Accreditation is a process by which institutions of postsecondary or higher education are evaluated and validated against established standards. The accreditation process ensures that a university or college maintains a high level of quality in its education curriculum and methodologies. Accreditation is also aimed at helping institutions improve their programs.

How Accreditation Works

In the United States accreditation of postsecondary institutions is not conducted by the government. There is no centralized authority that maintains control of educational institutions at the federal level; there are some state mandated controls, but in general universities and colleges are independent.

Accreditation is not a mandatory process for schools; it’s a completely voluntary process. The accreditation of schools is implemented by non-governmental agencies. The only role the government plays is in ensuring, through strict criteria, that the accreditation agencies are qualified to judge schools. Accrediting agencies can be national or regionally focused, meaning they only work with schools within specific states. The US Department of Education maintains a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies judged to be trustworthy. That list can be found here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/.The second major organization that determines accreditation in the US is the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Details and accredited schools can be found at http://www.chea.org.

What to Watch Out For

You should always ask the enrollment advisor at any online university or college to show you where you can see their school’s accreditation credentials as well as the agency which accredited the university. Always be wary of all other terms than ‘accredited’ such as ‘registered’ or ‘chartered’ when reviewing a school’s accreditation. Finally, it is very important to differentiate an accredited university or college from censorship and licensure of an individual – very different concepts.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of ‘diploma mills’ – organizations that are created to provide the illusion of an online education and provide a fake diploma that has no credibility. These organizations are created to make money from unsuspecting people as well as provide a means for fraudulent individuals to obtain a degree for dubious purposes. Technology combined with the rise in popularity of online education and distance learning has enabled a lot of these counterfeit groups to flourish.

The Benefits of Accreditation

Current and future employers will be looking at accreditation as a validation of the degree you’ve obtained, so make sure your degree is from an accredited university. There are so many accredited universities that provide online degrees that there is no reason to entertain obtaining a degree from another type of institution.

We discuss in length the different types of options available to students in our Financial Aid section, but there is a very important relation to accreditation: only students who are planning to attend accredited universities or colleges are eligible to receive federal loans or grants. Therefore if you will be taking advantage of the enormous amount of money the government provides for postsecondary education, you will have to pick a nationally accredited university. The same requirements will likely apply for most employer reimbursement programs as well as scholarships you may apply for.