Trinity Theological Seminary

For those of you who have followed the Trinity Theological issue over the years, this is an interesting thread from degreediscussion.com

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=531

I have a Baptist Pastor friend who is working on his Masters from Trinity. Trinity had some interesting times. As I recall they were not able to make TRACS accreditation and dropped the idea. They then hit on the idea to get "accreditation" from the University of Liverpool and in some people's eyes marketed that as if it were international accreditation. For an extra 225 you got a shiney UofL sticker for your degree. It was not a jointly awarded degree but I have seen people list it as if it were also awarded by the University of Liverpool. Then they switched to University of Canterbury accreditation. They have also gone on to become candidates for Regional Accreditation with the NCA. This when critics figured that would not happen.

The thread above notes some issues which are complicating their march to full accreditation (site visit now delayed). What makes this thread fascinating is that it discusses a law suit filed by a former VP Dr. Fyffe. on another thread (whchi I will find and post he personally and in very interesting detail discusses "his" perspective on problems with Trinity. He makes mention in the other thread about the Masters Divinity School issue.

Nord

 

Here is the other thread (in which Fyffe personally responds to issues with Trinity). Obvioulsy the caveat is that we are only getting one side of the story. But there have been some who have had ethical concerns with Trinity. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=651

Nord

 

Good insight Martin. Trinity in some respects (should it fail to get accreditation) will have been better off never having tried. It was apparently profitable as an unaccredited entity with Liverpool & later Canterbury "accreditation"/endorsement. Reasonable faculty, etc. It was never able to make TRACS accreditation (withdrew application or something several years ago) and then were it to have made candidacy with NCA and then to lose it (probably not a good thing). It would not be for academics but it appears for other issues were it to be lost but nonetheless the effect would be the same.

ACCS had problems and except for the Biblical Studies dept (needed some more PhD's teaching) they were more administrative failures and issues than academic (making changes without board approval, failure to gorw the endowment in line with the increased enrollment, etc). Nonetheless if effects the whole school and down it went. At one point Liberty U was on probabtion by SACS for no other reason than the size of its debt load (which was solved by a generous benefactor).

I wish the best for Trinity's students. I do not know what the outcome will be but it is enough to cause one to be nervous. Mind you as was pointed out on one of those threads Bill Grover wrote NCA a long list of concerns with Trinity's ethics and acdemics and yet the Regional accreditor gave them candidacy anyway to the astonishment of some. For some it lead less to the aqcceptance of Trinity's quality than questioning the quality of Regional Accreditation.

Nord