Texas Law on Using Substandard Degrees

[Thorne]

If they were authorized to award degrees, they wouldn't have to issue them through Isabel I.

But...they don't have to issue them through Isabel? ENEB's Titulo Propio is legal in its own right.

As for Isabel, the 1973 Organic Law of Universities says they can legally issue Titulo Propio degrees and Isabel is accredited and in the RUCT database. The issuance of these degrees doesn't violate the laws regarding degree conferral where the school is located and the parent school is accredited by RUCT and ANECA and is recognized under ACUCYL, ENQA, and EQAR. All of these are recognized accreditation in the location where the school operates, the most salient of which is the official government database (the Register of Universities, Centers, and Titles) which lists the school as one of their 70-something legally accredited institutions.

I'm not qualified to interpret the law, though I suspect you aren't either unless you're secretly hiding a J.D. or ABA license. That being said, I've only found a few cases where this code was applied in Texas, all of them related to people saying they had degrees from schools that they did not have degrees from. I've not found a single case so far where a holder of a foreign degree was tried for using their foreign degree.

Plus, the code doesn't specifically mention any accreditation agencies specifically, not in section 3021. It mentions this vague and ominous, "as determined...for the sake of this section." This seems to suggest that a WES or ECE equivalency wouldn't necessarily meet the requirements unless the review board agrees. In all honesty, it may mean that a degree from out of state is questionable if they aren't accredited by SACS or authorized by Texas law to issue degrees in the state.

I always find it amusing when people receive likes for being blatantly incorrect and not spending a minute to conduct research. That's no jab at you. I'm willing to provide the information, but it likely won't do anything for the cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. 

I'm not an attorney, but I know how to do research instead of making a bunch of assumptions that can easily be cleared up with the use of a search engine. The law is written for the public to read and apply. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. 

  (B) Upon the admission of a student to any graduate program, the institution shall document that the student is prepared to undertake graduate-level work by obtaining proof that the student holds a baccalaureate degree from an institution accredited by a recognized accrediting agency, or an institution holding a Certificate of Authority to offer baccalaureate degrees under the provisions of this chapter, or a degree from a foreign institution equivalent to a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution. The procedures used by the institution for establishing the equivalency of a foreign degree shall be consistent with the guidelines of the National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials or its successor.

https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=1&ch=7&rl=4

Why would there already be court cases over the ENEB degrees when the coupon deal hasn't been around for long? You're conflating the issue of foreign degrees with the issue of using a degree from a school that does not have degree-granting authority. Why would someone be taken to court over a foreign university that has degree-granting authority from its country? 

As for which U.S. accreditors THECB recognizes? That's easy to find on their website. Did you attempt a search before making that assertion? This would cut down on a lot of posts and wasted time. 

https://reportcenter.highered.texas.gov/agency-publication/miscellaneous/private-post-secondary-institution-accrediting-agencies-2018/

The State of Texas has banned the use of degrees from foreign schools based on other states' decisions and whether the schools had degree-granting authority from their government. To determine the equivalency of foreign degrees, the State of Texas uses NACES as its guide. 

http://www.ronkailey.com/InstitutionsWhoseDegreesAreIllegalToUseInTexas.html

  (ii) institutions located outside the United States that have demonstrated that their degrees are equivalent to degrees issued from an institution in the United States accredited by accrediting agencies recognized by the Board. The procedures for establishing that equivalency shall be consistent with the guidelines of the National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Education Credentials, or its successor.

https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=1&ch=5&rl=46

I didn't talk about cases regarding ENEB? I was talking about cases regarding foreign degrees. I've never seen a case where a holder of a foreign degree was tried, let alone convicted, for using a foreign degree to seek general employment.

Rule 7.4 relates to admission into educational programs in Texas, it has no bearing on the legal status of degrees for things like employment in an unregulated field.
Rule 5.46 relates to the qualification of faculty based on foreign credentials, no bearing on anything like the legal status of degrees in an unregulated field.

Also "recognized accreditng agency" very specifically states that it is defined differently based on sections and subsections. In one section, it says that "recognized accrediting agency" is SACS and only SACS, in another it says it is discretionary, in yet another it says it is related to THECB. In these sections, THECB is related to academic admissions, SACS to a school that operates in Texas, discretionary to other degrees that come from out-of-state or out-of-country. This is because each subsection has its own definition which applies only to that subsection and states something like 'defined in this subsection related to this subsection' to clear that up.

Interestingly, it does mean that these programs are legitimate either as a Bachelor's degree or a Graduate Certificate (since some NACES members have published materials stating that propios are equivalent to a graduate certificate or graduate diploma) and no individual in Texas should need to even get an evaluation for teaching or enrolling in postsecondary courses since even a single positive evaluation from a NACES member clearly demonstrates that "their degrees are equivalent to degrees issued from an institution in the United States..." 

I've already determined that I'm only going to list the degree from UI1 within the state of Texas because I do recognize that ENEB is not recognized by the state as a degree-granting institution of its own right. UI1, however, is, and my degree is issued by them. This arrangement isn't really different from the old University of Wales scheme where random postsecondary learning centers in Malaysia or Singapore were able to issue a University of Wales degree to their students through articulation agreements.