Program Accreditation vs Institutional Accreditation

Imagine five students, with rosy future careers as a lawyer, librarian, dentist, nurse, and psychologist lying ahead of them. Although their interests and career paths are radically different, they all have one important question to answer before choosing their professional program.

Is their program of choice-not just their college or university-properly accredited?

In order to answer this question, each student must first understand the difference between institutional accreditation and program accreditation.

Institutional Accreditation

For institutional accreditation, representatives from dedicated accrediting institutions evaluate colleges and universities. This is a means for colleges and universities to assess their own performance and compare themselves with other schools.

If a school is awarded accreditation means that the institution meets certain standards of educational quality. The most widely accepted institutional accrediting bodies in the United States are six regional agencies:

• New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE)
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
• North Central Association (NCA)
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU)
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)

Institutional accreditation is not necessarily a guarantee that credits will transfer between institutions, although it does make it far more likely. Students can check with the program to which they wish to transfer to see if credits will be accepted. Attending an accredited program also carries numerous other benefits. Students at institutionally accredited organizations are eligible for federal financial aid, and employers are much more likely to recognize accredited degree programs. Furthermore, having undergone an accreditation process means that the institution meets a high standard of educational quality.

Unaccredited Institutions

In contrast, many unaccredited institutions are the equivalent of diploma mills, providing nothing of actual value to their students. Similarly, some "accrediting agencies" are also mills, set up simply to give an aura of legitimacy to the institutions that they falsely accredit. Students should always check the U.S. Department of Education database of recognized accrediting bodies and institutions.

Program Accreditation

The second type of accreditation, program accreditation, is generally administered by professionally oriented specialty accrediting bodies. The idea is that professionals in a given field are best able to judge a program's educational quality. For instance, law schools are accredited by the American Bar Association and library schools are accredited by the American Library Association. Individual professions-such as nursing, dentistry, and psychology-are covered by their own specialized agencies. In many cases, attending a program that is recognized by the right agency is a prerequisite for obtaining a job in fields such as psychology, law, and healthcare. Many programmatic accreditors (such as the APA) require that accredited programs be housed in an institutionally accredited school.

Programs may be offered that are judged by these specialty bodies, without necessarily possessing institutional accreditation. For instance, continuing education programs within non-educational settings (such as hospitals) may be accredited by a specialized accreditation agency. Such courses may count professionally (towards professional certifications or state licenses) but will not transfer for college transfer credit. Similarly, if a specialty body accredits a program at a school, but the school itself is not institutionally accredited, the program may have professional value, yet credits will not transfer and students may not be able to receive federal financial aid. Since professional requirements vary, it is crucial to find out what accreditation is necessary for a given career.

Accreditation Requirements

No matter what vocation a student chooses, it is wise for her to become familiar with the professional requirements in the field. Tools for investigating professional accreditation requirements include:

• Seeking out information from professional associations (such as the American Psychological Association or American Bar Association). These organizations are often either accrediting agencies themselves, or can provide students with the appropriate information.
• Crosschecking institutional accreditation claims with the U.S. Department of Education database for the most current information.
• Searching for student reviews of the educational quality at a given institution; these may be a tipoff that a program lacks accreditation or is on its way to losing accreditation.

With a little research into accreditation, students can be assured of taking the right steps towards a rewarding career.

Article Resources

Council for Higher Education Accreditation
http://www.chea.org/

U.S. Department of Education
http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Glossary.aspx