Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Government vs Non-governmental org
Dear Dr. Brittingham,
Do you think that the Accreditation and Quality Assurance evaluation is better to be conducted from the government institution or non-governmental organization in our country?
Thank you
Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Good question. I think it depends on the country. Having a non-governmental system in the U.S. gives the universities more autonomy, and universities like autonomy. You may have read the book on World Class Universities by Jamil Salmi -- and if you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it. Autonomy is something he talks about.
One reason a non-governmental accreditation system works in the U.S. is that we have a very rich civil society, with many non-governmental organizations, and a system where people volunteer their time on all kinds of things (including accreditation).
In countries where the conditions are different, it would be appropriate to have a governmental system. For example, in the UAE, they have a very young history of private higher education, and not a lot of private voluntary groups. So their accreditation system is part of the Ministry of Higher Education, and that absolutely makes sense for them.
Barbara
Setting Low Standards
Dear Dr. Barbara Brittingham,
You mentioned that "colleges and universities themselves set the standards and agree to follow them". What if these institutions set very low standards that are not ambitious enough to ensure continuous progress in the sector of higher education (to make their job easier)? Is setting standards a collaborative effort among several institutions, or a separate institution can set standards for itself, which can be considered in the process of accreditation?
Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Great question!
The standards for accreditation are set collectively by the universities that are accredited. If you read the NEASC standards, for example, you will see that they are high standards and they must be met at least minimally by each institution. Accreditation is a lot of work for universities, so they want to get some value for all of that work. And one way they get value is by having high standards. Here in New England, Harvard, and Yale, and MIT have just gone through the process, and each of them would say that they identified areas in the standards where they wanted to improve.
Your question points up such an important point about having high standards and not creating a condition in which the universities are encouraged to set low standards so it shows they meet them.
Barbara
Academic Discipline-Specific Accrediation
Dear Dr. Brittingham,
My question concerns a certain field. I have read that some PhD programs have accreditation from APA (American Psychological Association) which is the main authority in the field of psychology. Does that mean that other PhD programs are less qualified or no?
Thank you.