Accreditation of Education

Education Quality Accreditation Commission

 

 

OTHER INDEPENDENT AGENCIES OF EDUCATION ACCREDITATION

 

Independent accreditation arose in the XXth Century because colleges and universities recognized the need to establish standards for admission and transferability of credit. Other accreditation initiatives followed, in which specific disciplines and professions began to implement their own programs to ensure that education quality standards were met and to prevent unacceptable practices.

 

As it evolved, accreditation became one of three major processes higher education uses to maintain public accountability as it improves its education quality and usefulness to society. The other two processes are: legal authorization or regulation, through compliance with government laws, and statutes; and competition, through success in the marketplace. Whereas regulation concentrates on compliance, and competition on marketability, only accreditation focuses on the integrity of the academic program, and the quality of the education.

 

 

What is Accreditation?

 

Accreditation is an institutional procedure that universities seek to complete in order to bring their academic programs up to education quality standards. The process of accreditation is non-governmental and voluntary; that is, universities appear before a private, regional or professional association (the one to which they wish to belong) and submit an application. The accrediting institution then carries out an overall assessment of the institution, and if the results are satisfactory, the school is accredited.

 

Accreditation reflects the comparative advantages of numerous and diverse institutions and methods of higher education, and respects its core values of autonomy, self-governance, scholarship, and the assurance of academic quality through peer review. Today, higher education quality is emerging as a diverse, competitive, decentralized "system," with vibrant private and public sectors in which colleges and universities enjoy comparatively high autonomy.

 

 

Global Accreditation

 

There are not any global accreditation or education quality standards.

 

In responding to the multiple imperatives that drive our global knowledge-based economy and society, national governments recognize the need for higher education quality on a global scale, but they do not have the means to cope with the fast and evolving educational initiatives developed by a globalized private sector. Independent accreditation becomes a major instrument to ensure education quality in a world dominated by open frontiers and information technologies.

 

Employers, parents, students, and others look to accrediting organizations for consistent and reliable information about educational institutions. There is no single model to ensures education quality, institutional accountability and accreditation. What is essential to recognize is that in a global village, accreditation does take on many forms. The perception by Americans who promote US accreditation as the "gold standard" dismiss a growing and major impact international schools are having on the future of global higher education.

Institutions of higher learning should consider not just adding one or even two accreditations in their home nation, but also from other cultural and educational environments if they wish to provide a truly global education quality endorsement. Read more...

 

  

Education Quality

 

Quality assurance agencies in higher education exist for many purposes. One area of their responsibility is checking that institutions or programs meet certain criteria, requirements or standards, or achieve certain levels of performance. This task is commonly called accreditation, but other terms exist, such as assessment, licensure, recognition, authorization, etc. Read more...

 

The accreditation, assessment, licensure, recognition, or authorization process is intended to prevent the creation or continuation of poor quality programs or institutions, and hence it is a consumer protection mechanism. Some institutions are genuine but of poor quality, and some institutions (often called degree mills or diploma mills) purport to provide qualifications, at a price, but the qualification is worthless because the ‘institution’ requires insufficient – perhaps no – work to achieve it.

 

The accreditation process is intended to weed out these inadequate institutions. Therefore, in a country where such gatekeeping, policing or quality control exists, potential students or would-be employers of graduates are advised to check that an institution is in good standing with the relevant accreditor.

 

  

How to identify a fake university:

 

1. Common Sense

Always use your common sense. If a college or university is too cheap and too good, then it is probably fake.

 

2. Academic requirements

If a university accepts students with no or hardly any academic requirement than that institution is probably a substandard one. If a university selects you purely through work experience then you should avoid that school.

 

3. Students Services

Financial assistance, scholarships, admissions guidance, tutoring, graduate and career services, and a verifiable physical location are usually offered by legitimate educational institutions.

 

4. Faculty

The genuinely of a university can also be determined by its teaching staff. Full names and qualifications of the faculty and academics should be accessible and verifiable.

 

5. Program / Curriculum

A well-defined curriculum with courses or subjects details, describing what the students are expected to learn, should be outlined by any good universities.  

 

6. Alumni’s feedback 

Best universities have alumni’s feedback regarding their experiences in terms of education, faculties, campus life, facilities, peers etc. These responses should be found on the school’s website.

 

7. Accreditation

Accreditation ensures education quality but this may be provided by many organizations. At present in the USA, there are approximately 60 providers of accreditation. There are more than 500 accrediting organizations worldwide. Some may be very good, but some others not so much. 

 

 

Beware of Fake Accreditation

 

Unfortunately, some diploma mills and fraudulent educational institutions have identified that the basic consumer check is to ask whether an institution is accredited, and so there has been an emergence of bogus or spurious accrediting bodies. These enable an institution to claim to be accredited. The existence of fake accreditation therefore means that a consumer (student, employer, etc.) must go one step further and investigate whether the claimed accreditation is valid and meaningful.

 

The US Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has suggested the following tests that can be applied to a purported accrediting body. If the answers to many of the following questions are YES, the accrediting organization under consideration may be bogus:

• Does the operation allow accredited status to be purchased?
• Does the operation publish lists of institutions or programs they claim to have accredited without those institutions and programs knowing that they are listed or have been accredited?
• Does the operation claim that it is recognized (by some other body) when it is not?
• Are few if any standards for quality published by the operation?
• Is there a very short period of time required to achieve accredited status?
• Are accreditation reviews routinely confined to submitting documents and do not include site visits or interviews of key personnel by the accrediting organization?
• Is ‘permanent’ accreditation granted without any requirement for subsequent periodic review, either by an external body or by the organization itself?
• Does the operation use organizational names similar to recognized accrediting organizations?
• Does the operation make claims in its publications for which there is no evidence?
• Does the operation claim that its accreditations would have international status?
• Does the operation claim recognition by international bodies or associations that in themselves are not in to the field of accreditation? (Examples would include UNESCO, NAFSA, AACRAO, EAIE).

 

NOY ANY Accreditation does EVER 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. These measures should include inquiries to institutions to which transfer might be desired or to prospective employers and, if possible, personal inspection of the institution at which enrollment is contemplated. 

 

 

An Education Accreditation and a seal of Education Quality (EQ) for Institutions of Education, Colleges & Universities from all the world.

 

The Education Quality Accreditation Commission is ready and willing to assist in providing global accreditation to any college or university willing to prepare a Self Study Report. What institutions of higher learning should be considering is not adding more local accreditations in their home nation, but a truly international accreditation standard that may serve in the global market arena. See more...

 

Get  Accredited!!!