An Overview of Accreditation

"Accreditation" is review of the quality of higher education institutions and programs. In the United States, accreditation is a major way that students, families, government officials, and the press know that an institution or program provides a quality education.

Whether a college, university, or program is accredited is important:

• Students who want federal (and sometimes state) grants and loans need to attend a college, university, or program that is accredited.
• Employers ask if a college, university, or program is accredited before deciding to provide tuition assistance to current employees, evaluating the credentials of new employees, or making a charitable contribution.
• The federal government requires that a college, university, or program be accredited in order to be eligible for federal grants and loans or other federal funds.
• State governments require that a college, university, or program be accredited when they make state funds available to students or institutions and when they allow students to sit for state licensure examinations in some professional fields.

Accreditation is a complicated subject. There are 6,421 accredited institutions in the United States¹. For more complete information on accreditation please visit The Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

^1. CHEA Internal Review, Summer 2002