The Epistolizer has a few interesting comments on the recent listing of accredited colleges and universities, arguing that this may stifle some of the innovation made in distance education. I have to agree ... to an extent. I'd fall more into the camp of trying to protect students as well as employers against those real scam diploma mills as I'm a bit wary about how this does pass the tainted label to 'online universities.' Still though, I'm certainly quite supportive of what Meekins does go on to say about independent study and career experience. Often there seems to be too little support and encouragement for this in the culture when compared with the too high regard given to the ever more pricey degrees at the most well known higher education institutions.

The government has released a database of schools accredited in a manner approved by the Department of Education.

The purpose of the database is to serve as a reference to protect employers from hiring those whose credentials come from so-called diploma mills. Often these schools require little more than a check to acquire a degree.

However, the database may also stifle the innovations in distance education that have arisen over the past few years since it equates "unaccredited" with "underhanded". Already the Washington DC Fox affiliate, WTTG Channel 5, is calling it a "List Of Real Colleges and Universities", making no distinction between the unaccredited schools that require a significant amount of work and those that merely accept your check and will even pad your grades based on what one is willing to pay.