Cũng giống VN thời mới bắt đầu làm đánh giá và kiểm định. Nhưng sao họ làm chậm thế nhỉ, VN thì làm ào ào từ lâu rồi (nhưng có vẻ họ thì làm thật, dù chậm và dở, còn mình thì rất có nguy cơ làm dối, hình thức, bệnh thành tích...)
Dù sao thì cũng nên đọc bài viết này, lấy từ Bangkok Post, để biết người biết ta!
---
Rankings or assessments
The resent hoopla over university 'rankings' was ill-conceived because the focus should have been on self-improvement, not which university was better than another
Writer: VASU THIRASAK
Published: 22/09/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Learningpost
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which Thai university is best of them all? "Well," said the magic mirror, "you might not like the answer to that question, and before I give you the answer, these are the criteria on which I made my judgment ... ."
Mahanakorn University of Technology was one of the research universities that received high points in Onesqa’s recent university quality assessment. SUWAT POMKOKRAG
It's hard to be a well-balanced, non-biased, truthful mirror.
When the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa) released its assessment of the quality of university-level institutions recently, there were complaints and a few hostilities here and there against what most people perceived as being the Thai-university "rankings".
Using the correct terminology
A university ranking is an evaluation and positioning of two or more universities against each other in a hierarchy - one above the other; whereas an assessment is the evaluation of a university against itself, the main goal of which is to foster self-improvement.
Of course, Onesqa was quick to emphasize that the report did not "rank" Thailand's universities, but its voice was not heard over the boisterous din of detractors.
Onesqa clarified that the main objective of the quality assessment of universities and educational institutions was to inform each university, individually, of its true quality and performance. This would empower them to improve their own performances and achieve higher quality standards in the future.
That is what has been needed for a long time. And publishing the results for everybody to see reinforces the transparency that is often absent when tabulations are kept secret.
Therefore, each university should not waste time arguing about who is "No. 1", but instead should be asking how it did this year compared to last year and how it can do better next year.
Reasons for assessments
Onesqa was established in 2000 as a public organisation to assess - not to rank - the performance of all education institutions in the Kingdom.
Many education-related agencies, including the Ministry of Education, the Office of the Higher Education Commission, and even Onesqa, are reluctant to come up with outright official university rankings like those in the US News & World Report or the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities.
However, for many years, academics with broader perspectives have urged for a publication of a true evaluation of all 37,000 schools in Thailand - elementary schools, high schools, vocational and commercial schools, international schools, colleges and universities - and that the results should be made public.
It is important to have assessments because they provide valuable information on the independent standings of universities to be used by prospective students and their parents who may be trying to select a university or special programme. For too long, students have had to search in the dark, or to depend on subjective conclusions by others regarding the quality of a university or academic programme.
The public distribution of objective assessments can assist parents, teachers, administrators and students in making informed decisions concerning their education.
The individual assessments also act as a mirror that enables each university to see itself and its performances and its strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of its peers. This allows each university to identify which areas it needs to improve and marks which areas of strength it should promote.
Chaiyo for Onesqa!
Whether the public calls the listing an assessment or a ranking, the most important point is that Onesqa should be applauded, not only for its bold move in publishing its university assessments, but also for doing so transparently and without bias - a rare event in Thailand.
In publishing the list, Onesqa took a courageous step knowing that it would receive lots of criticism and claims of unfairness. One of the main brickbats is that the criteria on which Onesqa based its assessments might not be fair and accurate.
But that's the point of having one's own set of criteria for making assessments. There is no universal set of standards or criteria that are used and accepted for assessments or rankings throughout the world.
For instance - and using examples from the rankings world - the US News & World Report, the leading university-rankings publication, uses a different set of criteria from the Times Higher Education's world university rankings. Each assessor has its own set of criteria, indicators and, therefore, results.
In addition, the Washington Monthly magazine recently came up with its own university rankings with the emphasis on measuring which US universities do the most for social good. Surprisingly, Harvard University (ranked No. 1 on both the US News and the UK's Times Higher Education lists) was ranked No. 11 by the Washington Monthly, with Yale at No. 23 and Princeton at No. 28.
Therefore, Onesqa's set of criteria, for all its intents and purposes, is Onesqa's set of criteria, period.
Evaluation criteria
Thailand's 200 universities are assessed systematically over a five-year period. Not all universities are evaluated every year, but every university is evaluated at least once in the mandatory five-year cycle.
According to Onesqa, its assessment methodology is rigorous, systematic and beyond reproach, and that the criteria used are complex and comprehensive.
In assessing all the universities, Onesqa focuses on evaluating all aspects of the institution, including areas like the quality of graduates, research programmes, academic services, the preservation of arts and culture, curriculum and teaching/learning standards, and many others, including human resources management and employee benefits.
Additionally, the peer-review method was used in the evaluation process.
Onesqa's evaluation teams comprise more than 300 academic experts from all the universities that are being assessed. Each assessment team has a minimum of three members, but may have many more. The assessment teams are required to visit and evaluate each assigned university by means of an evaluation process that is very thorough and which takes a minimum of three days to complete.
The criteria for selecting each evaluation team member are as follows: the first person must have worked under the supervision of Onesqa during the previous university assessment cycle, and must have a full understanding of the requirements and applicable criteria. The second person must come from the university that is being assessed, so that he or she has in-depth knowledge of the university. The third person is chosen randomly from a pool of highly respected experts and is assigned by Onesqa to the evaluation team.
Time to improve
The most important thing is that Onesqa's assessment results are now public. Now it's up to us to use the assessment results to the benefit of each university and start improving the quality of our higher education institutions.
For institutions that received high marks across the board, "Well done!" And keep it up. However, to those universities that didn't receive maximum points in specific categories, you have no excuses. You now know where the weak points are, thanks to Onesqa. Dig in and start improving yourself.
Universities shouldn't waste time criticising the system or faulting other schools because they did better; instead, do your part to improve Thailand's higher education.
So, before you go back to the magic mirror to ask that tough question again, prepare yourself and make sure you work hard, because you can fool yourself that you look good, but remember that the mirror never lies. It just reflects your true being.
Nguồn: http://www.bangkokpost.com/life/education/24294/rankings-or-assessments
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn accreditation. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn accreditation. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Chủ Nhật, 27 tháng 9, 2009
Chủ Nhật, 14 tháng 9, 2008
Accreditation of Universities in the USA
Accreditation of Universities in the USA
Copyright 2002-03 by Ronald B. Standler
Source: http://www.rbs2.com/accred.htm
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Regional Accrediting Organizations
3. Accrediting Organizations in Specific Subjects
4. Law
5. Minimum Requirements
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
Doctoral degree
Library
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to explain accreditation to students in the USA, as well as to foreigners who are baffled at the complexity of accreditation in the USA. A secondary purpose is to explain the requirements for academic degrees in the USA.
This essay is intended only to present general information about an interesting topic in law and is not legal advice for your specific problem. See my disclaimer.
To simplify matters, in this essay I refer to colleges and/or universities as just universities.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Regional Accrediting Organizations
There are six regional accrediting organizations for universities in the USA, each with a different territory. These regional accrediting organizations accredit all degrees, in all subject areas, in an entire university. (See below for organizations that accredit degrees in a single academic subject.) The alphabetical list of states in parentheses comprise the region for each organization.
Middle States (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania)
New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
North Central (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming)
Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington state)
Southern (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia)
Western (California and Hawaii)
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is a private organization that coordinates the regional accrediting organizations, as well as the accrediting organizations in specific academic subjects.
The federal government in the USA plays a negligible roll in accreditation, mostly in The Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Accrediting Organizations in Specific Subjects
There are also accrediting organizations for academic degrees in some specific subject areas. For example:
Chemistry
The American Chemical Society, Committee on Professional Training (ACS)
Computer Science
The Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology, Computing Accreditation Commission (ABET-CAC). The Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) participates in ABET. The CSAB includes representatives of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Computer Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the Association for Information Systems.
Engineering & Technology
The Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology (ABET) has representatives from all of the major engineering professional societies in the USA, including the Association of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), amongst many others.
Degrees in engineering technology are often confused with degrees in engineering. The distinction between engineering and technology is:
Engineering students take more classes in mathematics and higher-level classes in physics and chemistry, than technology students. Technology students tend to have more "practical" classes, as in vocational education.
Consequently, graduates of engineering programs are better qualified to do research and development, such as design novel products. Graduates of technology programs (e.g., a bachelor of science in electrical engineering technology) are generally employed to build prototype products, supervise manufacturing production work, do routine laboratory work, and repair sophisticated electronic equipment.
Technology programs are not offered by most universities in the USA, so many students who choose to study engineering would be better suited for a technology program.
Law
The American Bar Association (ABA) section on legal education and The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) both evaluate law schools.
Medicine
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is a joint project of
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and
the American Medical Association, Council on Medical Education (AMA-CME)
Meteorology / Atmospheric Science
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has issued a policy statement that describes the minimum curriculum and faculty for a bachelor's degree in meteorology. The AMS also certifies individual people as competent in meteorology.
Note that some of these standards are set by a nonprofit professional society that is concerned with the subject matter (e.g., ACS, ABA, IEEE). Other standards are set by associations of medical schools or law schools.
There are many other examples of accreditation for a specific department, I list some of the above examples only because I am familiar with them from my background in science and engineering. Further, the examples in law and medicine are important because state governments require that a person who is licensed to practice law or medicine must have graduated from an accredited school, amongst other requirements.
The U.S. Department of Education has a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies by subject area, which includes many other accrediting organizations. In case that link does not work, try the U.S. Department of Education homepage for accreditation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Law
The accrediting organizations are all nonprofit corporations. Courts generally defer to any decision made by an accrediting organization, provided that:
the organization followed its own rules.
the act was in good faith.
there exists a formal, internal procedure for protests of an impending act that adversely affects a party.
This legal principle was established in England in the case Dawkins v. Antrobus, 17 Ch. D. 615 (1881). There are several scholarly articles that explain the law in more detail:
Zechariah Chafee, "The Internal Affairs of Associations Not for Profit", 43 Harvard Law Review 993 (1930).
William A. Kaplin and J. Philip Hunter, Comment, "The Legal Status of the Educational Accrediting Agency: Problems in Judicial Supervision and Governmental Regulation," 52 Cornell Law Quarterly 104 (1966).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minimum Requirements
Definitions
Before one can understand the requirements for academic degrees, one first must understand some terms about academic credit for a class:
semester
A semester is an academic term with a duration of 15 weeks. Typically in the USA, a university has two semesters per year: one begins in August and the other begins in January. (There is a third semester during the summer, but most students have jobs during the summer, instead of attending classes then.)
semester hour
A so-called "one-hour" lecture class has a duration of 50 minutes. A lecture class that meets for a total of 3×50 minutes each week for one semester is worth "3 semester hours" of credit. A lecture class that meets for a total of 5×50 minutes each week for one semester is worth "5 semester hours" of credit.
quarter
A quarter is an academic term with a duration of 10 weeks. A typical student attends classes for three quarters during the year. (There is a fourth quarter during the summer, but most students have jobs during the summer.) Some universities in the USA have quarters, instead of semesters.
quarter hour
A class that is worth 3 quarter hours of credit is equivalent to a class that is worth 2 semester hours of credit, because a quarter has fewer weeks of classes than a semester.
Bachelor's Degree
Minimum academic requirements for a bachelor's degree from an accredited university in the USA in the year 1970 include:
A total of at least 120 semester hours of credit must be earned in classes at accredited universities. It typically takes a student four years of full-time study (not including summers) to earn a bachelor's degree.
Each of these classes has written examinations, term papers or weekly homework, and other assignments that must be completed by every student. Students were required to attend every class meeting, unless they had a good reason for their absence.
There are numerous restrictions on which classes may be counted for a degree, for example:
specific classes in one's major subject may be required, according to the decision of the faculty in each department
specific classes in general education (e.g., writing, speech, mathematics, science) may be required
a selection of classes outside one's major subject is required, to give breadth to one's education: by exposing students to science, mathematics, history, philosophy, psychology, economics, music, etc.
at least 50 semester hours of credit must be earned in classes suitable for third- or fourth-year students majoring in those subjects
either take a two-semester foreign language class (e.g., total of 10 semester hours) or pass a competency exam in a foreign language.
These rules supposedly prevent students from graduating by either taking only easy classes, or taking classes in a narrow range of subjects.
At least the final year of study (i.e., at least 30 semester hours) must be conducted on the campus of university that issues the degree, a so-called "residency requirement". This requirement ensures that the university that issues a diploma will have some first-hand experience with the student, instead of relying on credit for courses taken at another university. Many colleges required at least the final four semesters (i.e., two years) of study be conducted on campus.
Master's Degree
Minimum academic requirements for a master's degree (e.g., M.Sc.) from an accredited university in the USA in the year 1970 include:
A total of at least 30 semester hours of credit beyond the bachelor's degree must be earned in classes at accredited universities. At least 24 semester hours was in classes, of which at least half must be at the graduate level.
Traditionally, a candidate for a master's degree was required to complete a master's thesis, which was an original scholarly work. The candidate was required to defend the thesis before a meeting of the candidate's advisory committee, which other professors were welcome to attend. The student was given 6 semester hours of credit for a successful thesis.
Beginning in the late 1960s, universities in the USA began to devalue the master's degree by allowing students to take an extra six semester hours of classes instead of doing a master's thesis.
A Master's degree typically required one year of full-time study or two years of study while also doing teaching or research on campus (i.e., a half-time teaching or research assistant).
Doctoral Degree
The requirements for a doctoral degree (e.g., Ph.D.) from an accredited university in the USA have a great deal of variation from one subject area to another, and from one university to another. The one common feature everywhere is that the doctoral degree is the highest academic degree offered by universities in the USA.
The minimum academic requirements for a doctoral degree in the year 1970 include:
A total of at least 50 semester hours of credit beyond the bachelor's degree must be earned in classes at accredited universities. Most of these classes will be in the student's major subject and most of these classes will be at the graduate level. Classes that were taken for a Master's degree can also be used to satisfy part of the requirements for a doctoral degree. (The student was given at least 12 semester hours of credit for a successful doctoral dissertation. Variation in the amount of credit given for a dissertation causes most of the variation in the total number of semester hours required for a doctoral degree.)
The most important part of a doctoral degree is the completion of a doctoral dissertation, which is a significant, original scholarly work that is suitable for publication in professional journal(s).
There is a sequence of three examinations:
A written examination, typically about six hours in length covering the undergraduate syllabus. A student typically is given two chances to pass this examination, a failure on the second time expels the student from the graduate program.
A written proposal of a dissertation topic and research methods, followed by a oral examination by the candidate's advisory committee, which other professors are also welcome to attend.
And, most significantly, the candidate is required to defend his/her dissertation before a meeting of the candidate's advisory committee, which other professors are also welcome to attend.
A doctoral degree typically required between four and six years of full-time study and research beyond a bachelor's degree. Most universities required the candidate for a doctoral degree to spend at least three years on campus, taking classes and doing research.
Library
Every accredited university must have an adequate library, to support scholarly research by both students and faculty. Most major universities have a total of more than 5 × 105 volumes of scholarly books and periodicals in the several libraries on their campus.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
The state and federal governments in the USA spend billions of dollars every year to support universities in the USA. Surprisingly, there are no government standards for the quality of education at universities in the USA. Instead, minimum standards for education in universities are set by private, nonprofit corporations, called accrediting organizations.
My impression is that accreditation in the USA is:
mostly a bureaucracy. Evaluations of a department involve preparing a thick stack of paper about each class (documenting the objectives, content, requirements, and example examinations of every class), as well as including the c.v. of each professor. Of course, what really matters is the knowledge of students who pass each class, but accrediting organizations seem to accept the polite assumptions that a professor would never:
teach only part of the written course syllabus, to make the class easier for the students.
give generous partial credit when grading examinations, so that students who are incompetent make a score higher than 70% and pass the class.
tell the students what will be on the examination, so the students can prepare to take the examination, a practice known as "teaching the test". Of course, nearly all of the students make high scores on such an examination, but the scores are meaningless as a measure of the students' competence.
avoid using online tools to detect plagiarization, despite evidence that at least 1/4 of term papers in universities in the USA contain plagiarized material.
privately reprimand students who plagiarize their term papers, instead of giving them a failing grade in the class and reporting them for investigation and disciplinary action.
full of buzzwords about quality and integrity of degrees.
weak (or silent) on substantial requirements that would make a bachelor's degree a significant intellectual achievement.
Despite the fact that accrediting standards in the USA are weaker than I would prefer, I have no doubt that degrees from an accredited university have more integrity than degrees from a nonaccredited university.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
this document is at http://www.rbs2.com/accred.htm
version 21 April 2003
Copyright 2002-03 by Ronald B. Standler
Source: http://www.rbs2.com/accred.htm
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Regional Accrediting Organizations
3. Accrediting Organizations in Specific Subjects
4. Law
5. Minimum Requirements
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
Doctoral degree
Library
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to explain accreditation to students in the USA, as well as to foreigners who are baffled at the complexity of accreditation in the USA. A secondary purpose is to explain the requirements for academic degrees in the USA.
This essay is intended only to present general information about an interesting topic in law and is not legal advice for your specific problem. See my disclaimer.
To simplify matters, in this essay I refer to colleges and/or universities as just universities.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Regional Accrediting Organizations
There are six regional accrediting organizations for universities in the USA, each with a different territory. These regional accrediting organizations accredit all degrees, in all subject areas, in an entire university. (See below for organizations that accredit degrees in a single academic subject.) The alphabetical list of states in parentheses comprise the region for each organization.
Middle States (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania)
New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
North Central (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming)
Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington state)
Southern (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia)
Western (California and Hawaii)
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is a private organization that coordinates the regional accrediting organizations, as well as the accrediting organizations in specific academic subjects.
The federal government in the USA plays a negligible roll in accreditation, mostly in The Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Accrediting Organizations in Specific Subjects
There are also accrediting organizations for academic degrees in some specific subject areas. For example:
Chemistry
The American Chemical Society, Committee on Professional Training (ACS)
Computer Science
The Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology, Computing Accreditation Commission (ABET-CAC). The Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) participates in ABET. The CSAB includes representatives of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Computer Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the Association for Information Systems.
Engineering & Technology
The Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology (ABET) has representatives from all of the major engineering professional societies in the USA, including the Association of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), amongst many others.
Degrees in engineering technology are often confused with degrees in engineering. The distinction between engineering and technology is:
Engineering students take more classes in mathematics and higher-level classes in physics and chemistry, than technology students. Technology students tend to have more "practical" classes, as in vocational education.
Consequently, graduates of engineering programs are better qualified to do research and development, such as design novel products. Graduates of technology programs (e.g., a bachelor of science in electrical engineering technology) are generally employed to build prototype products, supervise manufacturing production work, do routine laboratory work, and repair sophisticated electronic equipment.
Technology programs are not offered by most universities in the USA, so many students who choose to study engineering would be better suited for a technology program.
Law
The American Bar Association (ABA) section on legal education and The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) both evaluate law schools.
Medicine
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is a joint project of
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and
the American Medical Association, Council on Medical Education (AMA-CME)
Meteorology / Atmospheric Science
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has issued a policy statement that describes the minimum curriculum and faculty for a bachelor's degree in meteorology. The AMS also certifies individual people as competent in meteorology.
Note that some of these standards are set by a nonprofit professional society that is concerned with the subject matter (e.g., ACS, ABA, IEEE). Other standards are set by associations of medical schools or law schools.
There are many other examples of accreditation for a specific department, I list some of the above examples only because I am familiar with them from my background in science and engineering. Further, the examples in law and medicine are important because state governments require that a person who is licensed to practice law or medicine must have graduated from an accredited school, amongst other requirements.
The U.S. Department of Education has a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies by subject area, which includes many other accrediting organizations. In case that link does not work, try the U.S. Department of Education homepage for accreditation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Law
The accrediting organizations are all nonprofit corporations. Courts generally defer to any decision made by an accrediting organization, provided that:
the organization followed its own rules.
the act was in good faith.
there exists a formal, internal procedure for protests of an impending act that adversely affects a party.
This legal principle was established in England in the case Dawkins v. Antrobus, 17 Ch. D. 615 (1881). There are several scholarly articles that explain the law in more detail:
Zechariah Chafee, "The Internal Affairs of Associations Not for Profit", 43 Harvard Law Review 993 (1930).
William A. Kaplin and J. Philip Hunter, Comment, "The Legal Status of the Educational Accrediting Agency: Problems in Judicial Supervision and Governmental Regulation," 52 Cornell Law Quarterly 104 (1966).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minimum Requirements
Definitions
Before one can understand the requirements for academic degrees, one first must understand some terms about academic credit for a class:
semester
A semester is an academic term with a duration of 15 weeks. Typically in the USA, a university has two semesters per year: one begins in August and the other begins in January. (There is a third semester during the summer, but most students have jobs during the summer, instead of attending classes then.)
semester hour
A so-called "one-hour" lecture class has a duration of 50 minutes. A lecture class that meets for a total of 3×50 minutes each week for one semester is worth "3 semester hours" of credit. A lecture class that meets for a total of 5×50 minutes each week for one semester is worth "5 semester hours" of credit.
quarter
A quarter is an academic term with a duration of 10 weeks. A typical student attends classes for three quarters during the year. (There is a fourth quarter during the summer, but most students have jobs during the summer.) Some universities in the USA have quarters, instead of semesters.
quarter hour
A class that is worth 3 quarter hours of credit is equivalent to a class that is worth 2 semester hours of credit, because a quarter has fewer weeks of classes than a semester.
Bachelor's Degree
Minimum academic requirements for a bachelor's degree from an accredited university in the USA in the year 1970 include:
A total of at least 120 semester hours of credit must be earned in classes at accredited universities. It typically takes a student four years of full-time study (not including summers) to earn a bachelor's degree.
Each of these classes has written examinations, term papers or weekly homework, and other assignments that must be completed by every student. Students were required to attend every class meeting, unless they had a good reason for their absence.
There are numerous restrictions on which classes may be counted for a degree, for example:
specific classes in one's major subject may be required, according to the decision of the faculty in each department
specific classes in general education (e.g., writing, speech, mathematics, science) may be required
a selection of classes outside one's major subject is required, to give breadth to one's education: by exposing students to science, mathematics, history, philosophy, psychology, economics, music, etc.
at least 50 semester hours of credit must be earned in classes suitable for third- or fourth-year students majoring in those subjects
either take a two-semester foreign language class (e.g., total of 10 semester hours) or pass a competency exam in a foreign language.
These rules supposedly prevent students from graduating by either taking only easy classes, or taking classes in a narrow range of subjects.
At least the final year of study (i.e., at least 30 semester hours) must be conducted on the campus of university that issues the degree, a so-called "residency requirement". This requirement ensures that the university that issues a diploma will have some first-hand experience with the student, instead of relying on credit for courses taken at another university. Many colleges required at least the final four semesters (i.e., two years) of study be conducted on campus.
Master's Degree
Minimum academic requirements for a master's degree (e.g., M.Sc.) from an accredited university in the USA in the year 1970 include:
A total of at least 30 semester hours of credit beyond the bachelor's degree must be earned in classes at accredited universities. At least 24 semester hours was in classes, of which at least half must be at the graduate level.
Traditionally, a candidate for a master's degree was required to complete a master's thesis, which was an original scholarly work. The candidate was required to defend the thesis before a meeting of the candidate's advisory committee, which other professors were welcome to attend. The student was given 6 semester hours of credit for a successful thesis.
Beginning in the late 1960s, universities in the USA began to devalue the master's degree by allowing students to take an extra six semester hours of classes instead of doing a master's thesis.
A Master's degree typically required one year of full-time study or two years of study while also doing teaching or research on campus (i.e., a half-time teaching or research assistant).
Doctoral Degree
The requirements for a doctoral degree (e.g., Ph.D.) from an accredited university in the USA have a great deal of variation from one subject area to another, and from one university to another. The one common feature everywhere is that the doctoral degree is the highest academic degree offered by universities in the USA.
The minimum academic requirements for a doctoral degree in the year 1970 include:
A total of at least 50 semester hours of credit beyond the bachelor's degree must be earned in classes at accredited universities. Most of these classes will be in the student's major subject and most of these classes will be at the graduate level. Classes that were taken for a Master's degree can also be used to satisfy part of the requirements for a doctoral degree. (The student was given at least 12 semester hours of credit for a successful doctoral dissertation. Variation in the amount of credit given for a dissertation causes most of the variation in the total number of semester hours required for a doctoral degree.)
The most important part of a doctoral degree is the completion of a doctoral dissertation, which is a significant, original scholarly work that is suitable for publication in professional journal(s).
There is a sequence of three examinations:
A written examination, typically about six hours in length covering the undergraduate syllabus. A student typically is given two chances to pass this examination, a failure on the second time expels the student from the graduate program.
A written proposal of a dissertation topic and research methods, followed by a oral examination by the candidate's advisory committee, which other professors are also welcome to attend.
And, most significantly, the candidate is required to defend his/her dissertation before a meeting of the candidate's advisory committee, which other professors are also welcome to attend.
A doctoral degree typically required between four and six years of full-time study and research beyond a bachelor's degree. Most universities required the candidate for a doctoral degree to spend at least three years on campus, taking classes and doing research.
Library
Every accredited university must have an adequate library, to support scholarly research by both students and faculty. Most major universities have a total of more than 5 × 105 volumes of scholarly books and periodicals in the several libraries on their campus.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
The state and federal governments in the USA spend billions of dollars every year to support universities in the USA. Surprisingly, there are no government standards for the quality of education at universities in the USA. Instead, minimum standards for education in universities are set by private, nonprofit corporations, called accrediting organizations.
My impression is that accreditation in the USA is:
mostly a bureaucracy. Evaluations of a department involve preparing a thick stack of paper about each class (documenting the objectives, content, requirements, and example examinations of every class), as well as including the c.v. of each professor. Of course, what really matters is the knowledge of students who pass each class, but accrediting organizations seem to accept the polite assumptions that a professor would never:
teach only part of the written course syllabus, to make the class easier for the students.
give generous partial credit when grading examinations, so that students who are incompetent make a score higher than 70% and pass the class.
tell the students what will be on the examination, so the students can prepare to take the examination, a practice known as "teaching the test". Of course, nearly all of the students make high scores on such an examination, but the scores are meaningless as a measure of the students' competence.
avoid using online tools to detect plagiarization, despite evidence that at least 1/4 of term papers in universities in the USA contain plagiarized material.
privately reprimand students who plagiarize their term papers, instead of giving them a failing grade in the class and reporting them for investigation and disciplinary action.
full of buzzwords about quality and integrity of degrees.
weak (or silent) on substantial requirements that would make a bachelor's degree a significant intellectual achievement.
Despite the fact that accrediting standards in the USA are weaker than I would prefer, I have no doubt that degrees from an accredited university have more integrity than degrees from a nonaccredited university.
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this document is at http://www.rbs2.com/accred.htm
version 21 April 2003
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