But last week brought word of a very different kind of accreditation outcome, one that arguably challenges parts of that meme. The Distance Education and Training Council gave its stamp of approval to University of the People, a five-year-old global, online institution that is virtually free to students and offers most of its instruction through a volunteer faculty.
The university breaks the mold of traditional postsecondary institutions in ways almost too many to count -- which would seemingly make it almost unaccreditable, if accreditors are as hidebound and as innovation-squelching as they are purported to be. So what's the deal?
