Accreditation

Accreditation is the scrutinizing of the educational programs of various colleges and universities that offer online education. The process is hence voluntary, non-governmental and not-for-profit. The evaluation councils of the agencies critically review the working procedures of these institutions. Specialized agencies award accreditation for professional programs and academic units in particular fields of study.

Accreditation aims to:

• Evaluate whether the institution is credible enough to be accredited
• Ensure that the institutions meet the quality and standards of online education
• Build a confidence in the online educational programs
• Help students in identifying acceptable institutions for enrollment.
• Qualify graduates for certificate examinations
• Give institutions a chance of self-evaluating and self-improving
• Engage students, staff, and faculty in the evaluation of institutions

The Accrediting Procedure

For all the educational institutions, accreditation is a collegial process of assessment and peer review for sustainability and improvement of educational standards and academic quality. At Distance Education Accrediting Body, our accreditation process works periodically and it majorly involves three main functions:

• A self-study of the online institution or program using our own set standards and benchmark.
• A peer review of the online institution or program to gather evidence of quality.
• Lastly, a conclusion made by our panel to decide whether to accredit an online institution or program, accredit with some conditions or reject the accreditation application of the institution or program.

Basic Rules and Regulations Set by Accreditation Agency

Accreditation Agencies have set some basic rules and regulations against which they evaluate a distance education institution in order to grant it our accreditation.

1. Benchmarks: The accrediting agency, in collaboration with educational institutions set up standards and benchmarks.

2. Self-Evaluation: The institution or program seeking accreditation prepares a self-evaluation study that evaluates its eligibility against the standards set up by the accrediting agency.

3. On-site Evaluation: A team selected by the accrediting agency visits the institution or program to identify if the applicant meets the established standards.

4. Publication: Upon being satisfied that the applicant meets its standards, the accrediting agency decides to grant or not grant the accreditation status.

5. Monitoring: The accrediting agency monitors each accredited institution or program throughout the period of accreditation granted to confirm that it continues to meet the agency's standards.

6. Reevaluation: The accrediting agency periodically reevaluates each institution or program that it lists to ascertain whether the institution is continuing to meet the predefined academic standards.

Types of Accreditation

There are two basic types of educational accreditation, one identified as "institutional" and one referred to as "specialized" or "programmatic."

Institutional accreditation refers 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.

Specialized or programmatic accreditation normally applies to programs, departments, or schools that are parts of an institution. The accredited unit may be as large as a college or school within a university or as small as a curriculum within a discipline.