Faculty Selection: Credentials vs. Qualifications

What criteria should guide biblical higher education leaders in faculty selection? Virtually all postsecondary accreditation standards stipulate that, as a minimum, instructors must have earned accredited degrees at least one level above the level at which they teach. Thus, instructors teaching at the baccalaureate level must have completed at least a master’s degree, including specified minimum course work in the subject area of instruction. This standard is one of three primary means of assuring that the actual level of instruction is indeed the level purported. Although there are justifiable exceptions to this standard, in my experience biblical higher education institutions often have been far too ready to sacrifice this norm on the altar of expediency.