What is accreditation?



Accreditation can involve the difference between obtaining a certificate that is true or a certificate that is without value. Accreditation is actually a formal analysis of an education program to certify that it provides all of the principles expressed by the bureaus that give accreditation. At this time there are 6 accrediting bureaus that are recognized by the National Board of Education. These 6 agencies comprise:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)

North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCASC)

Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSASC)

Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS)

Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WACS)

Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (NWCCU)

Why is accreditation paramount?

Accreditation is a manner to certify that students be trained the same type of material regardless of the respective school they enroll in. Accreditation is also a manner of assuring prospective employers that the student has received a high quality schooling and has proficient abilities that are pertaining in the contemporary marketplace.

Other types of accreditation

Apart from academic accreditation, there is another type of accreditation named 'specialized accreditation'. Specialized accreditation most oftentimes is granted to an individual division or academic plan within a larger university or institute. This might be, for example, a College of Medicine which is a division of a larger school, or solely a solitary specialized program of study within the school like a teacher recognition plan that's taught by an institute.

Normally, an institute that bears a specialized accreditation also bears an academic accreditation by one of the aforementioned six accreditation bureaus.

If you're speculating on pursuing a calling in one of the fields that usually have specialized accreditation plans at hand, which encompass plenty of health and medicine programs, commercial art and design, theology, engineering, culinary arts, accounting and law, make sure to see if the distance education plan you're speculating on participates in this sort of accreditation. That way you'll have a better advantage of achieving a well-paid position when you finish school.

How to verify a distance learning program's accreditation

It might amaze you to learn there is an accreditation organization whose job it is to accreditate all other accreditation organizations. That's the schooling trade's process of making sure that no fake accreditation organizations surface to stake diploma mills and low-quality colleges.

This group is the Council on Higher Education Accreditation and they operate a web address at Only acknowledged accreditors and accredited colleges are permitted to be registered on this web address.

If the distance learning course that you're speculating on enrolling claims to be accredited and either that institution or the society that accreditates it is not registered on the web address, you should probably investigate further as something is undeniably askew.