Embry-Riddle in clear after accreditation alert dropped

An accreditation warning against Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University issued earlier this year was withdrawn, meaning the university is in the clear.

Embry-Riddle, a private aviation and aerospace university with a site in Prescott, received a six-month warning from its accrediting body in June.

The warning from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges related to the requirements for accelerated undergraduate-to-graduate programs, where students can earn bachelor’s degrees and then graduate degrees.

The warning was withdrawn this month, the university said and the accrediting body’s website confirmed.

The SACSCOC board’s Dec. 8 meeting minutes show Embry-Riddle was removed from the warning status.

Embry-Riddle has more than 30,000 students nationwide. At its Prescott campus, there are nearly 3,000 students, according to data the school published on its website.

Its programs cover the “operation, engineering, research, manufacturing, marketing, and management of modern aircraft and the systems that

support them.”

The accrediting body describes a warning as a “public sanction” related to “significant non-compliance.”

In this case, part of the accreditation standards include requirements for how long programs should be, like the number of credit hours for given degrees.

A letter from the accrediting body sayid Embry-Riddle “had failed to demonstrate compliance” with the program length requirement.

Representatives from Embry-Riddle told the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education in October that the warning related to “combined program pathways.” Concern from the accrediting agency related to meeting the total number of required credit hours.

It’s unclear from published information what exactly was missing from the programs.

In the meeting before the state board, Embry-Riddle representatives said there appeared to be some “miscommunication” with the accrediting agency on the pathway programs and how they worked.

For instance, it seemed like the accrediting agency had the impression that Embry-Riddle had reduced graduate credit hours.

However, the school actually reduced undergraduate credit hours and replaced those with graduate credit hours for those programs, Bree Meinberg, the school’s associate director of state authorizations and workforce development, told the board.

“We’re holding our students to a higher academic standard as opposed to a lower academic standard,” she said.

After the warning was issued, the school informed its community about it and halted admissions to affected programs. Admissions to those programs are now reopened, the school said in an email Monday.