Accreditation

It is important to known about Accreditation system for a student who is planning to go USA for studies. It is essential to know whether the school or university is accredited in which you are going to study. With the help of accreditation, we get surety about the high quality of the school and the programs are exactly similar as they have been in print by the school authority.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is a process which reviews the quality of the school carried out by various accreditation agencies. The agencies help to develop standards which are maintained by the schools for superiority in various fields like faculties, syllabus, administration, students’ services etc. Only those schools, colleges or universities which meet with the basic set standards are permitted accreditation.

The main objective of accreditation is to assure that the higher education of the institution meet with the acceptable level of quality. Accreditation in USA includes both government agencies and non-government entities.

There is no Federal Ministry of Education or any other centralized authority which is exercising single national control over post-secondary educational institutions in USA. The USA varies degrees of control above education, but in general, institutions of higher education are allowed to operate with substantial independence and sovereignty. As a result, American educational institutions can vary according to character and quality of their programs.

In order to insure about a basic level of quality, practice of accreditation arise in the USA as a way of conducting non-governmental, examine evaluation of various educational institutions and different programs. Private educational associations at regional or national level have adopted standards which reflect the qualities of a strong educational program and have developed different processes for measuring institutions or programs to determine whether they are working at basic levels of quality.

Types Of Accreditation:

Accreditations are generally of two types. The two types of Accreditations are as follows:

1. Institutional accreditation: Institutional accreditation applies to the universities as a whole.
2. Professional accreditation: Professional accreditation exists only in fields where professional ability is of high demand like engineering, nursing, and doing business of accreditation.

Benefits Of Accreditation:

Accreditation helps those institutions who continuously improve their standards. Accreditation also helps students, employers, and others to identify such schools that meet the acceptable standards for educational quality. Accreditation is mandatory for transferring of credits from one school to other.

From the perspective of International students', accreditation is a constructive tool which they should use to identify quality schools in order to meet their needs and standards. Accreditation is also the resources by which the government of USA manifests that the school is eligible to issue necessary documents for the international students to enter in USA through student visa. Employers also give a high importance to those students who have been graduated from an accredited school. Accreditation can also be a medium to access federal educational funding.

Importance To Ensure Accreditation For Online Education:

If you want to go for an online education but have confusion regarding the university or college, that offers online education and if you want to get a genuine degree after completion of your course, which is also renowned at different workplaces, the first and the foremost thing that you should do is check that the university is accredited one or not.

The accreditation should be one of the six agencies approved by the National Board of Education. If your degree is not accredited one, your each and every effort will be in vain. The first and the last step of yours before taking admission in any institution must be to keep you away from the fake universities and degrees and Do check its accreditation.

Accreditation Agencies:

There are various accreditation agencies in USA that give awards to the schools and university’s program which permit accreditation. But accreditation provided by all agencies does not have value in the real corporate market. Therefore, it is important to inquire about the program chosen by you is accredited by a reliable agency. The reliable accreditation agencies are those agencies whose accreditation is approved by National Board of Education and which cannot be challenged by anybody.

In all, there are only six accreditation agencies in USA which has been approved by National Board of Education. You need not have to worry at all, if a program short-listed by you is accredited by any one of these six accreditation agencies.

The six agencies which is approved by National Board of Education are as follows:
New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NSASC)
North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA)
Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA)
Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS)
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU)