Political Hardball on Articulation & Credit Issues

This item, "Legislation Can End Bias Against Career Colleges," by Harris N. Miller, is from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Miller is president of the Career College Association, which has been aggressively lobbying on behalf of for-profit institutions. Access may require registration or subscriber password.

We can start by bringing a new level of intellectual honesty to the discussion of the credit-transfer issue. Someday, perhaps, we will see an academic "credit bank," where students deposit credits earned at various institutions over a period of several semesters, several years, or even a lifetime. Without regard to type of institution, curricula would interoperate, learning outcomes would be emphasized, and credit would be given where credit is due.

Until then, Congress can legislate a solution as part of the pending Higher Education Act reauthorization process: Bar rejection of credit-transfer requests based on accredited status. In fairness to all, colleges should be able to determine the transferability of credits by giving students a review based on what they have learned and accomplished — not by harping on questionable distinctions among different types of institutions.

In his article, "Colleges, Not Congress, Should Decide," in the same issue, Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACROA) does not agree:

The intrusion of politics into what should have been a collegial effort has resulted only in a hardening of adversarial positions and the waste of precious resources that would have been better spent on building the missing national infrastructure to support easier and more-seamless transfer. For example, the construction of a national database of course offerings, along with verified syllabi, texts, and faculty qualifications, would be a key step toward improving transfer-credit evaluations at all institutions.

We invite the representatives of the for-profit sector to stop lobbying Congress and start a meaningful dialogue with traditional institutions. After nearly a decade of seeking, but failing, to impose their preferred outcome through force, gentle persuasion and real collaboration might well prove to be more effective. We stand ready to work together on realistic approaches to improve credit-evaluation decisions.