Who Accredits the Accreditors?

Accrediting agencies evaluate and set standards for institutions of higher education, helping to reduce fraud by weeding out the diploma mills from legitimate degree-granters. But the field isn’t immune to similar deception, and, as a result, accrediting agencies themselves are regularly evaluated to determine legitimate accreditors from so-called accreditation mills.

Since starting more than a hundred years ago, accreditation has become the norm in higher education and a stamp of approval for those looking to spend their time and money on a legitimate, reputable school. Accreditation mills – associations that are unauthorized or have few (if any) standards – have cashed in on the practice by selling accreditation through the mail, without any rigorous investigation of a school, often offering higher fees for higher ratings. Or, they’re the creation of degree mills themselves looking to make their schools appear reputable. As a result of both practices, students may spend a large amount of money and time and receive neither an education nor a useful degree.

It’s not a lost cause, though, as much like accrediting agencies monitor schools to see if they meet set standards, government and non-profit organizations monitor accrediting agencies to make sure they’re meeting set standards. The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) are the only two groups that officially recognize accrediting agencies.

Just like accrediting, getting recognition for an accrediting agency is a voluntary process. The USDE’s main focus is to assure that federal student aid funds are being spent on quality courses and programs, so it grants recognition based on an accrediting agency’s attention to an institute’s recruitment and admissions practices, fiscal and administrative capacity, and facilities. The CHEA’s primary purpose is to strengthen academic quality and ongoing quality improvement in courses, programs, and degrees, so it grants recognition based on standards that advance academic quality and encourage needed improvement. The majority of institutions the agency accredits must also be degree-granting.

Fortunately for consumers, these groups don’t keep the names of recognized accrediting agencies to themselves. In fact, the Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of the accrediting agencies that he or she determines to be reliable, with regional and national institutional accrediting agencies, and specialized accrediting agencies all online. The USDE also recognizes state agencies for the approval of both vocational and education.

The CHEA publishes its own list of recognized accrediting agencies, with up-to-date directories of regional accrediting agencies and special programmatic accrediting organizations also online.

If an accrediting agency is not recognized by either the USDE or CHEA, that should immediately raise a red flag about the legitimacy of the agency – and any school it has accredited. At the same time, it can take a few years for an accrediting association to meet the necessary standards to become recognized, so additional warning signs include spelling errors of common words (such as "Ametrican" or "psycotherapy") in the agency’s name; unlisted phone numbers or addresses; and, naturally, if the agency has accredited known diploma mills.

The CHEA also has a list of questions you should ask of any accrediting agency:

• Does the operation allow accredited status to be purchased?
• Does the operation publish lists of institutions or programs they claim to have accredited without those institutions and programs knowing that they are listed or have been accredited?
• Does the operation claim that it is recognized (by, e.g., USDE or CHEA) when it is not?
• Are few if any standards for quality published by the operation?
• Is a very short period of time required to achieve accredited status?
• Are accreditation reviews routinely confined to submitting documents and do not include site visits or interviews of key personnel by the accrediting organization?
• Is “permanent” accreditation granted without any requirement for subsequent periodic review, either by an external body or by the organization itself?
• Does the operation use organizational names similar to recognized accrediting organizations?
• Does the operation make claims in its publications for which there is no evidence?

If the answer to many of these questions is yes, warns the CHEA, it’s most likely an accreditation mill.