Accreditation
Within the United States all seminary colleges are exempt from accreditation requirements that are applied to traditional higher education institutions. This is due to federal mandates that separate Church and State. Ocean Seminary College has, however, designed all its programs to exceed the academic requirements of accreditation. While Ocean Seminary College may pursue accreditation in the future to be able to confer onto students degrees outside of seminary education, including undergraduate degrees and traditional doctoral degrees, the process is not only lengthy, but very expensive. Given the initial and yearly cost of accreditation both within the state Ocean Seminary College is located and the fees for regional accreditation coupled with financial, library, and faculty goal requirements, it would require Ocean Seminary College to forgo its tuition-free status. Additionally, accreditation for online universities as it stands within the United States requires students to participate in a specific number of hours of in-person contact. This would then require all students, regardless of country of residence, physical health status, financial abilities, work obligations, or familial responsibilities to travel around the United States to attend conferences. Due to the fundamental changes accreditation would require in Ocean Seminary College's defining mission of barrier-free education, we have chosen not to pursue accreditation at this time.
