My first question would be if a graduate degree needs to originate from an accredited institution to meet the Secretary of the Interior professional qualification standards.

It is a fake university. Do not give them money. You diploma with be worth less than the paper it is printed on.

http://consumerwatchdogbw.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/atlantic-international-university.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unaccredited_institutions_of_higher_education#cite_note-NigeriaAug2008-35

Getting an MA overseas is a good question in itself.  I figure some programs would have the accreditation to meet U.S. standards but would any 1-year program, such as Leicaster, meet the SoI or RPA qualifications?

Some oversea programs are accredited by accrediting agencies that the Department of Education recognize as being legit. This is the requirement for the SoI, accredited by an accrediting agency that is its self accredited by the DoEd. Its why most Canadian archaeologists can work across the border, their schools are accredited by such bodies.

Now not all universities have accreditation for the whole university but individual degrees, usually medical or business. Though with a degree from a UK university you can pay about 100-200 to have your degree accredited. This is what you typically have to do for archaeology degrees from the UK. After this they work for government jobs.

I am not sure this works for all foreign universities. The US has a deal with the UK were you can get federal subsidized loans to do school in the UK. It might be only country specific. I have known people with UK degrees to get employed by the Fed. but they had to get their degrees accredited first.

I know the US government checks for its employees BUT I am not sure if they do for permits. Not sure if states do either. Some people may get away with not having an accredited degree if you do not work for the US gov.In the long run it may not matter for most people where their degree is from.

Leicester's degrees do indeed meet the SoI and RPA requirements.

If I may ask, what is it about the duration of the UK Master's degree that would suggest it to be unsuitable for the appropriate permits?  It's something that I've run into a number of times and mostly due to a misunderstanding of what is achieved during the 1-year program versus that of a US program, but I'm always interested in new information on the subject.

Does anyone know if the following distance learning MA programs are accredited in the US, and accepted by RPA?

University of Birmingham Professional and Applied Archaeology MA

University of Birmingham Landscape Archaeology, GIS and Virtual Environments

Thanks!

University of Birmingham is closing its archaeology department so probably not a good idea to try and do a distance program from them.

http://birminghamucu.org/2012/09/28/the-university-of-birmingham-throws-in-the-trowel-as-college-buries-archaeology/

When an accredited, American university, figures out a way to offer a distance learning, graduate program in archaeology, they are going to make a killing.

Many of them have the ability to do so, with much discussion on pedagogy talking about hybridised classes or additional online classes.  Indeed, I've recently seen a few more jobs at the assistant professor level asking for some form of experience at this class format.  The only real problem is that much of the experience for this type of class format is not at the university level but in the hands of the community colleges.  Furthermore, many online classes are still playing catch up in terms of modern online technologies and their adaptability to such classes.

There's also a commercial aspect.  My wife ended up doing a distance learning MA in Museum Studies (yes, Leicester), partially because of their reputation (as a department and as a distance-learning provider) but also because of the relative costs.  She could continue to work (distance learning is part-time), the degree cost at the time around $17,000 and as part and parcel of that you literally received parcels with your class materials and core reading texts.  These costs were defrayed over the two years.  Additional costs were accrued since she decided to go the summer session.

The closest parallel in the US was at the time being offered by Johns-Hopkins, which would have been the first year it was run (eek) and also required up-front payment of $28,000 (eek) with no subsequent support for class materials, readings etc.  The only other real options were full-time courses, which would have functionally cost ~$70,000 when one included lost earnings to tuition costs.

Not to say that I'm disagreeing.  Even if we disregard the above, I have to question whether there's a little bit more resistance to "postal degrees" in the US.  In the UK with the Open University they've been around for a bit longer so... Well, yes.  Just thought that I would throw a couple of pennies into the pot.

My first MA is in Anthropology and was at a traditional, brick and mortar, well known state school.

When the Post-9/11 GI Bill came out, I went back to school and got my master's in a different field, in an entirely online program.  In all honesty, I think my online masters was academically more rigorous, career oriented, and better run overall.

I'm surprised that more schools aren't offering an online, Terminal Masters in Archaeology, with a focus in CRM compliance.  I think applicants would line up, even if funding wasn't offered.