What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is a quality assurance process that colleges, universities and education institutions or programs undergo to confirm that they meet a strict and recognized set of service and operational standards. Accreditation is assessed by private, nongovernmental accrediting agencies that have been created specifically to review education institutions and programs. These external college/institute/university accreditation agencies are reviewed and recognized by government or private entities, which hold quality standards of their own. In the most nations of the world accreditation is voluntary. Colleges/Institutes/Universities do not need accreditation in order to open their doors or offer educational programs. This is an important distinction you need to make if seeking a college/institute/university. If you want to avoid certifications or programs that have been denied or have opted out of accreditation, it’s up to you to research these facts.

What Is The Importance of Accreditation?

The importance of accreditation is that it creates a set of quality standards for all education institutions or programs, provides access to funding, maintains private sector confidence, and makes transferring credits easier. Furthermore, accreditation aims to ensure accountability of schools and degree programs which boosts public trust and confidence. When an institution or degree program is properly accredited, you are able to gauge its overall quality without having to conduct a detailed analysis on your own.

Types of Accreditation

For different educational institutions or programs there are specific types of accreditation. Some of the kinds of higher education institutions that can be accredited include:

• Colleges
• Institutes
• Universities

There are three general types of accreditation organizations or agencies that are used for quality review, assessment and assurance of education institutions. Detailed below are these types of accreditation organizations.

Regional Accreditation Organizations

As the title would suggest, these college/institute/university accrediting organizations evaluate postsecondary institutions located in specific regions of the country. When a regional accrediting agency grants accreditation to an educational institution, it applies to the institution as a whole; however, it does not guarantee the quality of individual programs a college, institute, university, or educational institution might offer. If there is a particular program in a regionally accredited college that you are interested in, it’s important to do a little more research to ensure that it’ll benefit you.

National Accreditation Organizations

Operating on a nationwide scope, these organizations, like regional ones, accredit entire institutions as well. National accrediting organizations differ from regional in that they benefit institutions that were not originally founded as college, institute, university. Instead, the two types of national accrediting organizations are either faith-based or career-focused. Faith-based or doctrinally based accreditors make up a small portion of national organizations. The majority are private career accreditors which benefit a larger percentage of institutions like single-purpose institutions.

Specialized/Professional Accrediting Organizations

Specialized, professional or programmatic accreditation focuses on particular aspects of a department, program, school, college, institute, university academic field of study such as economy, theology, engineering, nursing, law or education, among others. Specialized, professional or programmatic accreditation organizations operate in many countries, reviewing programs and single-purpose institutions. Some professions that are regulated by and dependent upon a state or national licensing board may require you to have graduated from specific academic programs that have specialized, professional or programmatic accreditation status. If you are considering enrollment in a college degree program, it is important to make sure you know the requirements of your target career field and what it takes to become a licensed practitioner in that field. You’d benefit from looking for programs that have achieved specialized, professional or programmatic accreditation status in order to confirm eligibility for professional licensure in states that require it.

The Accreditation Process

A college, institute, university, or education institution must take several steps to gain accreditation. Knowing how colleges, institutes, universities, earn their accreditation can help you understand why verifying accreditation can be an important factor in choosing a school.

Steps of the College, Institute, University Accreditation Process

Peer Review Once formal paperwork has been submitted to the accrediting agency, administrative and faculty peers conduct an intensive review of the prepared materials, the written report and the general workings of the college, university or institution seeking accreditation status.

Visit and Examination After the peer review has been completed, most accreditation organizations also send a team of professionals to visit the college, university or institution seeking accreditation status. This team is often made up of peers and members of the public who volunteer their time to ensure quality education standards are being met.

A Decision Is Reached After the previous steps are completed, the accreditation organization calls upon their commission to review the collected information and affirm or deny accreditation status for the college, university or institution under scrutiny.

Continuous Review By accepting accreditation status from a recognized accreditation organization, a college, university or other institution agrees to uphold the quality standards set by the accreditation organization. The accredited college, university or institution also agrees to periodically submit to an accreditation renewal review.

Commonly Asked Questions about College, Institute, University Accreditation

You may have questions related to college, institute, university, accreditation and how it can affect you as a student. Here are answers to some important questions.

What are the benefits of accreditation?

The benefits of accreditation are that accreditation agencies monitor, assess and evaluate the standards and quality of the education that you receive at a college, university or education institution or program. When a college, university and education institution or program receives accreditation, you can feel secure in knowing that you could attend a school that meets recognized standards, offers government and state financial aid, and enables transferrable credits.

How do types of accreditation affect the transfer of credits?

Accreditation makes it easier for you and prospective college, institute, university, to determine the value of credits if you plan to transfer schools. Some colleges, institutes, universities, only accept academic credits and degrees from institutions that have certain types of accreditation. Whether you plan to transfer schools or not, this is an detail to consider in evaluating the importance of accreditation. You should research the accreditation status of a college, institute, university, or program in preparation of applying or accepting admittance to a school, in case you might wish to pursue transferring down the line.

How does college, institute, university, accreditation impact financial aid opportunities?

Some government or private organizations make it compulsory that  student financial aid funds are only awarded to students who attend universities, colleges, and education institutions that meet recognized standards. This is one of the main benefits of accreditation. If you want or need grants, you should confirm that you’re enrolled at a college, institute, university that has accreditation.

What is the importance of accreditation?

If a college, institute, university or program you are interested in does not have recognized accreditation, you should do as much research as you can about the institution. A program or institution’s lack of accreditation might mean that it is a new program or institution and has not yet met the minimum requirements to be considered for accreditation. You should make sure before enrolling in an unaccredited program or institution that the program or institution can be measured for effectiveness or quality in some way other than through the standard accreditation process.

Beware of Fake College Accreditation: Diploma Mills and Accreditation Mills

You should also know how to recognize and avoid “Diploma Mills” and “Accreditation Mills,” which can be harmful to your educational journey and make it difficult for you to reach your career goals. Sadly, dishonest institutions and fake accrediting agencies exist to defraud students of their money and lead them to believe they’re getting something they’re not. These organizations work hard to hide that they aren’t affiliated with the verified accrediting agencies. Fortunately, spotting bad accrediting agencies and schools is easy if you know what to look for.

How do you know if a college, institute or university is genuinely accredited?

Check their websites, letterheads or ask from the admission liaison officers . If a school claims to have specialized, national accreditation or regional accreditation, ask for the site of the accreditor and confirm therein.

What constitutes a diploma mill?

Like false accrediting agencies, there are also many diploma mills. These institutions may look and seem like any other college or university, but they conduct practices that deem them unworthy in the eye of verifiable accrediting agencies Diploma mills frequently:

Make degrees, diplomas and certificates available for purchase

Claim accreditation but show no proof of having been accredited by a genuine accreditation organization

• Make degrees, diplomas and certificates available in an extremely short period of time
• Make degrees, diplomas and certificates available through resume review only
• Offer education, degrees, diploma and certificates at a suspiciously low cost
• Offer no information about location or faculty
• Make claims and assert facts and statistics for which there is no proof

If you are looking for genuine accreditation, Global Accrediting Network is the best for any form of accreditation you desire.  Visit our website today www.globalaccreditingnetwork.org