university. A few good low cost institutions tried to get accreditation but found that in order to be able to pay the accreditation fees, they will have to start charging fees similar to fees charged by the G.O.I's.

There is one other way out for the student he can apply to institutes that allow him to test out of many courses thereby reducing the total costs, well that's what they say in their websites. This realm is dominated by a Charter oak college, Excelsior and Western Governors university but these worthies charge a huge amount to test out of specific courses approximately $200 to get rid of each credit, in effect sending the student back into the waiting arms of the G.O.I's. Welcome back to where we were before this discussion started.

So there you have it, get into an affordable institution and your degree is unaccredited, or pay a kings ransom and get your accredited degree, the choice is entirely yours.

The US has quite stringent laws to deal with low cost universities that offer distance learning/online programs which are unaccredited. Many have been closed down and many more have set up offices overseas in foreign locations. The state governments provide separate lists of institutes that are unaccredited and strict penalties are imposed for using such degrees to get jobs in the respective states. The government has done its job as far as enforcing the rules are concerned and the G.O.I's are a pleased lot as the student has no other option but to pay the huge fees and get an education.

It seems quite possible that the G.O.I's are nothing more than a powerful syndicate that can get its way on the force of sheer money power. Any student researching the internet in order to find an affordable online masters or PhD course would come across the various forums where courses are discussed and any attempt at getting to an informative discussion about unaccredited courses is strictly prohibited. The student appears to have no choice. This is where the government needs to step in to make education affordable and accessible to the average student.

The first thing that needs to be done is to make accreditation more affordable and accessible to institutions that are interested in getting accredited. At the same time standards of accreditation should be maintained to the highest levels.

It is quite possible that with accreditation becoming affordable, the many good low cost providers of online education get the accreditation they seek without passing the costs of accreditation onto the student as is the case with the G.O.I's. This will result in affordable, accredited education for students intending to pursue higher education. Most importantly it will be a wake up call to the G.O.I's who will see that they no longer have a captive customer base for their courses and this will result in moves to lower the fees that they impose on the hapless student.