… these farcically conflicted groups receive money from the entities they’re supposed to oversee.
Which is why accreditors accredit almost everything, corporate boards at places as outrageous as Goldman Sachs do nothing, and auditors rarely meet a Ponzi scheme putrid enough to catch their eye.
Here are excerpts from conversations between US senators and a representative of the accreditors who accredit all those for-profit colleges you’ve been reading about. (Lynn O’Shaughnessy, CBS: “Until the industry is cleaned up — if it ever is — I’d stay away from these schools. You can start by avoiding any school that advertises on television.”)
“Do you think maybe your rigorous standards aren’t rigorous enough?”
“I believe the standards themselves are rigorous…”
I’m sure they are, honey, I’m sure they are. But you are not a standards-writing organization. You are an accrediting organization.
… “If your process doesn’t detect readily apparent fraud, who is protecting students and taxpayers?… We rely on accreditation.”
Mr. McComis replied that it that was up to state and federal regulators, “the other parts of the triad,” to root out fraud.
“Accreditation is designed to evaluate the quality of education, not to detect fraud,” he said, adding, “Certainly, if we find fraud in the process, we’re going to act on it.”
“But your on-site evaluations didn’t detect it,” Senator Harkin said. “It seems like you accept the schools’ word on what they’re doing.”
Quality involves not merely how well taught courses are (and there’s reams of evidence that many courses are taught poorly at these schools); quality involves institutional controls, hiring and recruiting practices, etc. — Things accreditors are supposed to review and approve.
Mr. Harkin said he planned to “look into” the financing structure of the accrediting system, saying it “seems to be a situation that is rife with conflict.”
That plan has implications for nonprofit colleges as well, since all accreditors are financed by the institutions they accredit…
Yes. Which is why vanishingly few schools fail to be accredited. They may get warnings, yadda yadda. But everyone outside of obvious diploma mills (and they’re still fooling lots of people by using their own bogus accrediting jobbies) gets to operate.
August 5th, 2010 at 9:40AM
“You can start by avoiding any school that advertises on television.”
Which – until money got tight – was done by the University of Minnesota. Our “Driven to Discover” advertising campaign was all the rage. Too bad we can’t still advertise our great discoveries.
Why recently a post-doctoral fellow [sic] at the Carlson School of Business reported an earth shattering story about ovulating females being unconsciously prone to purchase sexy clothing. Kid, not: http://bit.ly/bg6P1d
August 6th, 2010 at 8:00AM
Not only do our state schools advertise on TV, they regularly purchase billboard space too. Last year, I noticed six billboards with ads from four different public institutions within a mile or so of my house. Two privates, one in dire financial trouble, are running TV ads around the clock–it is impossible to get through even an hour without seeing a commercial from one or the other. Gilligan’s own TV ads are usually aimed at imploring the good citizens of Mediocrevilleburgton to come out to watch the Castaways get the shit kicked out of them again, although occasionally we tout our failed adult education courses.
August 6th, 2010 at 9:10AM
tp: SOS says: I love the way you write.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:34PM
Wouldn’t the way that universities promote their athletic teams as raising the school’s profile or whatever constitute that kind of advertising as well? Isn’t that one of the justifications trotted out for the ginormous expense of the athletic department? And both of our major state schools as well as more than one of the private colleges advertise on TV. “Avoiding any school that advertises on television” may be a good snark line, but it falls apart pretty quickly.
It may be that the for-profit schools are worse about overcharging, playing around with federal student loan money and leading students on about what kind of benefits they can actually provide. So-called non-profit universities seem to know that tune as well, though — which doesn’t exonerate the other shady outfits, but it does take away some of the sniff-down-our-nose-we’re-a-university-and-you’re-a-money-grubbing-trade-school dynamic I see in discussions about these problems. “Call girls” may command thousand-dollar-a-night fees and offer women who can converse intelligently and not use the wrong fork, while streetwalkers ply their trade in alleys or cars. But they’re both in the same game, and I think for-profit *and* for-endowment schools could stand some cleanup.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:57PM
Brett: I think the best thing that could come out of the current for-profit fiasco would be precisely what you’re suggesting — a renewed focus on what this blog has been writing about for years — The ways in which some non-profit universities are betraying their mission.