WASHINGTON
Institutions offering distance education programs will better serve national policy goals of increasing college degree completion rates among Americans if accrediting and state licensing practices undergo streamlining on a coordinated national basis, said members of a leading national distance education coalition at its annual national strategy meeting Tuesday.
Members of the Presidents’ Forum, a distance education coalition representing 150 U.S. higher education institutions, along with federal administrators, state officials and national association executives, met in Washington during the organization’s daylong conference entitled “Aligning State Approval and Regional Accreditation for Online Postsecondary Institutions: A National Strategy.”
Dr. James L. Applegate, senior vice president for program development at the Lumina Foundation, said Presidents’ Forum institutions and others that offer distance education should be a vital component to the mix of higher education entities that will have to meet college completion goals set by President Barack Obama as well as the Lumina Foundation.
