Accreditation And Online Degrees

Teaching establishments can receive "accreditation" from government or other official bodies. Being accredited means that the teaching establishment has met certain recognized standards. These standards vary from country to country and even from state to state within some countries. Most countries require that a teaching establishment must be certified, authorized or accredited before it can award degrees to students. Despite this, there is a degree of fraud found in some educational programmes, the worst of which "sell" degrees without any official sanction and without students having undertaken a reasonable course of study.

This is why it is essential that before you begin any kind of online course you check its accreditation. This does not mean that you look for a statement on the course's website saying "accredited by XYZ" or "licensed by the state". All fraudulent programmes make such claims. They may claim accreditation from agencies that do not exist. They may claim accreditation from agencies that they have created themselves. They may claim accreditation from genuine agencies which in fact have not accredited them. You will waste time and money and risk rejection by potential employers if you take a degree from a non-accredited school. Furthermore, credits from such schools cannot be transferred to other universities.

To satisfy yourself that a school is accredited you should either choose a well known school whose reputation is beyond question or contact the appropriate government agency to check whether the school is truly accredited. This may be tedious if you are seeking to study with a foreign programme, but it is an essential part of your pre-school research.

Next: What you should look for in an online degree