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Project NatureConnect |
ACCREDITATION: The Project NatureConnect scholarship program and non-accredited degrees
The purpose of a obtaining an accredited or non-accredited university degree is identical. It is to legally gain the knowledge, credentials and recognition from contemporary society that command its well deserved respect and support. A degree identifies a person with far above average expertise and ability to contribute in their field. Thus it rightfully opens doors to many opportunities and relationships not otherwise available.
The accredited degree sometimes makes available professional opportunities in established institutions that are members of a restrictive, powerful block of Accrediting Associations in the U,S,A. Accredited education includes exclusive eligibility for students and schools to receive taxpayer funded grant and loan opportunities eminating from the U. S. Federal Government.
Accrediting association members have enacted exclusive, self-promoting rules that prohibit their members from recognizing valid education received outside the auspices of Association members, including non-U.S.A. schools. However, many non-accredited degree holders have been invited to work in accredited institutions because of the quality and significance of their work.
Professional NSTP opportunities and excellent careers exist in many fields, including those listed below where certification or a degree, accredited or non-accredited, provides important advantages
- Self-Help or Personal growth
- Life Coach or Personal Coach
- Teacher, Healer, Mentor, Therapist or Facilitator
- Pastoral Counselor
- Marriage, Therapy or Recovery Counselor
- Course Instructor
- Outdoor Leader or Naturalist
- Independent Contractor
- Independent Program Founder or Director
- Courses for Training or Degree Programs
IGE Status
The quality, content and process of the core courses in the IGE program are fully accredited in the United States and internationally as a part of Project NatureConnect's regionally accredited cooperative university programs that review the courses and offer credit for them. Appropriate degree programs for IGE students are legal schools in the states and countries in which they exist. They accept and transfer PNC courses and degree preparation at full value; the adjunct faculty in their degree programs include the expertise of staff members from IGE.
Since accredited degrees are required in settings under the influence and regulations of accreditation agencies, these degrees have a greater potential and economic value and are marketed accordingly in the academic world. Thus, when a program attains accreditation it often quadruples its tuition fees even though the education it offers may improve little if at all.
Students who want to attain regionally accredited degrees may self-design an organic psychology degree progam for themselves at one of the many accredited off-campus independent study or interdisciplinary degree progams that are available from Universities in the United States and abroad. Students accomplish this by including Applied Ecopsychology Certification with IGE as the heart of the program they design for themselves at these other Universities. Tuition at these programs usually covers part or all of the tuition at IGE for Certification. It also usually requires higher tuitions than do non-accredited programs although the training is exactly the same.
In considering the IGE non-accredited appropriate Degree Programs, candidates may want to be aware of the following aspects of accreditation.
1. With regards to "Accreditation" it should be noted that outside the US countries do not "accredit" universities, they "recognize" them. Thus, legitimate degrees from foreign countries are non-accredited degrees.2. At its best, accreditation provides a way for educational institutions to police themselves -- for educators to examine institutions and determine whether they have the resources to provide the education that they promise.
3. At its worst, accreditation can be a costly mess of bureaucratic hurdles which consumes an institution's resources without significantly improving the education it offers.
4. Lack of accreditation does not mean that an institution is worthless. Some institutions, for example, are relatively new and have only just begun the accreditation process and that takes a few years. Some institutions find accreditation limits their freedom to offer alternative curriculums and learning processes
5. If a degree program offers useful skills and knowledge, and if you have no intention of transferring the degree towards another accredited degree program, the non-accredited status of the institution is of little concern. Again, the core courses in the IGE program are transferable into other degree programs. This situation is equally true with respect to your professional intentions. If your area of professional interest is not within an accredited academic setting, you do not need an accredited degree to succeed in your field unless specifically stated. You can obtain State licensing in many professional areas through your work in non-accredited degree training.
6. Through the certification program at IGE, all the coursework towards a degree provides learning that leads to certification in ogranic psychologies. Upon completion of the coursework and certification, a student may decide to continue towards a degree and spend an extra semester or two in the special research academics required for an accredited or non-accredited degree thesis, project or dissertation.
7. Some educational leaders worry that many accrediting agencies wield such power that they threaten to distort institutional priorities.
8. A denial of accreditation by a regional organization can be a death knell for an important new or established university as it prevents or leads to a halt in Federal loans and grants and it frightens away students and their parents.
9. Catch 22: on one hand it is challenging to get students to enter non-accredited degree programs because of the many limits and stigmas accreditation programs and the govenrment unfairly require academia to place on non-accredited degrees. On he other hand, one of the qualifications for accreditation is that a University demonstrate its popularity with the public and have a healthy economy and student body.
10. What was not acceptable for accreditation a decade ago is acceptable now. This impedes sorely needed innovation in education now, when we need it most.
11. Upon receiving accreditation, schools significantly raise their tuition fees thereby placing accredited education out of reach of financially challenged students or impose a large debt that modifies a students life after graduating.
12. Costs of accredited education have skyrocketed so that a student's debt, upon graduation, often makes it necessary to take any job rather than that for which they are trained and dedicated.
13. Some educators suggest that if an industry operated under a self-promoting regulation process that parallels the present regional accreditation program, that industry would be broken up under anti-trust laws. A major factor regarding accreditation is that the Federal Government participates in it through loan and grant programs not made available to students in non-accredited programs. Another major factor is that no matter how excellent or qualified a person's education or degree, if it is from a non-accredited school and is accepted by an accredited school, the accredited school, in theory, loses its accreditation. In practice, there are many exceptions and ways to get around this rule.
14. The choice for some students is to either have an accredited degree and large debt to pay off, or an unaccredited degree plus $40,000 to help establish the professional situation they desire. Most IGE students have obtained positions in "accreditation only" or "licensed only" situations simply by petitioning for an exemption or hearing and in some cases taking an extra course to meet special requirements.
15. IGE could easily, but expensively, get itself and its program insured, bonded and guaranteed to surpass all the concerns of Regional Accreditation. However, no matter how excellent we might make the program this would not change the program's non-accredited status in the eyes of the government or Regional Accrediting Associations, loans, transfer credit, jobs, etc. Supporting the education conglomorate seems to be more important than an institution's qualifications.
16. It is fascinating to note that IGE core courses are recognized and fully accredited as courses for an optional fee paid to an accredited university. Many students do not take these courses for credit but learn just as much as do those students who do take and pay for credit. Each course provides exactly the same valid education for each student, but transferwise, accredited schools are not allowed to validate or transfer this learning unless it comes on an accredited transcript. This demands the question: "What's really important, the learning or the fee?" Who decides this and what are their qualifacations to help us get out of the troubles that plague us?
When Project NatureConnect has enough students in our course program we will have the "clout" of popularity needed to make accreditation happen if we so choose. This would make more sense if the outcomes of standard education did not too often reinforce the corruption and destructive processes of our society as described in Stairway to Sanity and Who's the Boss of You? Isn't it true that we are not born, but rather educated to become who we and contemporary society presently are? Should Project NatureConnect become part of that system or provide a better alternative to it?
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INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION Special NGO consultant United Nations Economic and Social Council
PROJECT NATURECONNECT
Readily available, online, natural science tools
for the health of person, planet and spiritP.O. Box 1605, Friday Harbor, WA 98250
360-378-6313 <email> www.ecopsych.com
ORGANIC ADVANCED ECOPSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION
The Natural Systems Thinking Process
Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
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