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Studying In the U.S.

Accreditation

Excerpt: Accreditation (Education USA/U.S. Department of State)

Accreditation is the system of recognition and quality assurance for institutions and programs of higher education in the United States. When deciding on a program of study, one of your main concerns should be whether the program is properly accredited. There is no legal restriction on the use of the words "accredited," "accrediting body," or "accrediting association" in the United States. As a result, it is important that you check whether an institution and its programs hold accreditation from a "recognized" accrediting body or bodies. To be considered recognized, an accrediting body should meet one or both of the following criteria:

Recognition by U.S. Department of Education or membership in CHEA or ASPA is an indicator of the reliability of an accrediting association.

Programmatic accrediting bodies accredit specialized and professional degree programs or departments rather than whole institutions. Very often, such programs or departments are offered, or are based, at insitutions that already have insitutional accreditation, so you can be assured of their legitimacy and general quality. A programmatic accrediting body is considered a "recognized" accrediting body if it is a member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the Association of Specialized andProfessional Accreditors (ASPA). Membership in either CHEA or ASPA is an indicator of the reliability of a programmatic accrediting association. The U.S. Department of Education recognizes national and regional accrediting bodies only and does not get involved in programmatic accredition.

Insitutional accreditation can be divided into two types: regional accreditation and national accreditation. Regional accreditation is the primary type of institutional accreditation used in the United States. It is carried out by six organizatiosn that cover different geographic regions of the country. The six regional accrediting bodies colelctively serve more than 3,500 of the approximately 3.600 degree-granting institutions in the United States. They are: