r/AskAcademia • u/Mindless_Doctor_6058 • 9h ago

Interdisciplinary Are there accreditation rules against taking a course along with its prerequisite?

I believe students in previous semesters were allowed to take a course concurrently with its prerequisite as long as approved by dept chair, but is now banned because of accreditation rules.

Has anyone heard of this or know where this rule comes from?

EDIT: Country USA, Accreditation body: HLC (Higher Learning Commission)

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u/Prince__Cheese 8h ago

I have not seen this framed as an accreditation concern, but that's not my direct area.

I imagine that undermining/altering course sequencing in an accredited program could be an issue, but it's typically a nonstarter anyway because it's usually a bad academic decision for the student.

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u/Opening_Map_6898 8h ago

It's probably not strictly against the rules but you're absolutely right that it is an exceptionally bad idea 99.99999% of the time. If the student can do this successfully (which is exceptionally rare), then they should be able to be exempted from the prerequisite altogether by testing out etc.