If a university is regionally accredited, does that mean all of its undergraduate programs are accredited? Is it common for a school to be accredited for only one subject and then boast of its accreditation while offering dozens of unaccredited degree programs?
What about Master’s degrees? Does accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) mean that the university’s master’s degree programs are accredited as well?
I might not be asking the right questions here. I am looking into master’s degree programs and I want to make sure that the school/degree I choose is going to be widely accepted. By “accepted” I don’t just mean by my employer, who will take almost anything short of a Life Degree from Bedford University. I mean accepted by businesses, the academic community, popular opinion, etc.
Not necessarily. My alma mater’s chemical engineering department lost accreditation for BS degrees (but not BA degrees) for one year about a decade ago for some technical reason. They cleared up whatever issue they had and were re-accredited for the following academic year.
I have no clue, and I wouldn’t hazard a WAG on it.
Having just gone through a lengthy accreditation process, I have some knowledge but am still far from an expert. Generally, yes, when an institution gets accredited by its regional authority, all of it’s degree programs are reviewed and included. [Some things, like a Doctorate in Psychology might also have an APA accreditation, but that’s a separate deal.]
I believe the results of the accreditation are public records, and you could look to make sure the MSCHE reviewed and approved the program you’re interested in. A MSCHE accreditation should be sufficient to be “widely accepted” unless there is a specific additional body (like the APA in my example) that people would want to see.
Where I went to college, if you majored in chemistry you could get either a BA or BSc depending on whether you followed the program certified by the Amer. Chem. Soc. But this was independent of accreditation.