Accreditation and Recognition: Essential Issues in Distance Education [Archives:2003/694/Education]
By Dr. Bashar Ghazi Askar
[email protected]
Accreditation and recognition of diplomas/certificates of Bachelors, Masters and Doctorates are very significant issues for students' future in getting jobs or any work opportunities with corporations, establishments and universities. A certificate that is not duly accredited and recognized by an accreditation body may not be accredited by another body or university.
Accreditation of a university means the validation and approval of its programs and procedures of study and the quality of research work. It means that a certain university is accredited by an agency authorized to make an academic evaluation of the university's degrees.
Accreditation is practiced commonly in the United States of America but not outside of it. In America there are regional associations for accreditation as well as private bodies which accredit specific subject areas such as business administration, literature, arts, political science and international law.
These bodies of accreditation regulate the activities of colleges and universities. The United States government does not control all colleges or universities or even accreditation bodies and associations. The World Accreditation of Universities and Colleges (W.A.U.C.) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) are some of the private bodies working in this field of accreditation in the States. The W.A.U.C. has lately received recognition from the Association International Des Educators Pour La Paix Mondiale which is a consulting organization for UNESCO and UNICEF. It has also received recognition from the academic organizations in South Africa and from the European Union. The goal of these private bodies in the States is to get recognition from Higher Education ministry and international agencies around the world.
We are in a world embracing an increasing use of electronic and Internet programs, researches and studies. The future trends show an energetic follow up to the new information technology galloping toward fulfillment of goals of distance learning. No one knows whether this is going to be the road prefered by future generations of students, leaving the traditional universities except those in medicine or engineering streams. What is important for distance learning students, however, is that they have to adhere to the rules and regulations of research methods under the guidance and counseling of supervising professors.
It is to be noted that the program of distance learning is developing rapidly in the world as an effective mode of educating hundreds of thousands of students who cannot, for some reason, avail themselves of the traditional, meanstream education.
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