An Introduction to Accreditation: What is it, who does it and what does it mean?

Postsecondary accreditation is historically largely a U.S. phenomenon, although similar activities are undertaken in many other countries of the world today, and the word "accreditation" has its greatest usage and understanding within the United States. Although its roots are in the earlier part of the twentieth-century, university accreditation as a whole has seen its greatest growth in the post-war years. In keeping with the increased focus on "accountability" issues during the 1990s, accreditation has become an increasingly discussed issue in postsecondary education today.

What is accreditation?

Answer #1 - Accreditation in the United States
Accreditation in the U.S. is a voluntary, non-governmental process that is undertaken by private agencies. Some, but not all, of those agencies have applied for and received approval from the U.S. Department of Education or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), which maintains criteria for such approval. Those agencies that are so approved enable their members to qualify for several billion dollars annually of federal student funds. This creates a "gatekeeper" role for such agencies and a direct relationship between them and federal government. The main reason why many institutions in the U.S. seek accreditation is in order to gain access to federal student funds, which are not available to schools that do not hold accreditation.

Most forms of accreditation claim to offer some form of quality assurance to the consumer. However, the effectiveness and integrity of such claims are often difficult to assess independently, and the consumer should be the final arbiter of the merits or necessity of a particular form of accreditation for their situation. Recently, there has been strong criticism of claims that regional accreditation assures quality. This criticism has in turn been dismissed by CHEA.

In most cases accreditation agencies act as trade associations, and accreditation confers membership of that trade association according to the standards it sets for entry. Some are explicitly protectionist, and assure the transfer of educational credits between their members while making it more difficult for legitimate non-members to transfer. These policies are designed to give their members a competitive advantage in the market. The Higher Education Transfer Alliance exists to help those who have graduated from U.S. nationally or regionally-accredited schools to transfer their credits to other nationally and regionally-accredited schools. A list of regionally accredited schools that may accept transfer from those nationally accredited by the DETC has been maintained here. A number of regionally accredited schools also indicate that they will consider transfer credit from unaccredited schools, always on a case-by-case basis and with a probationary period.

The legal right to grant degrees is independent from the issue of accreditation. Although many states in the U.S. require schools to seek accreditation, new schools cannot become accredited instantly. Every school begins as unaccredited, and the accreditation process cannot be begun until several years of operation have passed. Most, but not all, states have a provision where new unaccredited schools can operate under a state license while in the process of seeking accreditation. Some states also have their own procedures whereby a school can be licensed or approved without having to seek accreditation. California, Alabama and Hawaii have their own systems of private school licensing.

Religious institutions are in theory exempt from the oversight of government, although many states now attempt to regulate religious schools in some way (usually through stipulating the types of degrees they may grant). Although religious schools may opt to seek accreditation, many regard the separation of church and state as a reason either to remain unaccredited or to seek accreditation from a specifically religious agency with no ties to government. A recent decision by the Texas Supreme Court established that the state cannot exercise control over religious institutions, and as a result legislative change there and elsewhere can be anticipated in the coming period.

Institutions that do not hold accreditation may be of equal or greater quality to those which do hold such status, or they may be of lower quality. Reasons for an institution not to seek accreditation include:


There are more reasons than these, and in many cases these reasons do not necessarily reflect either positively or negatively on the school concerned.

There are two main types of accreditor:

Program accreditors
Program accreditors accredit in a particular academic discipline, such as business or engineering, and accredit specific programs in universities that meet their criteria. Program accreditation and professional licensing are often closely linked, and graduates who intend to practice a particular profession may find that only programs which hold specific program accreditation will be eligible for licensing.

Even in licensable professions there are some programs that are not accredited - after all there are many reasons to study law without intending to become a lawyer. Nor will a particular accreditation status be universally transferable, since different states may have different requirements for the practice of a profession. This means that the intending student whose aim is to practice in a licensable area must make careful inquiries of their school before enrolling. Even a degree from Harvard may not be useable in all situations.

The standards of program accreditors are generally conservative. This may mean that some programs that take a new or experimental approach to the discipline in question are ineligible for accreditation. In addition, U.S. program accreditors overwhelmingly restrict their accreditation to institutions that hold recognized U.S. regional or national accreditation, or non-U.S. institutions that are controlled by government.

Program accreditors are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. There are few unrecognized program accreditors currently, although there have been some in the area of business.

Institutional accreditors
Institutional accreditors do not accredit particular programs but instead accredit the institution and its operations as a whole. Although some recognized institutional accreditors will extend accreditation to a few foreign schools, that accreditation is not recognized by the U.S. DoE or CHEA.

Institutional accreditors fall into two main categories and some further groupings:

1. Regional accreditors
There are six regional accreditation agencies that accredit schools in the U.S. The regional accreditors are long-established, highly conservative trade associations that are a powerful lobbying force for their members. Regional accreditation is based on the concept of peer review, whereby schools which are accredited by a particular agency are assessed by a team comprised of members drawn from other schools which that agency accredits. This means that effectively, schools accredit each other. This process has been referred to, with some justice, as "self-accreditation". It is also a highly politicized process, with the accreditors often reflecting their own social agendas in their requirements.

The accreditation process focuses on inputs to education, arguing that if these are in place, a minimum level of quality is assured. It does not assess outputs such as student satisfaction and success, nor does the process incorporate the views of stakeholders such as employers or consumers. The findings of accreditation teams are usually confidential and not disclosed to the public. Once accredited, regionally accredited institutions rarely lose accreditation. Each institution pays substantial fees to obtain and maintain accreditation, meaning that the process is only accessible to schools with substantial financial resources.

The standards of regional accreditors vary quite widely, so that what is accreditable in one region is not so in others and there is no general agreement on certain issues. For example, only one regional accreditor (the North Central Association) has shown itself willing to accredit schools which offer programs solely via distance learning. This leads to the phenomenon of region-shopping, where at least one school in recent years has changed state in order to come under the jurisdiction of the NCA. Similar divisions between the regional accreditors exist with regard to the acceptance of APEL credit.

Full regional accreditation visits to institutions take place, on average, every ten years, with an intermediate visit at the five year interval.

2. Recognized national accreditors
Recognized national accreditors are required to meet the same standards as regional accreditors for federal recognition in the U.S. Of these, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) accredits institutions offering distance education to the master's and professional doctorate (not Ph.D.) level. ACICS accredits schools offering programs up to the master's level only. Their schools offer a professionally focussed education. Like the regional accreditors, national accreditors' processes are primarily based on peer review and on inputs, with findings usually confidential and not disclosed to the public.

Unrecognized national and international accreditors
There are several national and international accreditors in the U.S. which have either applied unsuccessfully for recognition or have not submitted such an application, usually citing objection to government control of education. The quality and standards of these agencies must therefore be determined by the consumer. In some cases they may operate meaningful standards of quality, while in others they are simply trade associations. This category formerly included the National Association for Private Non-Traditional Schools and Colleges, which applied on several occasions for recognition by the Department of Education without success.  Some accreditors in the area of alternative medicine cannot obtain recognition because some of the disciplines they accredit are not themselves accepted by the traditional academic community.

Illegitimate national and international accreditors
Some private sector institutions of low quality create accreditation agencies for their own purposes. While there is nothing illegitimate in schools creating accreditation agencies (this is, after all, how all the other agencies have also come into being), illegitimate agencies have no meaningful standards, process or purpose other than to contribute the buzzword "accredited" to an institution's marketing. Such agencies often use names similar to existing agencies and may have no legal existence independent of their creating school. The presence of their "accreditation" is a leading sign of a diploma mill.

Religious accreditors
TRACS is the only specifically Christian institutional accreditor to be nationally recognized, with the Association for Biblical Higher Education currently a candidate with the DoE. There are also recognized religious program accreditors. Other accreditors opt not to be recognized by the government because of their belief in the separation of church and state, or their low (or no) standards of operation. Most religious accreditors of necessity only accredit religiously-based programs and schools.

Changes in institutional accreditation on the way?
There are changes in the institutional accreditation system currently being debated by legislators. Some in particular want to see the accreditation function impose federally-determined standards of quality and effectively become the quality assurance arm of the U.S. Department of Education. This has been mooted in the wake of concerns that institutional accreditors have failed to ensure quality in their members. More on these issues is here.

Is it true that Harvard isn't accredited?
For some reason, the curious rumor that Harvard isn't accredited has been spread by some school operators. It isn't true. Harvard is regionally accredited, and has been since 1929. However, a number of its departments do not hold programmatic accreditation, which means that degrees issued within those departments cannot be used for professional licensing where program accreditation is required (which is often).

Answer #2 - Equivalents to accreditation outside the United States
Accreditation as a system is largely a United States phenomenon. Outside the U.S., countries entrust governments and the legislature with determining the basis on which postsecondary educational institutions can exist and operate. The term "accreditation" is not in universal use around the world to describe these systems, and when it is used, it may mean something quite different from its meaning in the U.S. In addition, legitimate private, non-governmental accreditation agencies exist, sometimes tied to professional licensing in areas such as engineering, for example. The position is complex and individual to each country. Some models have been developed in the U.S. to simplify the understanding of the situation outside the U.S., such as the concept of "GAAP" or "generally accepted accreditation principles", which has been popularized by distance education author John Bear and AACRAO to reflect the standard practice of admissions officers at accredited universities, human resources departments at major companies, etc. These models have exceptions and cannot be applied universally, but they do reflect common practice in the U.S. mainstream and act as a generally reliable guide as to practice there.

In some countries the term "university" and the power to award degrees is restricted by law and can only be used by state-controlled institutions. This does not necessarily prevent higher education from being offered outside these restrictions, such as in France, where private institutions may award certificats with titles such as the M.B.A. and use the title of "ecole" but are still subject to state approval of their curriculums. In other countries, such as Belgium, there is a constitutional right to private education, and private universities can exist freely. Denmark also operates a free market in postsecondary education. Where there is no restriction in place, the operations of universities will usually be governed by some system of common law or customary law, depending on the jurisdiction and its legislative framework. Statutory exemptions exist for some types of institution in some countries, and are not always widely understood.

Some countries, although following the pattern of governmental approval of universities, permit institutions to operate which, although approved or licensed, are of poor quality. This further confuses the issue since in such cases there is often much talk of government quality assurance and similar schemes without those schemes ever producing publically-assessable outcomes. The fact of an institution being associated with the government does not assure its quality or indeed its acceptability outside that country. Such quality and acceptability must instead be determined by market forces in individual situations.

One recent tendency is to appeal over the heads of particular nations to international bodies, particularly the International Association of Universities and UNESCO, as arbiters of university status. However, UNESCO itself does not accredit, license or recognize universities. The IAU in association with UNESCO publishes a reasonably full list of public sector and government-controlled private universities of the world and useful profiles of country education systems based on the information supplied by particular governments. Nevertheless, the IAU does not include self-regulating universities in its list, despite the fact that these may be operating legally, nor does it include many legally-operating university-level institutions that do not carry the university title, such as military academies and some business schools that use the designation "school" or "college" in their names.

The recent emergence of Universitas 21 Global, a private online international business school backed by a large number of mainstream universities under the Universitas 21 scheme, has raised interesting precedents, since the school was initially accredited by an agency of its own creation (U21 pedagogica) and its subsequent external institutional accreditation has come from the Equis scheme, which is private and non-governmental (its e-MBA is licensed by the Singaporean government, but this is programmatic licensing, not institutional accreditation). These precedents may indicate the future directions of global initiatives in education as they express an increasing independence from government.

What is accreditation, and what is it not?
An official document from the former State of California Council on Postsecondary and Vocational Education (CPPVE) states the following,

"Accreditation Is...

A voluntary, non-governmental activity that occurs approximately every five to ten years. The value and effectiveness of accreditation lies in the institutions' commitment to continuous self-study and evaluation.

A process in which educational institutions evaluate themselves objectively, and then subject their evaluations to an accrediting body for a review and critique of educational quality.

A peer evaluation. The evaluation teams consist of professional educators and/or school administrators, specialists selected according to the nature of the institution or program, and sometimes others representing specific public interests."

"Accreditation Is Not...

A replacement for governmental regulation, or a license from the government to do business. Public institutions receive their approval to operate through the state Constitution and legislative action. Although many states exempt accredited institutions from state regulation, accreditation is a voluntary, private-sector evaluation. Accrediting bodies cannot force institutions to comply with state and federal laws, and do not view their role as regulatory.

A guarantee of consumer protection. The evaluation criteria of accrediting bodies tend to be general and non-uniform, because of the great diversity of postsecondary educational institutions and accrediting bodies in the United States.

A tool to be used in certifying professional practitioners. Because accreditation is granted by a private, non-governmental body, requiring candidates for professional licensure to obtain education from an accredited institution as a prerequisite for licensure may be denial of the candidates' constitutional rights."

What does all this mean for your situation?
The decision as to the type of institution you choose to attend is highly personal and will be governed by multiple factors. Some of these are:


If you require a degree from an institution that holds specific governmental accreditation, a degree from a private university may not meet your needs, and you may need to look elsewhere to continue your education. Equally, for many employers and candidates, issues of accreditation by this or that external authority, or by government, may be of no concern. Why should you spend extra time and money earning a degree with governmental approval or accreditation if you don't actually need one? A degree from a private institution may serve your purposes just as well, and may also offer both academic and financial advantages over public sector alternatives.

Your employer may well say to you that earning any master's degree, whatever the accredited status of the school, will secure you a promotion or a salary raise. There are certainly employers who do this. If this is your situation, or if you are self-employed, retired or studying for personal interest, you can legitimately widen your choices to consider a degree from a private university.

Once you decide that a degree from a private university is an option, you are likely to be interested in issues such as the cost of the program (many private universities are less expensive than many government-run alternatives), the philosophy of education, the flexibility of the program (including the option of totally non-resident study, almost unique to private institutions at the doctoral level), and the institution's openness about the nature of the quality standards that are met and external approvals that are held. Most people and employers in this situation are concerned with whether the experience of earning a degree will make the person a better employee and their company more efficient.

Many less-than-reputable private postsecondary institutions falsely present memberships in professional associations as "accreditation", or present themselves as "accredited" by bogus agencies of their own creation. They also offer degrees that are suspiciously inexpensive (usually signifying no real academic process) and have websites that are short on detail but long on sales talk. The purpose of such tactics is to deceive students and employers who are less than knowledgeable on these matters. Don't be fooled! Read our article on diploma mills and consider your options carefully.