Accreditation
This article was adapted
from the Accreditation in the United States Overview
of Accreditation page at the U.S.
Department of Education, and the Diploma
Mills and Accreditation Accreditation page
also available at the U.S
Department of Education
Accreditation in the United States is a voluntary,
non-governmental process, in which an institution
and its programs are evaluated against standards
for measuring quality.
Accrediting agencies, which are private educational
associations of regional or national scope,
develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations
to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions
and/or programs that request an agency's evaluation
and that meet an agency's criteria are then "accredited" by
that agency.
U.S. Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit
educational institutions and/or programs. However,
the Secretary of Education is required by law to publish
a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies
that the Secretary determines to be reliable authorities
as to the quality of education or training provided
by the institutions of higher education and the higher
education programs they accredit. An agency seeking
national recognition by the Secretary must meet the
Secretary's procedures and criteria for the recognition
of accrediting agencies, as published in the Federal
Register. Some of the criteria for recognition have
no bearing on the quality of an accrediting agency;
however, they do have the effect of making some agencies
ineligible for recognition for reasons other than quality.
The U.S. Secretary of Education also recognizes State
agencies for the approval of public postsecondary vocational
education and State agencies for the approval of nurse
education. These agencies must meet the Secretary's
criteria and procedures for such recognition and must
undergo review by the National Advisory Committee.
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
is a private, non-governmental agency,
which recognizes organizations that accredit institutions
and programs. CHEA is the only nongovernmental higher
education organization that scrutinizes the quality
of regional, national, and specialized accrediting
organizations. CHEA is a membership organization that
works from within the higher education community to
coordinate and improve quality review. CHEA exists
for the purpose of coordinating and improving the practice
of higher education.
CHEA recognizes many types of accrediting organizations,
including some of the same accrediting agencies as
the Department of Education. To be eligible for CHEA
recognition, the accrediting organization must demonstrate
that their mission and goals are consistent with CHEA
and that a majority of the institutions and programs
accredited by the organization award degrees. CHEA
recognition is not attached to federal dollars as
is recognition by the Secretary of Education.
Types of Accreditation
There are two basic types of educational accreditation,
one identified as "institutional" and one referred
to as "specialized" or "programmatic."
Institutional accreditation normally applies to an
entire institution, indicating that each of an institution's
parts is contributing to the achievement of the institution's
objectives, although not necessarily all at the same
level of quality. The various commissions of the regional
accrediting associations, for example, perform institutional
accreditation, as do many national accrediting agencies.
Specialized or programmatic accreditation normally
applies to programs, departments, or schools that are
parts of an institution. The accredited unit may be
as large as a college or school within a university
or as small as a curriculum within a discipline. Most
of the specialized or programmatic accrediting agencies
review units within an institution of higher education
that is accredited by one of the regional accrediting
commissions. However, certain accrediting agencies
also accredit professional schools and other specialized
or vocational institutions of higher education that
are free-standing in their operations. Thus, a "specialized " or "programmatic " accrediting
agency may also function in the capacity of an "institutional " accrediting
agency. In addition, a number of specialized accrediting
agencies accredit educational programs within non-educational
settings, such as hospitals.
Accreditation does not provide automatic
acceptance by an institution of credit earned at
another institution, nor does it give assurance
of acceptance of graduates by employers. Acceptance
of students or graduates is always the prerogative
of the receiving institution or employer. For these
reasons, besides ascertaining the accredited status
of a school or program, students should take additional
measures to determine, prior to enrollment, whether
or not their educational goals will be met through
attendance at a particular institution.
The commissions of the institutional (regional and
national) accrediting agencies that are recognized
by the Secretary have no legal control over educational
institutions or programs. They promulgate standards
of quality or criteria of institutional excellence
and approve or renew membership of those institutions
that apply for meet their accreditation and standards
or criteria.
Unrecognized Accrediting Agencies
Unrecognized accrediting agencies have not
had their accreditation standards reviewed by
the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for
Higher Education Accreditation. There are a variety
of reasons why an agency is unrecognized, some agencies
may be working towards recognition with the Secretary
or CHEA and others may not meet the criteria for
recognition.
An unrecognized accrediting agency should be viewed
with caution until its reputation can be determined. Although
these accrediting agencies are unrecognized, it does
not mean that they do not have high standards of quality. Likewise,
because the Secretary or CHEA does not recognize an
accrediting agency does not mean that the institutions
accredited by that agency do not provide a quality
education.
Remember: Many employers in the United States
only recognize degrees earned from institutions accredited
by an accrediting agency recognized by the Secretary
of Education.
Any institution can claim to be accredited. It is
important that you, as a consumer, do your homework.
College Kingdom
College Kingdoms policy is to only list institutions
that are open to the public and that have been accredited
by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S.
Department of Education or that are listed
in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data
System (IPEDS). In some cases, we do not have
the accreditation information for an institution, so
we display Unknown in the Accreditation section of
the schools page. These institutions may be accredited
by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department
of Education or they may be accredited by an accrediting
agency recognized by CHEA.
Please note, College Kingdom only displays
accrediting agencies recognized by the U.S. Department
of Education. We do not display accrediting
agencies that are recognized by CHEA but not recognized
by the U.S. Department of Education nor accrediting
agencies that are unrecognized.
If you find any institution on our site that is not
accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the
U.S Department of Education or that is not listed in
the IPEDS database, please let
us know. |
