Trinity

Trinity Graduate School for Apologetics and Theology has its Central Office in India, with branches, faculty members, and mentors spread worldwide. Thus it operates under Indian educational laws. It is regulated by the constitution and laws of India. Regulating bodies outside India have no jurisdiction over Trinity. TGSAT offers only Bible and theology training programs, and does not get into any kind of secular training.

The Indian constitution strictly enforces the separation of church and state. As a result, the Government of India does not get involved in guiding, regulating, controlling, or accrediting of religious and theological education. Thus the Hindu-majority government does not get involved in any way in accrediting biblical and theological education. There is no government agency for such a purpose. No University is allowed to offer theological programs such as BTh, MTh, or ThD.  Rather, the Hindu-majority government, by an act of constitution, has kept church and state activities separate from each other and has left theological accreditation totally into the hands of Bible and theology schools themselves.

In keeping with the Church-State separation clauses of constitution of India, Trinity is accredited by a private church-based accrediting agency. From 2013, Trinity has become self-regulating. This means that various committees related to Trinity (such as the Academic Council, International Representatives) regulate and control the quality of education. The private accreditation that Trinity had all these years still remains, but Trinity now prefers to project itself as a self-regulated school where quality-control is in the hands of its own Academic Council and International Committee. This will ensure better quality and greater flexibility in what TGSAT is able to offer its students.

If you come from a country where government accreditation is available for theological education, or where government accreditation is mandatory, then you ought to know that Trinity is different because it is not situated in your country and therefore it operates under totally different rules and regulations. Join Trinity only after you understand these technical points.

Applicants from USA: Trinity degrees will be viewed and evaluated in the USA as a foreign degree.

In the USA accreditation for all theological education is done by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) i.e., USDE or the privately governed but government sanctioned CHEA.  In India also (where the secular constitution guarantees separation of religion and the government) all theological accreditation is done by NGOs. ICAATS is one of the several NGOs approved and licensed by the Government of India for accrediting theological studies. It is theologically a conservative accreditor.

• Students often ask us if we are government-recognized and whether we are accredited so that they might be able to get a job in USA or be able to transfer credits to another institution in the USA. Often these questions represent a misunderstanding about Theological Schools and their standing with the government. Consider the following:
• Theological Accreditation  by an NGO is not equivalent to direct “Government Recognition.” In India or in the USA  the government does not get into recognizing Theological Schools.
  According the CHEA website http://www.chea.org/public_info/index.asp#what “In the U.S., the accreditors are private, nongovernmental organizations created for the specific purpose of reviewing higher education institutions and programs for quality.”
• The same is the case with Theological Schools in India, where the secular government does not get involved in accrediting Theological Degrees. Accreditation has to take place through private but government-registered accrediting agencies meant for Theological Education.
• There are several government-registered accrediting agencies for Theological Schools in India. These are BTESS [Theologically Radical], ATA [Loosely Evangelical], NAPTI [Pentecostal], ICAATS [Theologically Conservative]
• TGSAT is fully accredited by ICAATS [International Council for Accrediting Alternate and Theological Studies] which is a government-recognized private Christian agency.
• This guarantees that the courses offered by Trinity Seminary meet exceptionally high standards.
• Accreditation by any agency anywhere only guarantees the quality of education, and nothing more. It does not guarantee admission to all schools, nor does it guarantee job placement in government agencies.
• If your primary concern is a government job or admission in another school, you should approach them to see if they accept ICAATS accredited degrees.
• Trinity can guarantee only an international quality education, and nothing that is beyond our preview. There is no accrediting agency that is accepted by educational institutions or employers uniformly throughout the world, and academic quality rarely enters into the picture when credit transfer is being considered.  Each educational institution and employer sets their own criteria for these things. And the issue is highly bureaucratic and ideologically motivated.
• Students can request a notarized document about the mandate of  ICAATS which they can use in their countries when they seek an admission of a job. This will guarantee that the prospective school or employer knows about our legal standing. Whether they accept it or not is entirely up to them.
• TGSAT is situated in Cochin University area, but it has NO connection of any kind with Cochin University of Science and Technology.

Summary: Join TGSAT only if your primary interest is in theological/biblical instruction. If you wish anything more than that [such as a government job, any other kind of job, government scholarship] then Trinity is not the right institution. Bear this clearly in mind before you apply. What is more, since no institution can unconditionally guarantee acceptance of their degree by other institutions worldwide, Trinity offers no such guarantee. We guarantee only an international-quality theological/biblical training.