Program on Probation

[HopefulSLP123]

Hi All, 

I had recently accepted Univeristy of Kentuky, but they sent an email today stating that CAA had placed their accredidation on probation. I guess it means they are still accredited, but have one year to fix all of the errors and get off probation. My question is, how bad is that? Would my degree mean nothing if they lose their accredidation? What is the point of accredidation anyways? is it so we can get licensed? I (sadly) already rejected one of my offers, but still have two others, should I go with another choice for school? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Looking at CAA website, several good programs such as Northern Arizona and Chapel Hill were recently taken off probation, and it didn't seem to affect their rankings, so how important is accredidation?

Any advice would help! I would hate to go to a school just to have it mean nothing becuase they are no longer accredited. 

[Allegro8032]

It depends on why the program was placed on probation. Some programs get in hot water for things that don't impact the student experience, ie. record keeping or other administrative issues. Other programs get in trouble for more problematic things from the student's point of view, like access to clinical sites or quality of the curriculum. It might be worthwhile to try and find out why, though I'm not sure how'd you go about that - maybe try contacting CAA?

[s4mm1]

Accreditation is essential. However, there are many reasons a program is put on probation. Some are as silly as not updating their website, others as serious as lack of faculty competency. I looked up their reason for being placed on probation; they didn't put the phone number to CAA on their website. I would have no qualms attending this program

[esheshesh]

According to the Accreditation report on UK, the reason they were placed on probation was because they did not include an accurate statement of accreditation. Specifically, the didn't include a degree designation nor an address/phone number to contact CAA. 

Judging by this, I don't think you have much to worry about. Unless their web admin really drops the ball and doesn't include these changes within the year things should be fine.

[kellyfussman]

@HopefulSLP123 I go to Western Kentucky University. Many of our grads go to UK, and a few of our professors have degrees from UK. A couple of students who were accepted to UK from my class had the exact same question. They said it's nothing to worry about. All they have to do is tweak a statement, update it on their website, and it'll be fixed. It's a very, VERY minor infraction.

[MangoSmoothie]

Seconding everything up there. If it makes you feel better, even UW Madison's program was placed on probation in February of last year for clerical reasons. It was then removed this year, so they will have that status for a year. So really, no reason to worry, and future employers won't know or care. Like said, the accreditation reports are publicly available, and being placed on probation for clerical reasons is much less severe and more easily remediated than being placed on probation for factors related to the clinical aspects of the program (like sufficient faculty, sufficient placements, etc.).

[jazspeaks]

You can look at the probation report on the ASHA website: http://caa.asha.org/programs/accreditation-decisions/

University of Arkansas was on probation for the last year but it was all minor stuff.  They are now off probation.  I look at it as a positive thing actually... If a program goes on probation, the University won't be happy because they might lose a lot of money and it can hurt their reputation, so you know the program is under a lot of pressure to fix it.  It can hurt the ratings though.  I think University of Arkansas was ranked #106 in 2015 and is now #120 in 2016.