Read all the way to the end. ANSI is getting into the accreditation game. "[W]e have to require some sort of mandates, or they’re going to be all over the place,” says ANSI's Roy "Not So" Swift.

The higher ed cartel always squirms whenever somebody says "quality assurance." They don't want anyone to learn that "accreditation" and "quality assurance" are two different concepts.

On the other hand, so what if they are "all over the place"? God forbid that free markets and innovation should determine product content. "Mandates" from faceless bureaucrats should let the statist clones sleep better at night.

Quote:The ‘Cash Cow’ of U.S. Universities: Professional Certificates Instead of Degrees
By Jon Marcus | April 9, 2012

Reggie Herndon returned to college because he wanted to change careers. What he didn’t want was another degree.

Herndon, a University of Tennessee graduate from Lynchburg, Va., is on his way instead to finishing a nine-month professional certificate in counterintelligence from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa., which he hopes will bolster his odds of landing a job as an intelligence analyst with a defense contractor or government agency.

“I decided that I wanted to re-engineer myself,” said Herndon, 56, who handles marketing for an employment program runs under contract to the Social Security Administration. “But I didn’t want to go back and do the whole graduate program, and come out with a tremendous amount of debt.”

Responding to demand from more and more students like Herndon, universities are jumping into the business of providing professional certificates that were once the domain of community colleges and for-profit providers like the University of Phoenix.

“The growth is huge,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, which is studying this new phenomenon.

Certificate programs can be added and updated more quickly than conventional academic ones. And they can help workers keep up with fast-changing fields such as information technology and intelligence, or get raises or promotions.

But a main reason for the explosion in the number of professional certificates at traditional universities, administrators concede, is that they bring in revenue, largely from mid-career students who pay the full cost without needing institutional financial aid, or whose employers reimburse them for tuition.

“It’s a good side-business for four-year colleges and graduate schools,” said Carnevale.

At a time when higher-education budgets are being further and further stretched, universities want a piece of what the Georgetown center estimates is $140 billion a year spent on formal career training nationwide, about 40% of which is siphoned into educational institutions.

“They’re playing precisely that game,” said Robert Ehlers Jr., director of the Center for Security Studies at Angelo State University in Texas, which has added professional certificate programs in criminal justice, border security, counterterrorism and cybersecurity.

Ehlers Jr. said he’s heard officials at other universities refer to professional certificates “as both cash cows and as a means of attracting students who might not otherwise come to that school to sample the kinds of education it might have to offer.”

Ashland University in Ohio, for example, is adding professional certificates this fall in outdoor education, educational technology and educational assessment to build back enrollment in its graduate school of education, which shrank after the state dropped a requirement that teachers have a master’s degree in education.

“This is basically survival for the graduate programs,” said Jim Van Keuren, dean of the university’s Dwight Schar College of Education. “It’s a realignment of graduate education, at least for our college.”

Not only do students in certificate programs fill seats and pay tuition—a few stick around to get graduate degrees.

At Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, for example, some of the students who are drawn to new certificate programs—in areas such as healthcare technology management, nuclear engineering and digital architecture—often stay to get a master’s degree, said Stephen Flavin, WPI’s vice president of academic and corporate development. “We have an extremely high adoption rate of those who progress on to the full master’s. So it works for the individual, and it also works for us.”

The boom in certificate programs at traditional universities also comes at a time when some are being criticized for failing to provide graduates with skills required in the workplace.

“It’s derivative of an entire revolution in higher education,” said James Breckenridge, executive director of the Institute of Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst University (which changed its name from Mercyhurst College this year). “Increasingly, certificates are all that’s required for entry into particular lines of work, so if you’ve got your eye on a particular profession, sometimes a certificate is going to be all you need.”

Professional certificates are also increasingly valuable for mid-career professionals who don’t have time to plod through the programs of study required for advanced degrees but who need to update their skills regularly.

“The old model is, you got qualified and then you went to work,” said Carnevale. “Now qualification never ends, because of changes in skill requirements and new skill requirements. New technologies create whole new demands.”

Pace University’s Lubin School of Business has added a certificate program in the fast-changing field of financial regulatory compliance, for example.

“A global economy and the rapidity of progress in technology require continuous education,” said Neil Braun, the dean and a former president of the NBC Television Network and CEO of Viacom. “Certificate programs are very useful for people who see the world around them changing faster than they can keep pace.”

Students see the benefit of a professional certificate more narrowly: to distinguish them from other candidates for scarce jobs.

“It gives me an identification that sets me above the rest because I have this certificate that says I’m trained in a specialty,” said Meredith LaBeau, 29, who hopes her professional certificate from Michigan Technological University in sustainable water resources systems will give her a leg up on a job in civil or environmental engineering.

Even undergraduates are racking up professional certificates.

“When jobs are as tough as they are to come by, you have to separate yourself from everybody else,” said Matthew Lombardo, a 20-year-old junior at Angelo State who has added professional certificates in Middle Eastern and African security to the courses required for his eventual degree in international studies. “It will add another dimension that will set me apart when I’m applying for a job.”

That kind of thinking has made students “pretty quick to jump into certificate programs,” said Angelo State’s Ehlers, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. “They know from trends in the marketplace that certain programs, if they are in the right areas, convey more pay and more opportunities for promotion.”

Still, some observers are concerned about the speed with which universities are adding certificate programs without a way to measure their comparative quality—or to know whether there will be enough students who will want to take them.

“It’s probably a little bit out of control, frankly,” said Georgetown’s Carnevale. “A lot of this is speculative investment. The issue is always, to what extent does the demand match the supply?”

So fast has been the growth in this area that the American National Standards Institute, or ANSI, which makes sure that everything from computers to appliances produced by different companies are standardized, is now developing standards for professional certificate programs. Some government agencies already won’t recognize professional certificate programs unless they’ve been accredited by ANSI.

“We definitely see a trend,” said M. Turan Ayvaz, manager of ANSI’s new Certificate Accreditation Program. “Even state-funded schools are struggling with funding, and certificate programs are a quick revenue source. But at the same time, unfortunately, we don’t see much of an initiative, especially from universities, to make sure their certificate programs have all of the relevant safeguards in terms of quality assurance.”

Ayvaz’s boss, Roy Swift, nonetheless expects more certificate programs to be added by universities.

“Every day we hear about a new one,” said Swift, ANSI’s senior director of personnel credentialing accreditation programs. “But we have to require some sort of mandates, or they’re going to be all over the place.”

Quote:Video of Meramec College Brawl Goes Viral
Michael Calhoun
April 13, 2012 11:20 AM

KIRKWOOD (KMOX) – It’s the latest video seen around the world, capturing a huge fight at a [regionally accredited] St. Louis Community College campus.

The incident, which happened Monday, begins with a woman getting into an argument with another woman while holding her young daughter. One of the women begins to attack the woman as she holds the child.

Eventually, she backs away and puts the child down and the two really start to go after each other.

More fights erupt. At one point, a pile of people rolled around in the bushes while throwing punches at each other.

The first woman even shrieks, “Where’s my baby?!?”

First faculty members, then campus police step in and try and calm things down. A circle of stunned students stood and watched.

Of those involved, three were arrested and charged with assault. Five were expelled from the college.

It looks like Degree Discussion is in the throws of final extinction, with only RCD making any contribution. Sadly RCD's contribution is totally incorrect when he claims that DL degrees are inferior to B&M degrees. Just to mention two DL facilities, the Open University (UK) and the Open Polytechnic (NZ), with degrees from these two providers being recognised as 'superior' to many others.
Having worked for the University of Leicester RCD should know that there is life outside the USA!

Bob Dylan fans? Wonder why they didn't spray it on the White Cultural Center?

Quote:"Long Live Zimmerman" Spray Painted On Ohio State's Black Cultural Center
April 6, 2012 9:18 AM



COLUMBUS, Ohio (CBS Cleveland/AP) Officials say graffiti spray painted on the wall of a black cultural center at Ohio State University likely stems from the nationwide unrest over the fatal shooting of a black Florida teenager.

The graffiti painted early Thursday said "Long Live Zimmerman." Columbus media outlets report that officials believe it's a reference to George Zimmerman, the neighborhood-watch captain accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., in February.

Larry Williamson, executive director of The Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center, wants the person that did this brought to justice.

"We want the person brought to trial, caught," Williamson told WBNS-TV. "We want to make sure these kinds of things don't happen."?

Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee says university police are "vigorously investigating."

"I was really outraged by this on a university that takes great pride in civility and respect," Gee told WBNS. The graffiti has been removed.

It was discovered the same day a campus rally was held for Martin and Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi woman who was fatally beaten last month in her El Cajon, Calif., home

Zimmerman is white and Hispanic. His family insists he's not racist.

Looks like notorious stalker George Gollin's fan club on YouTube has been busy again.  Somehow I doubt Mr. Spock was at the actual graduation, but he's a welcome addition to an otherwise not very interesting journey through Gollin's vacant mind.  After about 20 seconds of that self-important nonsense I was kinda wishing for a Vulcan "neck pinch" myself.

Quote:These rambling, incoherent statements are excerpts from an ACTUAL SPEECH made by Crackpot CHEA director George Gollin (George D. Gollin, George Dana Gollin) on May 17, 1998.

President Soetoro and Hillary are both Saul Alinsky acolytes. Soetoro began working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project in 1985. Hillary's senior thesis was entitled "There Is Only the Fight . . . ": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.




Here is Alinsky himself in a 1972 Playboy interview describing what he learned during his college years and who he learned it from:

Quote:College and Criminals

PLAYBOY: Were you politically active in college?

ALINSKY: Not in any organized sense. I started going to the University of Chicago in 1926, when the campus was still shook up over the Loeb-Leopold case. I suppose I was a kind of instinctive rebel -- I got into trouble leading a fight against compulsory chapel -- but it was strictly a personal rebellion against authority. During my first few years in school, I didn't have any highly developed social conscience, and in those placid days before the Depression, it was pretty easy to delude yourself that we were living in the best of all possible worlds. But by my junior year, I was beginning to catch glimpses of the emperor's bare ass. As an undergraduate, I took a lot of courses in sociology, and I was astounded by all the horse manure they were handing out about poverty and slums, playing down the suffering and deprivation, glossing over the misery and despair. I mean, Christ, I'd lived in a slum, I could see through all their complacent academic jargon to the realities. It was at that time that I developed a deep suspicion of academicians in general and sociologists in particular, with a few notable exceptions.

It was Jimmy Farrell who said at the time that the University of Chicago's sociology department was an institution that invests $100,000 on a research program to discover the location of brothels that any taxi driver could tell them about for nothing. So I realized how far removed the self-styled social sciences are from the realities of everyday existence, which is particularly unfortunate today, because that tribe of head-counters has an inordinate influence on our so-called antipoverty program. Asking a sociologist to solve a problem is like prescribing an enema for diarrhea.

PLAYBOY: Was sociology your major in college?

ALINSKY: God, no. I majored in archaeology, a subject that fascinated me then and still does. I really fell in love with it.

PLAYBOY: Did you plan to become a professional archaeologist?

ALINSKY: Yeah, for a while I did. But by the time I graduated, the Depression was in full swing and archaeologists were in about as much demand as horses and buggies. All the guys who funded the field trips were being scraped off Wall Street sidewalks. And anyway, much as I loved it, archaeology was beginning to appear pretty irrelevant in those days. I was starting to get actively involved in social issues, and during my last year in college, a bunch of us took up the plight of the Southern Illinois coal workers, who were in a tough organizational fight -- tough, Christ, the poor bastards were starving -- and we got some food and supplies together and chartered some trucks and drove down to help them.

PLAYBOY: Was it at this time that you became active in radical politics?

ALINSKY: It was at this time I became a radical -- or recognized that I'd always been a radical and started to do something concrete about it. But I wasn't a full-time activist; I remained in school, and I suppose a lot of my ideas about what could and should be done were as muddled as those of most people in those chaotic days.

PLAYBOY: What did you do after graduation?

ALINSKY: I went hungry. What little money my mother had was wiped out in the Crash and, as I've told you, my old man wasn't exactly showering support on me. I managed to eke out a subsistence living by doing odd jobs around the university at ten cents an hour. I suppose I could have gotten some help from a relief project, but it's funny, I just couldn't do it. I've always been that way: I'd rob a bank before I accepted charity. Anyway, things were rough for a while and I got pretty low. I remember sitting in a crummy cafeteria one day and saying to myself: "Here I am, a smart son of a bitch, I graduated cum laude and all that shit, but I can't make a living, I can't even feed myself. What happens now?" And then it came to me; that little light bulb lit up above my head.

I moved over to the table next to the cashier, exchanged a few words with her and then finished my coffee and got up to pay. "Gee, I'm sorry," I said, "I seem to have lost my check." She'd seen that all I had was a cup of coffee, so she just said, "That's OK, that'll be a nickel." So I paid and left with my original nickel check still in my pocket and walked a few blocks to the next cafeteria in the same chain and ordered a big meal for a buck forty-five -- and, believe me, in those days, for a buck forty-five I could have practically bought the fuckin' joint. I ate in a corner far away from the cashier, then switched checks and paid my nickel bill from the other place and left. So my eating troubles were taken care of.

But then I began to see other kids around the campus in the same fix, so I put up a big sign on the bulletin board and invited anybody who was hungry to a meeting. Some of them thought it was all a gag, but I stood on the lectern and explained my system in detail, with the help of a big map of Chicago with all the local branches of the cafeteria marked on it. Social ecology! I split my recruits up into squads according to territory; one team would work the South Side for lunch, another the North Side for dinner, and so on. We got the system down to a science, and for six months all of us were eating free. Then the bastards brought in those serial machines at the door where you pull out a ticket that's only good for that particular cafeteria. That was a low blow. We were the first victims of automation.

PLAYBOY: Didn't you have any moral qualms about ripping off the cafeterias?

ALINSKY: Oh, sure, I suffered all the agonies of the damned--sleepless nights, desperate 'soul-searching, a tormented conscience that riddled me with guilt -- Are you kidding? I wouldn't have justified, say, conning free gin from a liquor store just so I could have a martini before dinner, but when you're hungry, anything goes -- There's a priority of rights, and the right to eat takes precedence over the right to make a profit -- And just in case you're getting any ideas, let me remind you that the statute of limitations has run out.

But you know, that incident was interesting, because it was actually my first experience as an organizer -- I learned something else from it, too; after the cafeterias had outflanked us, a bunch of the kids I'd organized came up to me and said, "OK, Saul, what do we do next?" And when I told them I didn't have the slightest idea, they were really pissed off at me. It was then I learned the meaning of the old adage about how 'favors extended become defined as rights.'

PLAYBOY: Did you continue your life of crime?

ALINSKY: Crime? That wasn't crime -- it was survival -- But my Robin Hood days were short-lived; logically enough, I was awarded the graduate Social Science Fellowship in criminology, the top one in that field, which took care of my tuition and room and board -- I still don't know why they gave it to me -- maybe because I hadn't taken a criminology course in my life and didn't know one goddamn thing about the subject -- But this was the Depression and I felt like someone had tossed me a life preserver -- Hell, if it had been in shirt cleaning, I would have taken it. Anyway, I found out that criminology was just as removed from actual crime and criminals as sociology was from society, so I decided to make my doctoral dissertation a study of the Al Capone mob -- an inside study.

PLAYBOY: What did Capone have to say about that?

ALINSKY: Well, my reception was pretty chilly at first -- I went over to the old Lexington Hotel, which was the gang's headquarters, and I hung around the lobby and the restaurant. I'd spot one of the mobsters whose picture I'd seen in the papers and go up to him and say, "I'm Saul Alinsky, I'm studying criminology, do you mind if I hang around with you?" And he'd look me over and say, "Get lost, punk." This happened again and again, and I began to feel I'd never get anywhere. Then one night I was sitting in the restaurant and at the next table was Big Ed Stash, a professional assassin who was the Capone mob's top executioner. He was drinking with a bunch of his pals and he was saying, "Hey, you guys, did I ever tell you about the time I picked up that redhead in Detroit?" and he was cut off by a chorus of moans. "My God," one guy said, "do we have to hear that one again?" I saw Big Ed's face fall; mobsters are very sensitive, you know, very thin-skinned. And I reached over and plucked his sleeve. "Mr. Stash," I said, "I'd love to hear that story." His face lit up. "You would, kid?" He slapped me on the shoulder. "Here, pull up a chair. Now, this broad, see . . ." And that's how it started.

Big Ed had an attentive audience and we became buddies. He introduced me to Frank Nitti, known as the Enforcer, Capone's number-two man, and actually in de facto control of the mob because of Al's income-tax rap. Nitti took me under his wing. I called him the Professor and I became his student. Nitti's boys took me everywhere, showed me all the mob's operations, from gin mills and whorehouses and bookie joints to the legitimate businesses they were beginning to take over. Within a few months, I got to know the workings of the Capone mob inside out.

PLAYBOY: Why would professional criminals confide their secrets to an outsider?

ALINSKY: Why not? What harm could I do them? Even if I told what I'd learned, nobody would listen. They had Chicago tied up tight as a drum; they owned the city, from the cop on the beat right up to the mayor. Forget all that Eliot Ness shit; the only real opposition to the mob came from other gangsters, like Bugs Moran or Roger Touhy. The Federal Government could try to nail 'em on an occasional income tax rap, but inside Chicago they couldn't touch their power. Capone was the establishment. When one of his boys got knocked off, there wasn't any city court in session, because most of the judges were at the funeral and some of them were pallbearers. So they sure as hell weren't afraid of some college kid they'd adopted as a mascot causing them any trouble. They never bothered to hide anything from me; I was their one-man student body and they were anxious to teach me. It probably appealed to their egos.

Once, when I was looking over their records, I noticed an item listing a $7500 payment for an out-of-town killer. I called Nitti over and I said, "Look, Mr. Nitti, I don't understand this. You've got at least 20 killers on your payroll. Why waste that much money to bring somebody in from St. Louis?" Frank was really shocked at my ignorance. "Look, kid," he said patiently, "sometimes our guys might know the guy they're hitting, they may have been to his house for dinner, taken his kids to the ball game, been the best man at his wedding, gotten drunk together. But you call in a guy from out of town, all you've got to do is tell him, 'Look, there's this guy in a dark coat on State and Randolph; our boy in the car will point him out; just go up and give him three in the belly and fade into the crowd.' So that's a job and he's a professional, he does it. But one of our boys goes up, the guy turns to face him and it's a friend, right away he knows that when he pulls that trigger there's gonna be a widow, kids without a father, funerals, weeping -- Christ, it'd be murder." I think Frank was a little disappointed by my even questioning the practice; he must have thought I was a bit callous.

I guess we all heard the news about that guy who shot up that school over in Oakland. Well I did find some interesting stuff about the school he was at.

The Chronical of Higher Learning, the unbiased bastion of truth and honesty (he he) has an interesting post mortum on this:

http://chronicle.com/article/Former-Stud...in/131419/

The comments afterward are kind of interesting. Note how its all focused on the gun issue.

Whats odd, considering that it is posted in the CHL is that there is little discussion on the unaccredited status of this school or the fact that it caters to the Korean community of the bay area.

Interesting also, this Goh fellow dropped out of the Nursing program but was not refunded.

I would guess that this school is not as fortunate as other unaccredited schools in that it actually has a physical campus and a really pissed off ex-student can actually walk in and shoot up the place.

A really odd thing, that the Chronical failed to pick up on was that this school was under scrutiny by California authorities for its low passing rate of its nursing program.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_20317785

This being in a state known for its liberal academic policies. Well, I am guessing that we have not heard the last of this tragic story. I do hope that the survivors of this horror are able to get on with their lives. But I do fear that some kind of back lash is in order. Seems that law makers always over react to tragic incidents like this one.

Note one inconsistancy: The Chronical described this school as being unaccredited but in the inteview with a state official, the Mercury quotes that official as stating that the accredition for the nursing program may be lost. I believe what Mr Heimerich really meant to say was that the school might loose its license to teach nursing.

Quote:An unusual portrait emerged of Goh, with his nursing instructor saying that he was consumed by an inability to get along with women before he left the school a few months ago. The teacher, Romie Delariman of San Leandro, said Goh didn't fit in at a college where women make up the vast majority of the nursing faculty and student body.

Delariman said Goh - a former construction worker with a string of debts but no criminal record that would keep him from buying a gun - was a good and eager student. But he added, "He just can't deal with women. ... I always advised him, 'You go to school to learn, not to make friends.' "

Excerpt from a recent National Review article:

Quote:March 19, 2012 4:00 A.M.
The College Cartel
(Page 3 of 4)
By Vance H. Fried & Reihan Salam



...The trouble with regulating the lucrative higher-education industry is that it won’t necessarily force colleges, whether explicitly for-profit or “non-profit,” to lower their prices. The reason is that the flow of new entrants into the higher-education industry has been severely restricted by regional accreditation bodies, which effectively determine whether colleges are eligible for the lucrative federal subsidies. These accreditation bodies present themselves as the guardians of high standards. In practice, however, they serve as cartels that protect higher-education incumbents by setting difficult and sometimes arbitrary hurdles to accreditation for new schools. In the past, for-profit colleges simply bought faltering accredited institutions outright to avoid having to go through the onerous accreditation process. Now, however, regional accreditation bodies have closed off that option, further limiting competition.

The existence of accreditation cartels is not in itself a reason to abandon regulatory efforts, but it does suggest that addressing accelerating cost growth in higher education might require more radical solutions, such as dramatically reducing federal funding and creating a process through which innovative schools can do an end-run around regional accreditation bodies.

There is good reason to believe that actually eliminating federal subsidies for higher education would lead to lower tuition even as it reduced federal spending by $60 billion a year. This doesn’t mean, however, that federal loans should be eliminated; such loans serve the valuable function of guaranteeing that everyone, regardless of family income, can secure a long-term loan with interest deferral until graduation. Rather, loan programs need to be redesigned and operated on a break-even basis.

Even given today’s high in-state tuition, it is quite possible for people with a net worth of zero and no family support to work their way through college and graduate owing no more than $30,000, a very serviceable debt. The problem with the current loan program is that it doesn’t adequately protect the interests of students and taxpayers. The default rate has risen considerably, in no small part because many young adults who can’t finish their degrees are nevertheless burdened by an enormous amount of loan debt. Imposing reasonable caps on the amount students can borrow, and implementing better monitoring and collection policies (such as reducing the amount students are eligible to borrow if they fail to complete some number of credit hours), can do a great deal to limit the burdens upon students.

Improving the design of the federal loan program will greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the need for the Pell Grant program, which currently subsidizes 40 percent of students. Only students with extremely low incomes will require any additional assistance, which state governments are well positioned to provide. In a similar vein, it is important to eliminate the provisions in the tax code that subsidize tuition, which overwhelmingly benefit relatively affluent households.

Will reducing the flow of subsidies into higher education simply starve colleges and universities out of business? That is the claim we will no doubt hear from members of the cartel. But returning to 1980 prices just means returning to 1980 profit margins. While this will certainly be painful for colleges, it is doable. However, it would be naive for policymakers to expect established universities to take a lead in reducing their own profits. That is where competition comes in.

As Bowen observed, cost containment must come from the outside — either from state legislatures, or from students and their families, or from competitors. At the time Bowen wrote, most state legislatures were actively involved in controlling cost. Tuition increases required lawmakers’ approval, which was often hard to come by.

Then legislatures began to cede the power to set tuition to their colleges. Not surprisingly, the colleges chose to raise tuition aggressively. Prices have risen so much that many legislatures have become alarmed. There is a natural tendency for policymakers to try to micromanage individual colleges — something that will not work, either politically or practically. They can, however, create a competitive higher-education system that places the power to keep costs down in the hands of students and families.

State governments would be wise to pursue two complementary strategies:

First, break up existing higher-education cartels. State governments often insulate incumbent schools from competition. For example, State X might prevent the University of State X from competing with State X U by barring it from opening a campus on the other school’s turf. This might make sense if our goal were to preserve the market share of both schools, but it does not make sense when our goal is to foster robust consumer-friendly competition. Prices are often fixed by the state so as to eliminate any potential for competition. States should let their individual public colleges freely compete with one another. Some colleges will be winners and others losers, but the consistent winner will be the student, who will get lower tuition and a higher-quality education.

Second, level the playing field. State higher-education subsidies are generally paid only to state-owned colleges, giving such schools a huge competitive advantage over private colleges: State colleges can spend just as much as a private colleges, but then charge a substantially lower price, because of the subsidy. States should instead allow private colleges to receive the subsidy as well. One approach would be for state governments to develop partnerships with private colleges. For example, private colleges located within the state could become private charter colleges, akin to K–12 charter schools. In return for the state subsidy, private charter colleges would agree to charge in-state students a lower tuition than the most expensive public college currently charges. The goal of leveling the playing field would be to pressure the most expensive public colleges to spend public resources responsibly, not to run the public colleges and universities out of business.

Not all states will take such steps, and very few will take them quickly. But the federal government might contribute to breaking up higher-education cartels by providing an alternative route to accreditation. The aforementioned Kevin Carey of Education Sector has called on the federal government to create a mechanism through which high-quality providers of instruction — for example, a program exclusively devoted to teaching college-level calculus or Mandarin — can get approval to accept federal loans. Carey would require that such educators offer their services at low cost and provide transparency regarding their effectiveness. If they meet these criteria, any college or university that accepts federal loans would have to accept the credits they provide. While some may find Carey’s approach heavy-handed, it has the potential to strongly encourage the adoption of low-cost business models in higher education. Existing schools that can’t compete with the new providers will die out as they see their business cannibalized. Those that rise to the challenge will do so by improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of their offerings.

There have been a number of promising recent developments in higher education. The most impressive may be the rise of Western Governors University, a highly innovative institution built around entirely online delivery and a competency-based degree — i.e., WGU grants credits based on test performance, and does not require class attendance. A WGU student who is already very knowledgeable about software programming, having worked as a coder before starting work on her degree, might secure a credit in computer science by passing a final exam without actually taking a course. In essence, WGU offers the equivalent of a CPA exam for every subject.

Moreover, WGU charges its students based not on the number of credits they complete, but rather on an “all you can eat” basis over two semesters: If you can demonstrate competency in seven or eight semesters’ worth of credits in only two semesters, you pay the price for two. The beauty of the WGU model is that it allows students to seek instruction anywhere they can find it — they can read independently, study with a tutor, enroll in some other school, etc. — while turning to WGU to certify that they’ve mastered the relevant material.

In a somewhat similar vein, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has sponsored MITx, a program through which students who take free online courses offered by MIT can, for a modest fee, secure an MITx credential by demonstrating a thorough understanding of the material.

It’s not just online programs that show promise. Grace College, a small institution in northern Indiana, uses a much more traditional, residential model. But it has recently trimmed some unnecessary spending and moved summer school totally online. As a result, a Grace degree can now be earned in three years for total tuition of $38,000, about the same as an Indiana resident pays over four years to get a degree from Purdue or Indiana University Bloomington.

The combination of low profit margins and innovation-encouraging models might even allow higher-education costs to fall well below 1980 levels — and if current levels of state-government subsidies were maintained, higher education could even be tuition-free. Through competition and innovation, we can achieve the dream of left-wing higher-education visionaries — but without breaking the bank.

Mary-Anne Cabel
"In a domestic partnership with Gregg L. DesElms"

Quote:Lives in Napa, California
In a domestic partnership with Gregg L. DesElms
From Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte
Knows English, Tagalog

Quote:Pasuquin town is noted world wide for the Sunflower Festival, an annual drag (costume)pageantry. It was organized in 1975 by a group of gay men who call themselves the Sunflowers, and attracts a large audience from the surrounding countryside. The name Sunflower was conceptualized because of its bright and attractive yellow color. The petals of the sunflower always follows the direction of the sun and it relates to a gay life being multi talented and truly excels in fields of expertise.

As to the imperative need to preserve, develop and promote the Ilocano way of celebrating the Santacruzan, the Sunflower Organization of Pasuquin formally showcased the very first Gay Stacruzan Festival in May 1975. The association grew from year to year. More members evolved and the association became an instant toast. Part of the goal of the organization is to develop camaraderie among gay population of Pasuquin; more specifically to develop and discover young talents in the field of Performing Arts; to develop gays to be more responsible and useful citizens in their own field of endeavor.

An American film, Sunflowers (1996), directed by Shawn Hainsworth, an Independent U.S. Film Director, has made the Sunflower Festival internationally known. The film garnered critics recognition in the 1997 Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and other Film festivals in North America.

Members of the Sunflower are all professionals - doctors, nurses, musicians, teachers, engineers, accountants, lawyers, marines, naval officers, Federal employees, beauticians, morticians, couturiers, businessmen, interior designers and writers. Members who are residents in Pasuquin are mostly teachers, beauticians and businessmen.

Sunflower members are also active in participation of the annual town fiesta in December, the Mayflower festivities and religious celebrations like Holy Week. Indeed, they may be gay but they are truly and undoubtedly assets to the community.

Quote:Tonight, at Mary-Anne's family's annual Christmas get together, I promise you that every young person will have his/her nose buried in his/her smartphone, texting away. They don't want to be there, but their sense (be it imposed or otherwise) of Filipino family obligation demands their presence, and they WILL, bygod, accommodate. I can't help but notice, though, how not part of the moment they are; and I can't help but worry what will happen to such moments in the future, when the elders are gone and all that's left is their memory of not wanting to be there in the first place, and so their naturally wondering why even continue.

A study in the April 2012 issue of The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist finds that online I/O degrees are viewed less favorably than their traditional counterparts when it comes to the likelihood of receiving an interview, likelihood of being hired, and starting salary.

The study only received 23 responses, and does not indicate whether the respondents were or were not themselves online grads.

In their discussion the authors also distinguish between "reputable online programs" and "enormous online universities that may be perceived as degree mills," although the study itself does not. If, as the authors state, it's "an important question to ask," maybe someone will ask it next time.

So if you believe the authors (and you can swing it financially and logistically), you can improve your odds of getting an I/O psych job with a traditional F2F degree, preferrably a PhD with an internship.

Quote:The Effect of Degree Characteristics on Hiring Outcomes for I-O Psychologists
Alexandra M. Rechlin and Kurt Kraiger
Colorado State University

The purpose of this paper is to inform discussion on the relative merits of three factors on the hiring outcomes of students graduating from I-O programs: degree type (online versus face-to-face), degree level (master’s versus PhD), and whether or not an internship is completed. We do this through empirical research. We recognize that an increasing number of online master’s and PhD programs in I-O psychology are being offered, yet there is little to no research on the perceived value (in I-O psychology) of online degrees. In addition, some individuals have a difficult time deciding whether or not to pursue a master’s degree or a PhD, and students often wonder about the importance of obtaining an internship while in graduate school. This study addresses these important questions.

Online Versus Traditional Degrees

Undergraduate and graduate courses are increasingly being taught online. In the fall of 2002, 9.6% of undergraduate enrollment was online; by the fall of 2009, that number had risen to 29.3%. In 2007–2008, 22% of postbaccalaureate students (800,000) were enrolled in an online course (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Degrees offered entirely online have also become popular. From 2007–2008, 9% of postbaccalaureate students took their degree entirely online (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).

Due to the recent increase in online degrees, in 2009 SIOP’s Education and Training (E&T) committee formed a subcommittee to study existing online master’s and PhD I-O programs. The subcommittee identified 12 different master’s or PhD programs from 10 universities. To examine employers’ reactions to online degrees, the subcommittee distributed a short survey to organizations recruiting through the SIOP website. Although only six people responded, the subcommittee found that employers overall were neutral to slightly negative in their perceptions of online degrees (Dahling et al., 2010).

Further, in 2010, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conducted a poll of HR professionals’ hiring practices and attitudes regarding online versus traditional degrees. The majority of respondents agreed that job applicants with traditional degrees were preferred by their organizations, although 87% of respondents agreed that online degrees were viewed more favorably than they were 5 years ago (SHRM, 2010).

Based on these survey findings, it is predicted that job applicants from a traditional university (that is, offering face-to-face classes) will be viewed more favorably than applicants with online I-O degrees.

Hypothesis 1: Applicants with degrees from a traditional university will be viewed more favorably (in terms of likelihood of receiving an interview, likelihood of being hired, and starting salary) than applicants with degrees from an online university.

Master’s Versus PhD

Master’s degree programs in I-O have become increasingly popular over the last 20 years (Roch, 2009). Traditionally, there has been a bias against master’s graduates, and master’s programs have striven for legitimacy (Koppes, 1991). Due to this traditionally negative bias towards master’s degrees in I-O, it is expected that applicants with a PhD will be viewed more favorably than those with master’s degrees.

In practice, master’s degree or PhD graduates may perform similar work. However, there are still a number of differences in roles and responsibilities (Schippmann, Hawthorne, & Schmitt, 1992), and these differences are reflected in relative salaries. According to the 2009 SIOP income survey, the weighted mean salary for someone with a PhD in I-O was $112,728, compared to a weighted mean salary for someone with a master’s degree in I-O of just $77,591 (Khanna & Medsker, 2010). It therefore is expected that applicants with a PhD will be offered higher starting salaries than applicants with master’s degrees.

Hypothesis 2: Applicants with PhDs will be viewed more favorably (in terms of likelihood of receiving an interview, likelihood of being hired, and starting salary) than applicants with master’s degrees.

Internship Experience

Many graduate students are interested in obtaining internships in order to help them acquire jobs after graduation, and many graduate programs require formal internships. SIOP data indicate that approximately 25% of PhD programs and 37% of master’s programs require supervised internships (Cassidy, 2010). Although there is anecdotal evidence that internship experience is helpful in obtaining one’s first I-O job, to our knowledge there is no supporting empirical evidence. However, Cassidy surveyed I-O psychologists and found that nearly 83% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that “work/internship experience acquired before, or during, graduate school results in greater employment opportunities upon graduation.”

There is substantial evidence, however, that internships are beneficial for undergraduates. For example, Gault, Leach, and Duey (2010) found that undergraduates in a business school were more likely to receive job offers if they had completed an internship, and Gault, Redington, and Schlager (2000) reported that intern alumni had higher salaries than non-intern alumni. Based on the empirical evidence from undergraduates and the anecdotal evidence in the I-O community, it is expected that applicants who completed an internship will be viewed more favorably than applicants without internship experience.

Hypothesis 3: Applicants with one year of internship experience will be viewed more favorably (in terms of likelihood of receiving an interview, likelihood of being hired, and starting salary) than applicants without internship experience.

Method

Participants

Participants were 23 psychologists working in I-O psychology consulting firms and responsible for hiring other I-O psychologists. Of the 23, 19 were male, 3 were female, and 1 did not provide gender information. Participants ranged in age from 35 to 65 years old (M = 47.9, SD = 9.80) and were primarily White (20 White, 2 Hispanic/Latino, 1 did not respond). Nearly all participants (n = 19) had completed their PhD, one had a master’s degree, one had a PsyD, and two did not provide degree information. Nineteen participants had obtained their highest degree in I-O psychology, one in social/personality, one in experimental psychology, and two did not respond. Participants completed their highest degree between 1971 and 2005 (M = 1991, SD = 10.75).

Companies in the study employed 0–80 full-time PhDs (M = 12.87,
SD = 18.20), 0–6 part-time PhDs (M = 3.15, SD = 4.36), 0–160 full-time master’s-level I-O practitioners (M = 15.3, SD = 34.61), and 1–40 part-time master’s-level I-O practitioners (M = 3.57, SD = 8.30).

Procedure

Participants were e-mailed and asked to participate in a research project examining the effect of different characteristics of an I-O psychologist’s training on hiring outcomes. Participants were also told that the applicant profiles were fictional but intended to portray characteristics that might actually be used in a hiring decision. They were then provided a link to the online survey.

Upon clicking the survey link, participants were presented with an online informed consent. Then participants viewed eight different applicant profiles representing potential recent graduates from I-O psychology programs applying for a job with their organization. After viewing a one-sentence description of each applicant, participants rated the applicant on the three outcome variables (described below). After responding to the applicant profiles, participants completed an optional demographics survey.

Stimuli and measures. Participants viewed eight different brief applicant profiles, ensuring that each combination of the three independent variables (online vs. traditional degree, master’s vs. PhD, internship vs. no internship) was rated once. For example, two applicant profiles were: “This applicant received his/her master’s degree in I-O psychology from an online program and did not complete an internship during graduate school,” and “This applicant received his/her PhD in I-O psychology from a traditional terminal degree program (i.e., not online) and completed a 1-year internship during graduate school.”

Based on the applicant information, participants rated the applicant on the three outcome variables. The first question was, “What is the likelihood that you would invite this applicant for an interview?” and the second question was, “What is the likelihood that you would hire this applicant?” Participants responded to both questions using a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = very unlikely, 5 = very likely). The third question was “If you did hire the applicant, what is the starting salary that would likely be offered to this applicant?” and participants responded using a 9-point Likert-type scale (1 = less than $30,000, 5 = $60,000 to $70,000, 9 = greater than $100,000).

Results

A doubly multivariate repeated measures MANOVA was conducted to analyze the data. The dependent variables were the likelihood that the applicant would be invited to interview, the likelihood of the applicant being hired, and the starting salary offered to the applicant. The within-subjects variables were the applicant’s degree (master’s or PhD), type of degree (online or traditional), and whether or not the applicant had internship experience.

Hypothesis 1

Hypothesis 1 predicted that applicants with degrees from a traditional university would be viewed more favorably than applicants with degrees from an online university. Estimated marginal means and standard errors can be found in Table 1. All tests were significant. If applicants had a traditional degree, they were more likely to be invited to interview [F(1, 22) = 6.37, p = .000, η2 = .76], more likely to be hired [F(1, 22) = 37.07, p = .000, η2 = .63], and more likely to be given a higher starting salary [F(1, 22) = 24.30, p = .000, η2 = .53] than were applicants with online degrees. Hypothesis 1 therefore was fully supported.

Table 1
[omitted]

Hypothesis 2 predicted that applicants with PhDs would be viewed more favorably than applicants with master’s degrees. Estimated marginal means and standard errors can be found in Table 2. All tests were significant. Applicants with PhDs were more likely to be invited to interview [F(1, 22) = 33.52, p = .000, η2 = .60], more likely to be hired [F(1, 22) = 14.97, p = .000, η2 = .41], and more likely to be given a higher starting salary [F(1, 22) = 107.89, p = .000, η2 = .83] than were applicants with master’s degrees. Hypothesis 2 therefore was fully supported.

Table 2
[omitted]

Hypothesis 3

Hypothesis 3 predicted that applicants with 1 year of internship experience would be viewed more favorably than applicants without internship experience. Estimated marginal means and standard errors can be found in Table 3. All tests were significant. If applicants had internship experience, they were more likely to be invited to interview [F(1, 22) = 26.49, p = .000, η2 = .55], to be hired [F(1, 22) = 34.38, p = .000, η2 = .61], and to be offered a higher starting salary [F(1, 22) = 13.07, p = .001, η2 = .38] than were applicants without internship experience. Hypothesis 3 therefore was fully supported.

Table 3
[omitted]

Discussion

The goal of this study was to inform debate about the extent to which various characteristics of I-O applicants affect hiring outcomes for applied positions. Specifically, we examined whether an applicant’s degree (master’s or PhD), type of degree (online or traditional), and internship experience would affect the applicant’s likelihood of being invited to interview, likelihood of being hired, and starting salary offered. Although many of the results for this study were anticipated, this study is the first attempt at quantifying the effects of degree level, degree type, and internship experience on hiring outcomes.

Accordingly, our results should be of great interest both to potential applicants and to professionals who advise them (e.g., advisors of undergraduates). Individuals who choose a master’s program over a doctoral program or an online program over a traditional program may have valid reasons for doing so but should understand up front the possible negative consequences of their choice.

The Online Degree Debate

For potential employers, and for purposes of professional debate, it is not unexpected that graduates of traditional programs received better hiring outcomes than graduates of online programs. However, what remains unknown is whether this result is from differences in the perceived quality or the actual quality of online programs. While distance learning degrees appear to be as effective as traditional degrees in terms of student learning (Allen et al., 2004; Sitzmann, Kraiger, Stewart, & Wisher, 2006), potential employers still viewed online graduates more poorly. Is this simply an issue of inaccurate perceptions by employers of the quality of online education? If so, then online programs (and their students and graduates) need to work systematically to improve these perceptions. For example, programs could reach out to potential employers to increase understanding of the nature of online programs, the courses provided, and the rigor of those courses. Online graduates could tout their experience collaborating with others using electronic means (an important skill in today’s work environment) and the self-discipline necessary to succeed in an online program. Instructors in online programs could also aim to change perceptions of online degrees.

On the other hand, our results could reflect lower actual quality of online programs compared to traditional programs. Such differences would be difficult to quantify. Just as there is no universally accepted ranking system of traditional programs, there are no clear criteria by which online programs could be compared to traditional programs in terms of the quality of their graduates. Some criteria may be comparisons of “raw input” (e.g., mean GRE scores of incoming students), the research productivity of program faculty (e.g., Oliver, Blair, Gorman, & Woehr, 2005), the extent to which graduate training corresponds to an accepted model of practitioner training (see Belar & Perry, 1992; Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1999), or the success rate of students passing state licensing exams (though the proportion of I-O psychologists who seek licensing is slight).

Note too that the quality of online programs also differs by the school offering it. An important question to ask is if employers view an online degree from a more reputable online program, such as those based on traditional programs (e.g., Kansas State University or Colorado State University), differently than they view degrees from enormous online universities that may be perceived as degree mills. It is possible that online graduates from more reputable programs may be viewed similarly to traditional graduates. In that case, the results of this study may have been driven by poor perceptions of less reputable programs.

In combination with initial work by SIOP’s E&T committee, we see our results as leading to important discussions as to why graduates of online programs may fair worse in the job market than graduates of traditional programs, as well as more basic discussion and debate as to the skill sets expected of graduates (e.g., Fink et al., 2010) and how both graduate curriculums and program graduates can be meaningfully compared across delivery media.

One result of such discussion is a better understanding of the comparative skill sets acquired in different types of programs. For example, graduates from traditional programs may be more likely to be perceived as being able to conduct research. However, online graduates may obtain skills that may set them apart from traditional graduates. Online graduates need to be very self-disciplined to be able to achieve, and they must be able to work independently and also be able to work collaboratively using electronic means.

These results suggest that employers perceive graduates of traditional programs as more qualified or better than graduates of online programs, when the more critical question may be, how do they differ?

Other Findings

We also found that applicants with PhDs were viewed more favorably than applicants with master’s degrees. This result was not a surprise, as it is logical that applicants with more education would see better hiring outcomes. We know from the SIOP income survey that I-O psychologists with PhDs make, on average, far more money than I-O practitioners with master’s degrees (Khanna & Medsker, 2010), and PhDs are likely more qualified due to their additional years of education. A major reason that many students pursue a PhD is to have a better chance of obtaining a good job, so it is perhaps reassuring to many that PhDs are indeed more likely to experience positive hiring outcomes. Nonetheless, a better understanding of which advantages ascribed to PhDs are perceptual and which can be attributed to agreed upon criteria can help both employers and potential applicants make more informed decisions.

Finally, we found that applicants who had completed a 1-year internship were viewed more favorably than applicants who had not completed an internship. This is consistent with prior research with undergraduates indicating that students with internship experience are more likely to be offered a job (Gault et al., 2010) and have higher salaries (Gault et al., 2000). However, this is the first study to extend this effect to I-O graduates.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

As with all research, there were some limitations to this study. First, the sample size was small. However, it was an interesting, relevant sample made up of psychologists at least partially responsible for hiring I-O psychologists in their firms. Further, despite the small sample size, significant support was found for the three hypotheses. A second limitation is that participants rated short, one-sentence descriptions of applicants instead of viewing complete and realistic resumés. Participants obviously were aware that they were not rating real applicants. Further, without the full details of actual resumés, the manipulated characteristics may be more salient than they would be in real-life scenarios. Future research should focus on hiring outcomes for real applicants (and/or more realistic resumés) to determine if the effects found in this study hold up for actual job applicants (and may shed additional light on the underlying factors on which we speculated).

Implications

Online degrees in I-O are becoming increasingly prevalent. The findings in this study, however, indicate that applicants with online degrees are viewed less favorably than are applicants with traditional degrees. If students do indeed achieve the same learning outcomes regardless of the type of degree they have, as the literature on distance learning suggests, then employers should more carefully consider the relative merits of face-to-face versus online curricula, and administrators and instructors of online programs should more assertively market the knowledge and skills of their graduates. It is our hope that this paper will stimulate research and considerable discussion regarding traditional versus online I-O programs.

References
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