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The Meaning and Importance of Accreditation

Accreditation

Accreditation is a non-governmental, professional peer review process by which educational institutions and programs are provided technical assistance and are evaluated for quality based on pre-established academic and administrative standards. A primary goal of accreditation is to assist postsecondary institutions to identify and achieve goals in order to protect the public and to establish and maintain high educational standards and ethical business practices for the accredited, member schools.

The Meaning and Importance of Accreditation

Other

Accreditation is a non-governmental, professional peer review process by which educational institutions and programs are provided technical assistance and are evaluated for quality based on pre-established academic and administrative standards. A primary goal of accreditation is to assist postsecondary institutions to identify and achieve goals in order to protect the public and to establish and maintain high educational standards and ethical business practices for the accredited, member schools.

Types of Accreditation

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.

"Specialized" or "programmatic" accreditation normally applies to programs, departments, or schools that are parts of an institution.

Accreditation does not provide automatic acceptance by an institution of credit earned at another institution, nor does it