Amity University: Free Regionally Accredited BA?

[CountChocula]

I'm definitely interested in enrolling in Amity University if my ACE credits could be transferred in and if the centers to take tests are common enough or can be done in any proctored environment.

[msganti]

I doubt if folks at Amity understand what ACE is. I don't think Indian universities are equipped to transfer even traditional foreign credits at this point of time. The only recognized credit evaluation agency (or it's equivalent) in India (http://www.aiuweb.org) evaluates whol degree equivalency only - not credit by credit.

[Nixi]

Seems shady

[msganti]

There is nothing shady about Amity. It is recognized by UGC (equivalent of RA in India) in India, and by WASC in USA.

This is how mot universities operate in India. Most are state-funded, so they don't have to upsell their courses. Customer support will be minimal to non-existent. They work like any other government entity.

[bjcheung77]

Yeah, I read that on the other board as well, there was a comment that when people sign up, they don't get email notification for follow up. That made me think, all applications were going into a black hole. It'll be great if someone can actually get enrolled as $5/exam is peanuts!

This seemed shady earlier when I first investigated the institution. They've been offering this program free since 2015,
See this link for details: http://scholarship-positions.com/blog/am...ms/201506/
However; they received their WASC accreditation in 2016. See here: https://www.wscuc.org/institutions/amity...ar-pradesh

They are a large Indian University, see their Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amity_University
Since this is a "newer" BA Arts and it's only 3 years (or 90 credits?) it won't be weighed the same as a four year degree internationally.
If I wanted a cheap degree and didn't have $, I would "couple" this degree with the Nations U - Bachelors of Religious Studies.

Anyways, if someone did actually "couple" the two degrees, they'll have a 3 year RA Bachelors and a 4 year NA Bachelors for under $1,000.
Update: I think with both degrees in hand, this would be sufficient for teaching English overseas in South America or South East Asia for example.
If one really wanted, they can also add a TESOL/TESL certificate online for really cheap, inexpensive (less than $500 for a ~120 hour certificate).

[Nixi]

There is nothing shady about Amity. It is recognized by UGC (equivalent of RA in India) in India, and by WASC in USA.

This is how mot universities operate in India. Most are state-funded, so they don't have to upsell their courses. Customer support will be minimal to non-existent. They work like any other government entity.

I did see that it's accredited by WASC, but their website makes the program look shady. For example, their page has a "Sample Degree" text heading with a sample image of how the diploma looks.  Copyright footer still says 2014 too on the bottom.  

Even if they paid me to do it, I wouldn't pursue this.

[eriehiker]

This is very clearly not the best option available. TESU and the Big Three came by their positions organically and that is what makes them very good. They have had to make small adjustments over decades to come up with what really is a challenging and respectable alternative degree pathway. It would also look pretty cheesy for a citizen of the United States to apply for a job in the U.S. and list a BA from a college in Uttar Pradash.

It is interesting, though. I am curious about the transcript. This might make for a nice clearinghouse for credits from the SWAYAM platform if transfer credits are accepted. It would also be interesting to see if some of the free non-credit courses get listed on the transcript in some way. That might make this a nice little extra credential, but certainly not as good as some of the alternatives.

Of course, if one of my students was in a really tough spot, had no money and needed a degree, free is good.

[sanantone]

I think it was Amity that used to have a partnership with Saylor. You could use Saylor's non-ACE/NCCRS computer science courses towards Amity's master's in computer applications. I no longer see the partnership on the Saylor website. I thought it was kind of odd that they would allow Saylor's undergraduate courses count toward a master's degree.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Under the British education system, I believe everyone is pretty much done with high school by the age of 16. If you plan to go to college, then you complete another year of high school that covers courses that are typically covered at the college level in the U.S. That's why they have 3-year bachelor's degree programs. You might run into some issues with a 3-year degree if you graduated from an American high school.

[clep3705]

If it can get you into graduate school and you complete the graduate degree, it wouldn't matter if the Amity degree is from India or if it is 3 years.

[sanantone]

If it can get you into graduate school and you complete the graduate degree, it wouldn't matter if the Amity degree is from India or if it is 3 years.

That's if the person is even interested in graduate school. That's another issue. How many graduate programs would have a problem with an American who has a 3-year degree? Isn't the last year of high school under the British system also evaluated for college credit by evaluation services?

I found a very relevant article by WES. They list schools that are fine with 3-year degrees, but also mention that many Indian students have to complete another year of schooling before being accepted to an American graduate program. WES says that they may evaluate a 3-year degree as equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's.

https://www.wes.org/advisor-blog/3-year-...rs-degree/

Do you have a 3-year Indian bachelor’s degree? Most bachelor degree programs in the U.S. are for four years. Because of this, many universities in the U.S. may feel hesitant about accepting a bachelor’s degree with only three years of study. Traditionally, a three-year bachelor’s degree from India has been viewed in the U.S. as comparable to the completion of three years of undergraduate study. This is why Indian students are usually required to complete extra credits to be admitted into a graduate school in the U.S. This may be frustrating for students and we’ll explain how you can properly evaluate your hard-earned degree below.

Megha Mirchandani, a former WES Student Ambassador, shared that “despite having a master’s degree from the UK, my three-year degree was not considered an equivalent of the U.S. four-year undergraduate degree. So, I had to get my degree evaluated from WES to match my credits to the U.S. system. This was a process, as I had earlier used a different evaluation agency which was not familiar with the Indian system, and spent an additional four weeks in getting my transcripts re-evaluated by WES who was familiar with the Indian system.”