Institutional Accreditors

Higher education in the United States relies on accreditation to ensure quality and foster a culture of continuous improvement. There are two basic types of educational accreditation – “institutional” and “programmatic” (also called specialized or professional). Institutional accreditation reviews academic and organizational structures of a college or university as a whole, compared to Programmatic accreditation that conducts an in-depth assessment of specialized or professional programs at a college, university or independent institution.

There are two kinds of institutional accreditors – regional accreditors, that accredit institutions within a defined geographic region of the United States, and national accreditors that accredit at the national level. Some specialized accreditors accredit professional schools and postsecondary institutions that are free-standing in their operations and thus may also function in the capacity of an “institutional” accrediting agency.

National Accreditors

Regional Accreditors

Resources