Introduction to Membership for Colleges and Programs Outside of the
US
In
light of the Academy’s involvement with accrediting the
University
of
London’s External Programme and numerous requests
over the years by colleges outside the
US
, the Academy’s Board of Directors formally approved three new
categories for international membership during the June 2004
national meeting. The Academy believes that its curriculum standards
are transparent and applicable across borders – as liberal learning
is not exclusive to the
United States. AALE has attempted to enable colleges that
are committing themselves to liberal arts curriculum, but are in
varying degrees of development, to find a place at the table with
like-minded colleagues within and across borders. As more people
around the globe attempt to gain college degrees, whether real,
counterfeit or hollow, the need for legitimizing those schools of
distinction has arisen.
The
first category of membership is
Affiliation
and fits into the Academy’s core mission; to foster liberal
education wherever it
attempts to grow. To be an affiliated member
a school must submit a
full mission statement outlining their commitment to the Academy’s
standards and liberal learning as understood by the Academy’s
collective members. The school may be new and small without a
fully developed curriculum or it may be an established college that
has grown leery of specialized education and is undergoing
development of a liberal arts core. In either case the college has
decided to push forward in the coming years to change its course and
sees the value in being associated with the only American accreditor
of liberal arts programs and colleges. All new affiliates are
required to undergo a staff visit and review. Third-party review is
available should the school wish to gain recommendations upon how it
should undertake future development of core curriculum.
Through affiliation, the AALE believes that it can encourage
schools that would otherwise set adrift in a sea of illicit diploma
mills.
The
second tier of membership is
Certification.
Two types of schools will be in this grouping: schools that do not
offer a full bachelors degree or schools that meet many of the
Academy’s standards, but not enough to be granted a higher standing.
As with our domestic certification program, schools with undergo a
staff visit and initial assessment, write a self-study in light of
the AALE standards, receive an outside team review of the school or
program and stand before the Academy’s Board for final review and
approval. The chief benefit of this category is that it will signify
to the academic community the school’s commitment to a quality
curriculum. Upon application and a staff visit, the school will be
granted immediate
Affiliate membership during the time of review.
The
final and highest category of excellence is Programmatic Accreditation. The distinction of this status is
that, in the estimation of the AALE, the school or program
sufficiently meets all of
the Academy’s standards, just like any domestic
US
institution would be required to do. It must be noted that Institutional Accreditation and
Preaccreditation are limited to universities and colleges in
the US due to US Department of Education guidelines related to
disbursement of federal financial aid fund. Among the principle
benefits of Program Accreditation will
be that students studying abroad but wishing to continue on to
graduate schools in the
US
will have their credential accepted in the
US
.
There
are many reasons why schools outside the US
are seeking to be part of the AALE. Foremost is a desire to
strengthen the quality of the education. By having an US Education
Department recognized national accreditor – who is most concerned
with the quality of the education – assess their curriculum and
teaching effectiveness, schools will have a tremendous leg up in
sending their students to graduate schools, in recruiting quality
students to their campuses and gaining legitimacy with their
domestic governments and investors. |
