According to the government website, the purpose of accreditation is to:
"...ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities as well as governmental agencies." (US Department of Education)
However, there are a lot of disparities within the accrediting community and the schools themselves as related below:
"Accreditation does not provide automatic acceptance by an institution of credit earned at another institution, nor does it give assurance of acceptance of graduates by employers. Acceptance of credit or graduates is always the prerogative of the receiving institution or employer. For these reasons, besides ascertaining the accredited status of a school or program, students should take additional measures to determine, prior to enrollment, whether their educational goals will be met through attendance at a particular institution. Those measures should include inquiries to institutions to which transfer might be desired or to prospective employers."
To put things in a nutshell, if the government controls your funding, they control you. That is one of the main reasons why many religious bible colleges and seminaries want no part of this process. While again, many do. Is it any wonder why the larger Christian schools are accredited? Money talks.
Now, I am not really going to bash the government or accreditation, but how do you think the educational system in America is doing? Have we made any great strides since 1980? Is the US at the top of the heap worldwide as it relates to education? I think not. Did everyone, such as myself, who earned their degree prior to 1980 receive an inferior education?
Being an accredited school is a very expensive and time consuming proposition. So expensive in fact, that tuition needs to be raised so high to pay for this luxury. Since costs get passed on to the students, in order to attend school, students MUST take on debt in the form of student loans. This is good for schools, accreditors, and lobbyists, not so good for graduates when you have to pay it back.
Having said this, let me say that I think accreditation is good, just very expensive. Colorado Theological Seminary (CTS) is actually an Affiliate of the Association of Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), one of the accrediting bodies. Let me make my obligatory disclaimer now:
Colorado Theological Seminary is proud to be an Affiliate Institution with The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). ABHE, formerly the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges, is a Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and US Department of Education recognized accrediting group who serve CTS through their affiliate program. Affiliate Institutions are not accredited by the ABHE.
Colorado Theological Seminary is an Affiliate institution of the Association for Biblical Higher Education. As such, it participates in and contributes to collegial and professional development activities of the association. Affiliate status does not, however, constitute, imply, or presume ABHE accredited status at present or in the future.
Up until a couple of years ago CTS was accredited by a non-governmental agency and was an Affiliate of the ABHE. The ABHE changed their policy and if an Affiliate, you could no longer belong nor associate with non-governmental accrediting agencies. I was not happy about that, but decided that associating with the ABHE was a better strategic move. We continue to prepare for the eventuality of going into Applicant status, although we are not in a race to get there.
This is another place where you need to examine your motives. Unless your denomination mandates that you go to an accredited school or you are planning on becoming a military chaplain (seems like everyone wants to), or you have some other compelling reason to go to an accredited school, then you may want to consider an unaccredited bible college or seminary with a good reputation and commensurate rigor to adequately prepare you for your ministry assignment.
My suggestion is not to run up a big debt if you don't have to. The Barna Group states that the average church size is made up of fifty (50) parishioners in the United States. Naturally there are larger churches, but will your church have enough money to pay your salary which will need to cover your monthly student loan payments for the next ten or twenty years? Again, examine your motives for considering an “accredited” bible college or seminary. For all intents and purposes, non-governmental accreditation is NOT considered accredited. So beware of these claims. Additionally, only accredited schools can have the .edu extension on their url. However, some schools which had that extension, were grand-fathered in when that rule took effect. So, just because a school’s address has the .edu extension DOES NOT validate their accreditation.
I hope this short treatise sheds a little more light on accreditation and how it should or should not play into your decision on where to receive your Christian education. Again, I think it is a good idea to belong to an accreditation organization where there is some conformity and educational guidance. But there are other organizational venues that can do the same thing for your seminary or bible college with way less expense.
Schools with memberships or certifications with the latter organizations may very well be the real value proposition. For example, CTS is a Sustaining Member of the Florida Council of Private Colleges (FCPC). This is a great organization which has been fighting daily to keep Christian schools independent of governmental encroachment. This is the same organization that Moody Bible Institute belongs to. With the current political administration in power, it is very likely that there will be more infringement on Christian values and educational institutions by the non-profit and education czars. If the political climate changes next year, you may very well find the Department of Education being dissolved along with departments like the EPA and the IRS. If you watch the news you know this is a possibility.
With the US Postal Service receiving a bail out of four billion dollars earlier in the year, and now still being ten billion underfunded, who knows what it will look like by year end. So, pay close attention to the "accreditation" issue. The accrediting apparatus of the US is likely to change in some form or fashion in the near future.
