What is Accreditation

What is Accreditation ?

Education courses are being offered by thousands of campus and online universities and institutions throughout the US. It is important to ensure that the courses being provided meet acceptable quality standards. There are many fake “Degree Mills” that are awarding degrees that are worthless and not acceptable anywhere. For this purpose , the U.S Department of Education has appointed non-governmental Accreditation agencies to handle accreditations of Institutions and courses in their area.

All Education programs are independently reviewed by the Accreditation agencies to ensure that the education provided is off sound and proper quality and that the standards set by the accrediting organization have been met.

However accreditation has to be maintained by an institution on an ongoing basis by constantly maintaining the criteria and guidelines set by the accrediting organisation .

Why is accreditation important?

Accreditation is important not only to maintain the quality and compliance of academic standards , but also helps the school to become eligible for participation in federal and state financial aid programs. Also it is very important for transfer and acceptance of college credits and is a prerequisite for many graduate programs.

The colleges and Universities are not directly regulated by the Federal Government.The various states in the US issue licenses to education institutions to run and to issue degrees. Licenses vary from one state to another and they do not ensure that minimum standards are met.

There is generally only one way to see if a school or University provides quality education and that is to check if it is accredited or not. They have to get accreditation from a recognized accrediting organization or agency so as to ensure that they are meeting certain minimum standards .

The college you plan to enroll in should be properly accredited or you will be disappointed to learn that your degree is not valued anywhere.

Types of Accreditation

The most common type of accreditation is Regional Accreditation. College credits and degrees received from Regionally accredited institutions are generally accepted by other regionally accredited institutions , but however there is no guarantee for this. Each Institution is free to decide its own policies and as far as accepting credits from other colleges , Universities.

Regional Accreditation is done by six Regional Accreditation Agencies which are each based in one of the six geographic regions of the United States

They are as follows

1) The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.– this covers the North Central region (Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming)

2) The Northwest Association Of Schools And Colleges. – this covers the north west region (Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.)

3) The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
this covers the southern region (Alabama , Florida , Georgia , Kentucky , Louisiana , Mississippi , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , Texas , Virginia)

4) The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
this covers the middle states region (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico).

5) The New England Association of Schools & Colleges.
this covers the New England region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont).

6) The Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
this covers the western region.( California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, the Pacific Basin, and East Asia)

Generally colleges and Universities do mention regarding their accreditation on their web sites or brochures/catalogs. The most reliable way to get this information is to visit the Regional Accrediting Board web site and see if the institution is listed there