Accreditation

Accreditation is a voluntary process for institutions of higher education. The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities as well as governmental agencies.

Accrediting agencies, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency’s evaluation and that meet an agency’s criteria are then “accredited” by that agency.

Institutional accreditation normally applies to an entire institution, indicating that each of an institution’s parts is contributing to the achievement of the institution’s objectives, although not necessarily all at the same level of quality. The various commissions of the regional accrediting associations, for example, perform institutional accreditation, as do many national accrediting agencies.

Accreditation does not provide automatic acceptance by an institution of credit earned at another institution, nor does it give assurance of acceptance of graduates by employers. Acceptance of students or graduates is always the prerogative of the receiving institution or employer. For these reasons, besides ascertaining the accredited status of a school or program, students should take additional measures to determine, prior to enrollment, whether or not their educational goals will be met through attendance at a particular institution. These measures should include inquiries to institutions to which transfer might be desired or to prospective employers and, if possible, personal inspection of the institution at which enrollment is contemplated.

WASC, The Western Association of Schools and Colleges, was formed in 1962 to promote the welfare, interests, and development of education in the Western Region. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. WASC is a regional accrediting agency. WASC accreditation is required to participate in Title IV federal student loan programs.

 

Post-Graduate Education

During the pre-accreditation period, our graduates will be able to proceed with subsequent graduate education (with the exception of medical schools). We surveyed a group of leading doctoral and master’s degree programs concerning the qualifications of our graduates. In all instances, we learned that applications to graduate programs are considered at the departmental level on a case-by-case basis. Typical feedback is represented in the following statement:

“In instances where previous colleges are not regionally accredited, the application file is referred to the department with a note indicating that the previous college is not currently regionally accredited. If the department recommends the applicant for admission, the Graduate College would then review the application file and either approve or deny the department’s recommendation.” (Graduate College, University of Illinois)

The newest campus in the University of California system is UC Merced. This campus has graduated almost 1000 graduate and undergraduate students and enrolled over 3000 students prior to accreditation. Prior to accreditation, UC Merced students successfully enrolled in graduate and other professional degree programs based on the above-stated departmental review policies of admitting institutions.