Already a struggling college student enough, but what is this MSCHE that my college is presenting as a beneficial change? I looked into the organization, and from what my interpretation is, it seems as if this organization is a “education police” of sorts, cracking down on what material should be taught and why students should be constantly surveyed for acceptable material being retained.
Although the program isn’t supposed to go into full effect until 2026-2027, should I be concerned on what this organization will do? Also, if I shouldn’t be scared, then what is this programs goal?
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Without knowing what college you go to or anything about it, it’s impossible to say whether this would be a positive change.
Middle States is a regional body that accredits colleges. A school must be accredited if its students are to receive federal financial aid. Also, many private sources of financial aid will only go to accredited schools.
In general, accreditation is intended to show that a school is actually teaching students and is being run responsibly. It’s not a guarantee of quality — it’s possible to get a crappy education from an accredited school. But, it does ensure, for example, that the people used to teach classes are appropriate to teach those classes, that classes actually meet, that grades are recorded fairly, that the school’s money isn’t being diverted into somebody’s pockets, etc….
Middle states is one of the accrediting bodies for higher education. (Depending on your region, it’s *the* accrediting body). If your college isn’t currently accredited and it’s working toward it, that’s good for you. Having a degree from an accredited university may make the difference for some jobs or grad programs. (It’s the difference between having a “real” degree and you studying in my garage and me giving you a piece of paper that says you have a bachelors degree.
There are external “accreditation” organizations that exist to verify that higher education organizations and the programs they offer meet basic requirements. You can find the list of the various (legitimate) accrediting organizations on [this page](https://www.chea.org/chea-and-usde-recognized-accrediting-organizations) from the Council of Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
All legitimate higher education institutions will be accredited by one of these organizations. If it, and the programs they offer, are not accredited, you will find difficulty in having the credits accepted if you have to transfer out of your current school, and employers may not view a degree offered by a non-accredited organization as valid.
It sounds like your school is either not currently accredited but is going through an accreditation process, or they are doing a routine re-accreditation process. This is generally something that happens in the background on a regular basis, and not anything that should concern those who attend. (That said, if you are currently attending a non-accredited school, then getting the accreditation is a very good thing for you in the long run, as it avoids a lot of questions about your degree and your program.)
Well, there’s a lot of missing detail. What exactly did your college present? MSCHE is an accrediting agency that is yeah, kind of the education police. They validate that institutions are providing an appropriate education. They are a way that potential students, donors, governments, etc can ensure a university or college is being managed well and performing good work
They don’t check individual students, they aren’t going to scrutinize your grades, they don’t do standardized testing or anything like that. That your college is going through an accreditation reaffirmation really shouldn’t impact you at all, if you don’t want it to. They will announce it and publicize it so you can provide feedback to the MSCHE if you want to, because that’s part of the data collection process they use to analyze the college, but you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to.
Others have said it’s about accreditation, but to make it more ELI5, it’s important to understand what purpose accreditation serves.
Let’s say you’re a business or a graduate school looking to hire or admit a recent college grad. You probably get most of your applicants from local colleges that you’ve come to know well over the years, but you may also get a lot of applications from folks from across the country. There are so many colleges out there that it’s impossible for you to be familiar with each one. When you get an applicant who graduated with a BS in biology from a small college in a faraway state, how do you know whether that particular college program would have adequately prepared them for your job or PhD program? What if it’s just some low-quality diploma mill that just churns students out and doesn’t actually require them to master the basic concepts of biology in order to pass with good grades?
That’s what accreditation is for. If the college and its programs are accredited by a reputable body, then you have a pretty good understanding of what that student’s coursework in biology would have included, and you know that their examinations met a standard of rigor that you can rely on. So you don’t have to do a ton of research on every college of every applicant to your program, you just need to make sure it’s accredited by someone you trust.
If your college is already a good school, you shouldn’t have any concern. Their programs probably already mostly meet the standards of the accreditors unless they’re doing something pretty weird or just have really low standards. There might be some changes they need to make to their curriculum, textbooks, or exams, but it shouldn’t be a major thing. If your college is trying to get accredited, that’s a sign that they think they are of a sufficient quality to pass the bar. It should be good for your employment prospects afterwards, or more honestly it in all likelihood will make zero noticeable change in your life.
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