What is College Accreditation and why is it Essential?

What really is college accreditation and is it important? College Accreditation is a status granted to an educational institution, a program within the institution or several of the programs that meets or exceeds predetermined criteria of educational quality.

To achieve this status of accreditation, a college must undergo a quality assurance process where itâ€™s services and operations or itâ€™s programâ€™s are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met.

If these standards are met, accredited status is granted by the granting the agency. College Accreditation is therefore an academic stamp of approval.

It is therefore important to establish the accreditation status of a college or university or itâ€™s programs before enrolling.

College Accreditation in USA

In the USA, the quality assurance process and College Accreditation is performed by private membership associations which are regulated by regional or national private accrediting agencies.

A properly accredited school will have one of the two accreditation status. That is, either Regional accreditation or National accreditation.

Regional College Accreditation

If you are looking for a regionally accredited school, here is a list of of regionally accredited online colleges.

Regional accreditation is institutional in nature, meaning that, the accreditation is that of the college as a whole rather than the degree programs taught at the University.

This is the most popular College accreditation status in the USA. The focus of regional accreditation is more on academic areas of study, such as the Humanities and the Arts, as opposed to career or job preparation studies.

Academic credits are more easily transferred between regionally accredited colleges. However each university reserves the right to accept and reject credits from other institutions. You should therefore always confirm with the institution you wish to transfer credits to.

There are six Regional accrediting agencies recognized by Council for Higher Education accreditation (CHEA) and US Department of education. You can use their websites to search more on the status of a school. These are-:

North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement - The agency accredits schools in Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, Nebraska, Washington, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, and Utah, For more information on this agency, visit their website at http://www.ncacasi.org

Middle States Commission on Higher Education â€“ The agency accredits schools in New York, New Jersey, Virgin Islands, Delaware, Puerto Rico, Maryland, Pennsylvania and District of Columbia. For more information on this agency, visit their website at http://www.msache.org

New England Association of Schools and Colleges â€“ The agency accredits schools in New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and American/international schools in many nations worldwide. For more information on this agency, visit their website at http://www.neasc.org

Western Association of Schools and Colleges â€“ The agency accredits schools in Guam, Hawaii and California. For more information on this agency, visit their website at http://www.wascweb.org

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools â€“ The agency accredits schools in Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina South Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky. For more information on this agency, visit their website at http://www.sacscoc.org

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities â€“ agency accredits schools in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada Alaska and Idaho. For more information on this agency, visit their website at http://www.nwccu.org/

To get more information and a list of universities, visit regionally accredited online Schools page.

National Accreditation

There are several national accrediting agencies recognized by the US Department of education.

National accredited institutions tend to be more career focused in the institutions and programs they work with and include more of a hands on approach and concentrate on preparing students with salable skills.

Regional Accreditation Vs National accreditation

It is worthy to note that both accreditations are legitimate and validly recognised by Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and US Department of education.

Both Regionally accredited and Nationally accredited colleges may be eligible to offer federal financial Aid to their students. You will however need to check with the institutions before you enroll and confirm that the college participates in Title IV federal student Financial assistance program.

One thing that is worthy to note however is that although, the US Department of education regard both forms of accreditations in equal terms, It is more difficulty to transfer credits from a Nationaly accredited college to a Regionally accredited college. However, Nationally accredited institutions accepts transfer of credits from both National and regional accredited colleges.

Other Form of Accreditations

Specialized; Evaluates a specific department or program to make sure it meets industry standards. A college may either be Regionally accredited or Nationally accredited but in addition could have some of their progras accredited by agencies that specialize in the standards of a degree program rather the institution as a whole.

Specialized accreditation is mostly required in Professional degrees especially in the medical field.

What is the purpose of accreditation?

According to the Department of Education, the purpose of College Accreditation is to:

Confirm that institutions meet certain standards by requiring code of behavior and procedures. This gives an assurance that an accredited school offers quality education.

Help students identify quality institutions that offer quality education worthy of time and money invested.

Assist institutions in determining if transfer credits are acceptable. Institutions accepting credit transfers need an assurance that what they are accepting is quality education.

Identify institutions and programs for the investment of public and private funds.

Encourage improvement of standards for institutions and programs. Accredited institutions are periodically appraised by their accrediting agencies and must therefore keep on improving their standards to maintain the accreditation status.

Create criteria for professional certification and licensure. A qualification from an accredited institution is a basic requirement for certification, licensing and membership of Professional Associations for careers that require certification, licensure or membership of a Professional Association before one is allowed to practice.

Accrediting agencies serve as watchdogs of education to employers, investors, Students and educational institutes.

How do you know if a school is properly accredited?

A claim of Accreditation on itâ€™s own is not enough to help you decide on a college. Why? Because there is a difference between proper legitimate accreditation described above and fake accreditation. The following information should help you know if a school is properly accredited and keep you off from fake accreditation agencies otherwise known as Accreditation mills.

If you are planning to transfer credits, please note that University reserves the right to accept and reject credits from other institutions. You should always confirm with the institution you wish to transfer credits to confirm if your qualifications form one college will be accepted in another colleges.

You can check if an institution is properly accredited by visiting the US Department of Education search and search for the stautus of any college. If it is not in the database, it may not be accredited.

You can also check by visiting Council for Higher education accreditation search (CHEA), which provides a database of recognized accrediting agencies and accredited institutions and programs.

Confirm that your college is accredited by one of the agencies in these two information sources before paying your college fees.