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Accreditation

Knightsbridge University is a private, Danish higher education provider. There is no form of external validation available to non-state providers in Denmark, except where the institution wishes for students to be eligible for state study grants, Only full-time, residential and free courses of study may be subjected for this purpose, making the process of no interest for private providers. The process was conceived so as to create a body external to the state institutions to decide whether programmes are eligible, rather than leaving this decision mechanism with the institutions themselves, and was never meant to cater to private provision at all.

Since its inception, Knightsbridge University has been an autonomous, self-validating institution. Historically, this has been a common status for higher education providers around the globe. Only during the past 50 years or so has the notion of external validation become of increasing importance. Usually, what has happened is that governments, keen to ensure that something socio-economically desirable be the result of the millions and billions of dollars poured into institutions, have established accrediting bodies (for the sake of this argument, the term 'accreditation' is used interchangeably with 'recognition' and any other term usually taken to mean externally validated). These accrediting bodies may be run as private or public organisations, but common to them all is that they serve as a screening mechanism for the affected institutions to be eligible for state funding, whether directly to the institution or to the student, or both. The things measured by these bodies are typically not those directly relevant to the student's experience, and can be generally said to focus on inputs rather than outcomes.

Unfortunately, a side-effect to this development has been, in many places, that public bodies (i.e. government ministries/departments or other) essentially have power of determination over nominally autonomous institutions, so much so that the institutions are bound to offer politically determined content and any other such element which may fall under the jurisdiction of the accrediting body in question.

This is not a desirable marriage to propose to a liberally minded, autonomous and independent institution. If there is to be external validation, it should be of quality assurance and other relevant standards, not whether the institution in question earns its public upkeep by doing that which the ruling government and/or its bureaucrats and gatekeepers want it to be doing.

There are, however, a few private accreditation bodies not linked with state/government funding and thereto attached strings. One of these is Asian Accreditation Council (www.asianaccreditationcouncil.org), from which body Knightsbridge University holds full, institutional accreditation. The value of such accreditation, however, can only be assessed on an individual basis by each potential student, as the following will show.

How does this affect the individual?

It is necessary to first find out who needs accreditation, and what type?

One group, perhaps even the largest, do not actually need for their degree to be accredited, it often just happens to be so. The main reason being that they studied with an institution funded, wholly or partially, with tax funds. These two go hand in hand in most education systems.

A large minority of people find that some form of external validation is a requirement, whether this be required from sponsors/employers/others, but without there being any defined, specific demand that this must be one form of validation over any other.

For yet others, there is a specific need for one particular type of accreditation, perhaps national or, as is often the case for US resident students, regional accreditation.

Each potential candidate should weigh up their particular current and future needs and try and gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the purposes to which they are likely to put their degree. This understanding will determine whether accreditation is a worthwhile concern, and which type of accreditation, if such is sought.

It is always the responsibility of the individual to establish whether any particular award is fit for the purpose intended. If, say, Candidate S wants to gain entrance to University X, Candidate S must check with University X just what their entry requirements are.

Professional licensing

No Knightsbridge University programme is intended as giving access to licensing or similar status for any profession, unless specifically stated within the documentation for the programme in question.

Being an institution primarily catering to mature, experienced candidate, we find that the majority of candidates already hold such relevant licensing, professional memberships and the like. At the same time, catering to a global audience means that seeking to satisfy licensing demands in one jurisdiction would be pointless for candidates residing and working in other jurisdictions. No institution could possibly provide programmes designed to satisfy licensing requirements worldwide. If professional licensing is part of the motivation to seek an award, the individual should make the necessary local enquiries to establish what would be required. This remains solid advice for all potential students of all institutions.

Credit transfer

It pays to remember that where credit transfer is considered, the receiving party makes the decisions. Several factors affect the acceptability of specific credits for specific purposes. It is a common mistake to presume that 'credits are credits', and that 'if I have such-and-such a number of credits, I can just pour them into this framework'. That is not how it is done, a specific review is done in each case. Typically, the outcome of such a review will be reported in the form of a positive or negative answer, not a breakdown of results of the review.

No institution can truthfully say that their credits are universally received. Credits may not even be transferable between departments of the same institution. If credit transfer is a part of a student's strategy, they must be at pains to establish exactly what they can and cannot transfer where.

Knightsbridge University does allow for the transferring in of credit from a large number of institutions and learning settings, so do make any relevant enquiries in this respect.