[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[Amara Graps]

James Clement clementlawyer at hotmail.com :
>It could either be started by a State (like Arizona, home to Univ. of
>Phoenix, the great "distance" learning institution), or one of the regional
>accrediting organizations.

During the time that I taught there (2004-2005), The American
University of Rome:

http://www.aco.eu.com/italy-american-university.php
http://www.aur.edu

was in the process of being accredited by the Accrediting Council of
Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS): http://www.acics.org/

The procedure was cumbersome and took about a year, with most of the
effort carried by the administrators. I suggest to browse the ACICS web
site to see what is involved. (I haven't read all of the material
myself)

Getting that accreditation to be standardized in the university's
education offerings with the rest of the US educational system was
supremely important, more for a credible reputation than for how good we
actually were! What I remember most about that accreditation process was
that without it, any grade that I gave to my students was automatically
translated down 1/2 a grade by the institutions that sent those students
abroad (American 'Study Abroad' students were about 60% of my students).
That little factoid made me furious, especially since it was not
well-advertised by the university, but the university passed through
that uncomfortable accreditation phase quickly, fortunately.

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado