State Licensed Schools & Foreign Students

[John D]

As we all know an American degree is a highly desirable and valuable commodity in the rest of the world. We also know that most foreigners don't understand the complicated American system of regional and national accreditation nor do they understand the real status of state-licensed schools.

It is also a fact that a large portion of students enrolled in U.S. state-licensed are foreigners. In many cases, foreigners comprise the majority of these schools' student bodies.

Do these foreign students understand what they are getting into? There is evidence that they don't, until the time comes when they present their precious American degree for evaluation to the local authorities in their country and they are told that their degree is useless.

Most state-licensed universities go to great pains to stress how their local state Dept. of Education conducted a thorough examination of their programs before they granted their school full recognition. Most do state that they are not accredited by a regional accreditor, emphasizing, however, at the same time that this type of accreditation is voluntary. Most prospective foreign students, judging by the system operating in their countries where only the government recognizes universities and degrees, believe that since these universities are recognized and licensed by the government, their degrees will be fully acceptable everywhere as fully recognized, prestigious American degrees. The "voluntary" accreditation sounds to them like just icing on the cake and not really necessary since their university is officially recognized by the government.

It appears that also a number of Americans don't fully understand this system of regional - national accreditation and state-licensed universities and they fall into the same trap.

Shouldn't there be a specific law requiring state-licensed schools to make clear to their prospective students the many limitations of these degrees both in the U.S. and abroad? Shouldn't they warn their students, before enrollment, that only U.S. regionally accredited degrees are acceptable in their countries? Is it enough to just state that they don't have regional accreditation and describe this accreditation as a "voluntary" procedure, failing to state clearly that this is the only valid type of accreditation or recognition in the U.S.?

John D

[John D]

The worst offender I have come across is Virginia International University, http://www.viu.edu, a state-licensed, unaccredited school.

VIU is clearly targetting foreign students as their website comes in seven languages, in addition to English. Most are languages of the Far East and that may not be a coincidence as it is known that people from those countries are most likely to be dazzled by American degrees and government recognitions, to the point that most often they become gullible customers of non accredited schools.

VIU has a prestigious address, minutes' walk from the nation's capital, a very nice and well presented website and they offer both residential and distance programs. They have also a long list of fully qualified faculty and they may have a very nice looking campus too. All this impressive stuff and the possibility that they may offer quality programs, doesn't make their clear attempt to mislead and deceive any less detestable. They do that by both withholding information and also presenting the little information they present in a way that is clearly calculated to deceive.

The only place in their website where they mention anything about their status is in just one question and answer in their FAQ. But, see how nicely they do it. I quote:

Are you a recognized institution? Are your credits transferable to other schools?
VIU is a recognized institution, all of our programs includind Diploma and Certificate courses were proved
by the State board of education of Virginia. However, the real application depends on the policy of the school
where credits will be transferred to. (the mispelling is in the original)

VIU devotes an entire page on how you can donate money to support their university, but nothing about their lack of accreditation! Just one question/answer the content of which amounts to intended fraud.

They state they are recognized. To foreign and some American prospective students this sounds the same as fully accredited. This impression is reinforced by the statement that the State Board of Education of Virginia has "proved" (sic) all their programs. They also claim that credits from their school are transferable to other institutions, but that depends on their policy. They fail to state clearly that credits from their school are only transferable to other state-licensed institutions, but not transferable to any U.S. RA schools or foreign NA schools, for the simple reason that their school is unaccredited, that is, not recognized by the proper U.S. authorities.

John D

[dhfr]

I understand your point in your first post in this thread.

But I would say that VIU is very very far from being the "worst offender."

I certainly agree that they should be more clear about their accreditation. Here's what they have at http://www.viu.edu/docs/membership.html:We have already started our national accreditation. Before the end of 2004 we expect to get our accreditation. By the fall of 2004, we also expect an enrollment of at least 400 students, generating a revenue suitable for our operating budget. It's possible that they may have applied to ACICS or one of the other national accreditors.

I don't understand your comment that VIU is "minutes' walk from the nation's capital." Their location in Fairfax is 20 miles on I66 from the capital -- and would be a long and dangerous walk indeed.

[Bill Dayson]

We also know that most foreigners don't understand the complicated American system of regional and national accreditation nor do they understand the real status of state-licensed schools.

I think that this is a problem that afflicts international higher education generally.

There are always going to be problems when outsiders try to understand a foreign system. It's hard to understand different kinds of legal registration, different forms of academic quality assurance, what real-life utility all the different kinds of degrees have, how degree requirements vary from country to country, public/private distinctions and so on.

We have just witnessed, on the now-closed-thread, these very same issues illustrated in the case of a questionable French institution.

It is also a fact that a large portion of students enrolled in U.S. state-licensed are foreigners.

While that certainly happens at some individual schools, I don't think that it's typical of state-approved schools as a class. Here in California, the great majority of CA-approved degree-granting schools aren't DL institutions and they offer conventional classroom courses. A few of these recruit heavily abroad and may actually be disguised back-door immigration vehicles, but the bulk of state-approved schools clearly exist to serve the locals.

Shouldn't there be a specific law requiring state-licensed schools to make clear to their prospective students the many limitations of these degrees both in the U.S. and abroad?

I think that if international higher education is going to work, each country's system has to be reasonably transparent. Prospective students (whether foreign or domestic), and their employers as well, need to be able to secure reliable information about what kinds of legal status institutions may have in a particular country, and about what kinds of academic quality assurance exist. This information has to be quickly and easily accessible by non-specialists. It has to be available in more than one language. And finally, there must be some means to reliably verify where individual schools truly belong in each system.

[John D]

I understand your point in your first post in this thread.

But I would say that VIU is very very far from being the "worst offender."

I certainly agree that they should be more clear about their accreditation. Here's what they have at http://www.viu.edu/docs/membership.html:We have already started our national accreditation. Before the end of 2004 we expect to get our accreditation. By the fall of 2004, we also expect an enrollment of at least 400 students, generating a revenue suitable for our operating budget. It's possible that they may have applied to ACICS or one of the other national accreditors.

I don't understand your comment that VIU is "minutes' walk from the nation's capital." Their location in Fairfax is 20 miles on I66 from the capital -- and would be a long and dangerous walk indeed.

Those two lines vaguely promising future accreditation are clearly not enough. The fact remains that they have been operating as an unaccredited school since 1998 and they have failed to warn their students about their status and the limited usability of degrees issued by them.

One question/answer in their FAQ and that misleading, to say the least, is not enough for a university to explain their status or lack of it. In fact, they don't disclose at all the fact that they are unaccredited. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't in the U.S. a law already in existence which requires unaccredited schools to state their status clearly on their websites?

I believe that from a legal point of view, they can be actually sued by their students as they use false pretenses to entice them to enroll.

Just see the websites of other state-licensed universities. They devote half to one page at least to clarify their non-accredited status although some of them try to make it appear as innocuous as they can.

John D

[dhfr]

Those two lines vaguely promising future accreditation are clearly not enough. ...Yes, I agree.

[J]

[QUOTE=dhfr]Here's what they have at http://www.viu.edu/docs/membership.html:We have already started our national accreditation. Before the end of 2004 we expect to get our accreditation. By the fall of 2004, we also expect an enrollment of at least 400 students, generating a revenue suitable for our operating budget.[QUOTE]

I have some pretty major issues with VIU, and this is one of them. Any school can claim to be applying for accreditation; that certainly doesn't mean it will get it.

After being in operation for six years, I would have expected them to be well on the way to getting accredited.

[mosbybranch]

VIU very legitimate. This is a brick and mortar school. They will receive accreditation in time! Every institution in Virginia requires petitioning to the State before starting any program. I always though DL school, such as Kennedy-Western, Calcoast, SCUPS, and etc... have more foreigners. http://viu.edu/newsroom/Pfundraising04.html

[John D]

VIU very legitimate. This is a brick and mortar school. They will receive accreditation in time! Every institution in Virginia requires petitioning to the State before starting any program. I always though DL school, such as Kennedy-Western, Calcoast, SCUPS, and etc... have more foreigners. http://viu.edu/newsroom/Pfundraising04.html

That's not the point. They are as legitimate as CCU, Kennedy-Western, etc. Also, they may provide quality education like CCU and a number of other state-licensed schools do. The fact that they are brick and mortar doesn't place them in a different category. Their degrees have exactly the same value as degrees, for example, from CCU. They have also the same limitations which are many both in the U.S and abroad.

Senator Susan Collins' committee put all unaccredited U.S. universities in the same bag. Unacceptable for Federal employment, unacceptable for tuition reimbursement, unacceptable for professional licensing, etc. Unaccredited degrees are also unacceptable for state professional licensing and membership in most professional associations like APA. In addition, unless a U.S. university is on the list of RA universities its degrees are not even accepted for evaluation in other countries.

All reputable state-licensed universities do explain at least some of these limitations on their websites. VIU has been doing the opposite. They have been withholding all of this information and the little information they provide is clearly intended to mislead by creating the impression that they are a university on a par with fully accredited universities.

The fact that their website comes in seven languages and that they devote a large part of their website to instructions on visas and other assistance to prospective foreign students, indicates that foreigners, especially Far East Asians, are their main target.

Also, I've never seen so much solicitation for donations on any other university's website. They have a full page devoted to that, plus mentions in most other pages.

John D