‘Cheap’ Degrees: Are They Worth It?

Those who aspire to “easy” degrees hurt themselves and others.

Jesus made it clear that faith, not education, is necessary for salvation. Fortunately for most of us, he doesn’t require his followers to hold Ph.D.’s from Harvard or to spend three grueling years at a highly acclaimed seminary. When he came to earth, he chose fishermen, not ichthyologists, to be his companions.

Yet scholarship has advanced the Christian faith in indispensable ways. Had it not been for the scholars who spent those grueling years learning and translating Hebrew and Greek into English, we would know much less about Jesus and the fishermen he found so special. Scholars labor to form clear doctrinal statements so the masses can have the luxury of making simple proclamations of faith.

Today, as in other ages, the contributions of good scholarship go largely unappreciated. Theologian R. C. Sproul has observed that the church is in the most anti-intellectual era of its history. Related to this anti-intellectualism is a pseudo-intellectual trend exemplified by the abundance of unaccredited theological schools that offer degrees by mail.

Some 250 religious correspondence schools operate in this country, according to John Bear, a specialist in nontraditional higher education. One of the largest is the International Bible Institute and Seminary (IBIS), in Plymouth, Florida, near Orlando. At IBIS and similar schools, a person does not have to learn Hebrew or Greek—or delve deeply into scholarly research—to get an impressive list of degrees placed by his name.

It is not only the degree-hungry who find these schools attractive. Correspondence schools can be tempting to busy laymen or pastors who want to increase their knowledge, but who find it impossible to afford a seminary education or to leave their ministries. A correspondence degree from IBIS can be obtained for considerably less time and money than would be required at an accredited seminary.

Marvin Taylor, recently retired accrediting officer for the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), maintains that the success of these unaccredited schools is a sad commentary on society’s low view of education as it bears on spiritual reality. “We expect people in the medical and legal professions to be licensed,” he says. “Some states require electricians to be licensed. Why isn’t it just as important for someone engaged in the care of souls?”

A Case Study

IBIS opened in 1970 with only five students. A preacher named Glenn Tyler began the school as the educational arm of his ministry, Tyler Crusades, Inc. Today some 3,000 students, most of them in the United States, are enrolled in one of the school’s four bachelor’s, four master’s, and five doctoral degree programs. The overwhelming majority are pastors. Degrees can be earned entirely by mail.

For a master’s degree, which costs $800, students must produce a 3,000-word paper on each of 10 core subjects. For a doctorate, they must pay $1,000 and write three papers totaling at least 180 typed pages. Some 700 additional people are working toward associate degrees at various locations throughout the country where courses are taught by pastors. IBIS requires teachers to hold at least a bachelor’s degree in theology. It doesn’t matter to IBIS which school granted the degree.

IBIS has branched into 25 foreign countries, including Indonesia, Jamaica, Egypt, England, and India. Last spring, the correspondence school granted degrees to 1,316 students from the United States and some 20 foreign countries.

The school operates legally in Florida, although it would be outlawed in several other states. A school is exempt from state licensing in Florida if it is accredited by a government-approved agency or if it offers degrees “of an ecclesiastical nature.” IBIS falls into the latter category.

The school’s critics concede that it is possible to learn at home. As ATS’s Taylor says, “Any time someone reads a book with the intent of learning, education takes place.” But he adds, “That’s a far cry from calling this process a degree program.” In short, spending time and money and expending energy do not translate into good education.

What Is Good Education?

Good education, like beauty, rests largely in the eye of the beholder. To conclude that it is impossible for an unaccredited school to provide a quality education is presumptuous. The majority of Bible schools, for example, are not accredited by government-recognized agencies. Certainly many of these schools have proved their quality in other ways.

The public, however, must have some way to evaluate the legitimacy of lesser-known schools. That is accomplished through accreditation. Says Garth Rosell, vice-president for academic affairs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “Accreditation tends to assure adherence to certain published educational standards.”

Evaluating educational programs entails qualitative judgments. However, specialists in higher education agree on certain objective criteria for measuring the quality of education, including:

• The size of a school’s library and the quality of its research facilities. As a correspondence school, IBIS has no library or research facilities.

• The student-to-teacher ratio. At IBIS, more than 3,000 correspondence students are served by a faculty of only four. Meaningful interaction between students and teachers is nearly impossible.

• The qualifications of a school’s faculty. Accreditation agencies want to know whether faculty members hold degrees from accredited institutions. In addition, it looks bad to accreditors if a high percentage of the faculty members are teaching at the same school where they received their highest degrees. At IBIS, none of the four faculty members attended accredited graduate schools. Two of them (Glenn Tyler and administrative dean Ray Favata) hold their highest degrees from Maranatha Bible Seminary, a South Carolina school that was forced out of business by the state consumer fraud division. The other two faculty members received their highest degrees from IBIS.

• The amount of work professors require of students, and how carefully that work is evaluated. At accredited seminaries, students typically must defend their work before a team of scholars. They must prove that they have mastered their area of specialization. Student work at IBIS stands in stark contrast. The ATS’s Taylor, who visited the correspondence school at the request of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, examined a doctoral dissertation submitted by an IBIS student. He said it “appeared to be simply a stringing together of extensive quotations.… As a doctoral dissertation I would judge it inadequate.” Taylor noted that the cover page—signed by an IBIS faculty member—carried the notation “ ‘excellent work’ and the letter grade of ‘A.’ ”

• A working knowledge of the languages in which the Bible was written, typically required by accredited seminaries. IBIS has no such requirement.

• How degrees are earned. Accredited seminaries would not grant an earned degree on the basis of professional experience, arguing that it is possible for a pastor of many years to be theologically nave. IBIS, however, grants life experience credits. It is possible for a student with ministry experience to receive a bachelor’s and a master’s degree without completing any course work.

Such commonly accepted academic standards mean little to the Tylers or to others at IBIS. They maintain that they are providing quality education, and they say they feel no need to defend their educational credentials. IBIS students report that their ministries have improved, the Tylers say, and that’s all the accreditation they need. “Our programs are enriching ministers’ lives,” said Glenn Tyler. “They’re bringing new life to their ministries. What do I care what accrediting associations want or believe when I know I’m doing what God wants me to do?”

The Meaning Of Accreditation

Prevailing notions about the meaning of church-and-state separation have shielded religious schools from state scrutiny. There is some question, however, about whether IBIS is misleading students and prospective students about its accreditation status. In recent months, Florida’s Board of Independent Colleges and Universities has pressed IBIS either to substantiate or discontinue its claims of accreditation.

For many, the word “accreditation” implies legitimacy. In higher education, however, the significance of accreditation depends on the agency that granted it. IBIS is accredited by the Missouri-based International Accrediting Commission for Schools, Colleges, and Theological Seminaries, an agency the government does not recognize. In some states anyone can establish an accrediting agency. The task of overseeing accrediting agencies belongs to the U.S. Department of Education.

To achieve government-approved accreditation, a school has three options. The first is to meet the standards of one of six regional accrediting associations that grant approval to entire schools. Second, a school can seek recognition from one of about 80 specialized accrediting bodies. Those agencies typically accredit particular programs as opposed to entire schools, (ATS, based in Vandalia, Ohio, is the only generally recognized accrediting agency for theological graduate schools.) The final option is to meet the standards of the Council on Post-Secondary Education (COPA), an independent agency highly regarded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Florida’s Board of Independent Colleges and Universities says IBIS has not made clear in its promotional materials that the school is not accredited by a government-recognized agency. In its brochures, for example, the fact that the school is authorized to operate through a state exemption for religious schools appears under the category “Accreditation.” That implies that Florida’s education department has examined and approved IBIS’s programs, which is not the case.

At one time, IBIS claimed to be accredited by the Accrediting Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries in Sarasota, Florida, which was not a government-recognized agency. Sandra Knight, assistant director of Florida’s Board of Independent Colleges and Universities, discovered that one of the schools accredited by the agency, Maranatha Bible Seminary in Union, South Carolina, was forced out of business by the consumer fraud division of that state’s attorney general’s office. Knight notified IBIS of the problems she discovered with the Sarasota accrediting agency. Dan Tyler, Glenn Tyler’s son and an administrative assistant at IBIS, later told Knight that his school had dropped all association with the Sarasota accrediting agency.

IBIS is accredited by another agency, the International Accrediting Commission for Schools, Colleges, and Theological Seminaries—operated by a husband-and-wife team in Holden, Missouri. Bear, an expert in nontraditional education, said accreditation from that agency is virtually meaningless.

Florida education authorities are pressing IBIS to state specifically in its promotional material that its accreditation is not recognized by the government. “We have what we believe is enough evidence that people are being misled by [IBIS’s] claims to accreditation,” Knight said, IBIS has said it will comply with the state’s request, but has yet to offer proof.

Philosophical Differences

The Tylers’ concept of Christian education is colored by their world view. When it comes to the distinction between the secular and the religious, Glenn Tyler and the ATS’s Taylor are at a philosophical impasse. Taylor operates with the understanding that the standards by which good education is measured exist independently of religious belief.

In contrast, the Tylers do not subscribe to the view that all truth is God’s truth. They have drawn sharp and impenetrable lines between the religious and the secular, between God’s truth and the world’s truth. “As far as I’m concerned,” says Glenn Tyler, “all education begins with the Bible.”

Those convictions lead IBIS to hold secular accreditors and their motives suspect. They regard any attempt of government-related organizations to regulate education as a violation of the principle of church-and-state separation. Says Glenn Tyler, “We’re not going to allow this heathenistic society to dictate to us. Or liberalism. Or secular humanism. Or any of these things in the world.”

In contrast, the ATS’s Taylor emphasizes that a school need not give up its theological distinctives to be accredited. “Accrediting agencies are neither established nor controlled by the government,” he says. “They are just recognized by the government.”

But to IBIS, government-recognized accreditation is a giant step into the swamp of liberal theology. Dan Tyler observes that “many of the accredited Bible colleges and seminaries no longer hold true to the basic fundamentals of Christianity,” including the Virgin Birth and the infallibility of Scripture. “I’d rather have no accreditation than to join one of the secular accrediting associations,” Glenn Tyler adds.

IBIS’s views about recognized accreditation, however, have not always meshed with its actions. Despite the claims of mistrust, the school has regularly attempted to obtain government-approved accreditation. But most government-recognized accrediting agencies, including ATS, won’t evaluate a school that grants degrees entirely by correspondence.

The only government-recognized agency that will look at correspondence schools is the National Home Study Council, which is recognized by COPA. Recently IBIS sought accreditation by the council. But the council accredits only through the master’s degree level. To be considered, the school would have to drop its doctoral programs.

IBIS maintains that it is unfair to be rejected out of hand simply because the school is nontraditional. Many, including nontraditional education specialist Bear, say that on this count the school has a legitimate complaint. Bear says the insistence on resident education as an absolute principle is unreasonable. He notes that the North Central Accrediting Association may soon appove Union Graduate School in Cincinnati, which offers doctorates almost exclusively by correspondence.

Recently, some highly respected seminaries have made theological education more accessible to those who cannot spend years away from home. Students pursuing a master’s degree at any of the six Southern Baptist seminaries, for example, can complete up to two-thirds of their course work locally if they live near one of seven extension locations. Still, the problem of how to educate people who find it difficult to attend seminary remains largely unaddressed by Christian institutions of higher learning, IBIS attracts students because it has identified a need and has taken steps to meet it.

Sincere, But Misguided?

While it is true that many enter the correspondence school business simply to make a profit, it would be wrong to question the purity of IBIS’s motives. There is little reason to doubt Glenn Tyler’s sincerity when he proclaims, “We’re not bothering anybody, [or] violating any laws. We’re simply propagating the gospel like God told us to do.”

Though few would criticize IBIS for seeking to provide education, the problem comes when the school awards degrees without communicating, objectively and precisely, the value of those degrees. IBIS would have a lot more friends if it did not grant degrees at all.

Exposing schools like IBIS in a case study such as this is likely to have little impact. Many students do not care whether their degrees come from legitimately accredited institutions. IBIS’s credentials are valid to those who subscribe to the Tylers’ view of education and who trust such agencies as the International Accrediting Commission for Schools, Colleges, and Theological Seminaries.

The ATS’s Taylor, however, says it is important to make clear to Christians the difference between accredited and unaccredited education. When that distinction is not made clear, students can waste considerable time and money for a degree they later find is worthless.

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