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Louisiana Baptist University is an unaccredited, undergraduate and graduate level, coeducational, Christian liberal arts university founded in 1973 and is located in Shreveport, Louisiana. It has an on-campus program, but is mainly known for distance education. Its enrollment exceeds 1,100 students in 40 different states and 20 different countries. LBU offers a large number of courses and they currently have nearly 400 .
One of LBU's features is its tuition payment plan. Students are allowed to take courses by paying in monthly installments of $100; amounting to a no-interest loan. However, tuition must be paid in full before graduation.
LBU has a number of ways for students to earn credits towards a degree. For example, one can receive college credit from LBU by reading Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, a book by alumnus Chuck Missler , and writing an essay of appropriate length.
In 2005, Governor Kathleen Blanco declared April to be "Louisiana Baptist University Month" .
Accredition and licensing
On December 10, 1998, the Louisiana Board of Regents unanimously voted to deny the University an operating license for its business programs, required it to cease admitting students, and cease advertising . However, current students were allowed until December 31, 1999 to finish their degrees. Meanwhile, on April 22, 1999, the Board exempted the University from licensing requirements under a "religious institution exemption" .
In 2000, author/teacher Steve Levicoff allegedly accused LBU of being a diploma mill . Unlike some diploma mills, however, LBU has degree requirements, including coursework, reading requirements, final exams, and for graduate degrees , writing a thesis or dissertation and maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA.
LBU is one of five approved colleges and universities of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. The BBFI is a fellowship with over 4,000 churches in the United States and several foreign countries. Students who complete their degree in missions through LBU and meet other requirements can be approved as fellowship missionaries.
The University holds full institutional approval from the Association of Christian Colleges and Theological Schools. ACCTS is designed to monitor religious colleges, universities, and seminaries and has no status with the U.S. Department of Education or any other federal agency charged with the accredition of religious institutions . In LBU's 2002-2003 handbook, they claimed to be listed in the Directory of Postsecondary Institutions published by the National Center for Educational Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education . However, they do not appear to be listed, now.