heta/default.asp.

Q: How can a student make sure his or her credits will be accepted?

A: First, we advise students to be realistic when selecting a college that they wish to have their credit accepted. Consulting CHEA’s HETA list of institutions that are open to transfer credit is a practical way to ensure success.

Second, be prepared. Have your academic record and grade reports (transcripts) ready to be sent by your institution to the colleges promptly. Prepare a statement that describes the accreditation of your alma mater; the institution can help you with this.

Third, be persistent. Don’t give up after a rejection. Ask for the specific reasons your credits were rejected. Demand to know if it was solely on the basis of your alma mater’s accreditation. Ask for a copy of the institutions appeal procedures for credit rejection. Keep writing until you get a satisfactory response.

Q: Can funds from the GI Bill or Tuition Assistance be used to pay for courses at distance learning schools? What about federal student loans?

A: If the DETC institution has elected to become a participant, then yes, eligible students can use their G.I. Bill benefits and their military tuition assistance benefits to study distance courses with that institution.

As for Federal student loans and grants, effective July 1, 2006, students attending a qualified “telecommunications” institution became eligible to receive federal student aid. DETC institutions are just now applying to the Department of Education to get eligible to administer the programs and it will be at least 6 more months for them to start to participate in the federal aid programs.

Q: According to a recent DETC study, more than 9 out of 10 students who enroll with a DETC accredited institution reported that they achieved their learning goals and are satisfied with their studies. What do you attribute to this high level of satisfaction?

A: The average percent of students saying that they reached their learning goals climbs every year, and we expect it to reach an average of 98% this year.

This high level of student satisfaction to these factors: 1. The increasing rigor of the DETC accrediting program and its track record in accrediting only high quality institutions. Also, DETC curricula review process has screened out any substandard programs, allowing only effective programs to be offered to students.

2. The emphasis on student service and personalization that is the hallmark of a good distance school. This has become one way that DETC schools compete in a highly competitive market today: by out-performing other schools in the market in terms of service.

With DETC’s leadership, the institutions have implemented very sophisticated “outcomes assessment programs” over the past 4 years, and the results have been paying off in terms of satisfied customer-graduates. These programs include continuous quality improvement models and continuous enhancement of course products, examinations, student services and alumni services. Good outcomes assessment leads to happy graduates. And after all, more than 140 million DETC alumni are proof that accredited distance learning is the American Way to Learn. ♦

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