Mentioned in todays WSJ, they provide coursework online and award degrees. Their website claims accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission and are a member of the North Central Association. Legit orgs? Any idea of the costs, timeframes, any other info in general?
Thanks.
Other info: I’ve been a little annoyed that they promote themselves by spam (Looking for a degree to fit your busy schedule?). I e-mailed suggesting that this isn’t going to help their reputation as a credible academic institution, but never got a reply.
Have you tried a Google Groups search? These two threads contain posts from former students and teachers, many of which don’t paint UoP in a very flattering light.
If you’re interested in distance education, Athabasca University has a fairly good reputation, at least among my friends in Toronto. I’ve met students taking correspondence courses from them and they seemed very pleased.
One of my temp jobs during college I worked in Health Insurance. We once had to track down a registrar at UPO to verify an affidavit of enrollment that they faxed to us. The affidavit they first sent was missing a good amount of information we needed, and some of the rest was obviously, absurdly wrong. The affidavit listed the student’s beginning of enrollment date in 1930. Well before Al Gore invented the internet. Also before the listed birth date of the student.
So it fell to me to try to track down someone who could find their ass with both hands at UPO. This took nearly two weeks. The first person I spoke with in the registrar’s office informed me that if the information was listed on the Affidavit, it must be correct.
Now, if these are the folks that run the registrar’s office, I’m not so confident the rest of the school.
Since psychonaut plugged Athabasca, I’ll plug my employer, Kwantlen University College. We offer quite a few online courses, most of them transferable. See Kwantlen Online for a list. (That may be impossible to find from the main page, which was not designed by my department!)
Disclaimer: I do work there, but I’m in IT, not Admissions or PR. I don’t get a commission. 
)
psychonaut, I did Google but I’m not terribly familiar with Google groups so I didn’t hit those threads. Thanks for the info. As a little bit of background, I’m not seeking any sort of a degree. I’m looking for a relatively easy, and more importantly, quick way, of obtaining credits in a particular discipline (acct) in order to be permitted to sit for the certification exam. I’ve got degrees, just not in the area that I want to be certified. Working full time, and getting 9 or so credit hours a year ain’t doing it for me. UofP alleges that you can get 20 or more in a year through their program in the same situation.
I went to Kwantlen, and the class selection there is unfortunately limited. Athabasca, on the other hand, has quite a few classes in the area. If that is the way I end up going, I still need to determine whether credits from the school are accredited by a recognized body. Thanks for the help.
There is no Canadian governmental or quasi-governmental organization responsible for the accreditation of colleges and universities. However, Athabasca is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The Athabasca students I’ve met have had no problems transferring their course credits towards degree requirements at other universities.
If you’re interested in a professional program such as accountancy, you will need to check with your local accountancy accreditation organization to make sure that Athabasca’s courses or certification are recognized in your jurisdiction. It may be that some class material covers accountancy laws and practices specific to Canadian jurisdiction, which might not be useful if you plan to practice somewhere else.
Since you seem to be looking mostly for advice and anecdotal reports, I’ll move this thread to the In My Humble Opinion forum.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Bibliophage, I was looking for certain factual details listed in my OP, but I suspose I left the door open with the “other general info” and “any experience with” aspects. It has taken the turn it has, however, and IMHO is fine by me.
psychonaut , you are correct, of course. Again, while a degree is not the issue, suitable coursework is. The board lists orgs that can accredit a school, so I can cross that. But with the individual credits, it is a bit suprising sometimes how difficult it can be to nail down what suffices and what doesn’t ahead of time. I’ve got many credits that, while not ACC or BUS credits, will likely count towards the certification requirements once they are reviewed. What I’ll probably need to end up doing is applying with what I’ve got and make them tell me what they think I need.
Thanks again all.
I’ll look em up in Bear’s Guide when I get to work in an hour or so. He’s usually pretty good about sorting out the gems from the turds.
Enkidu wrote:
The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, The Higher Learning Commission is a Regional Accrediting Agency headquartered in Chicago and approved by the Office of Postsecondary Education through the U.S. Department of Education. It is a completely legitimate organization and the main resource for evaluating degree programs from institutions that are not in your state.
Check here for more information on this.
Something to remember is that if you are looking to update or obtain certification/licensure (as a teacher, accountant, psychologist, etc.) then regional accreditation does not neccesarily guarantee this. This is a very important point. Some state boards base their certification/licensure standards on regional accreditation but not all. Some have other standards in addition to accreditation. You will need to contact your own State Board of Accountancy (or Education or whatever depending on what type of certification you want) to see what their curriculum standards are. You don’t want to get stuck with a degree or coursework from a regionally accredited institution that is useless to you because your state won’t except it for certification.
Try looking here if your interested in CPA certification.
Hope this helps. I work for a university and deal with these issues all the time. Unfortunately, we don’t offer an accountancy degree so I can’t recruit you. 
They’re legit, according to Bear’s, Barron’s, and Peterson’s. Otherwise, what Candelmas said.