October 9, 2010
Accreditation is a prerequisite in the current education system – whether online or offline. It helps in the recognition and acceptability of a degree, a diploma or any kind of certification. A major challenge in this regard is the level of autonomy that every institute or university enjoys, because it varies from region to region, country to country and even from one company to another. To form a basic understanding of accreditation, it is useful to understand the difference between regional and international accreditation.
When different private or government bodies conduct an accreditation exercise for any institute, they tend to serve a defined geographic area of a country keeping in mind whether the institute is a government institute or a private one. Generally speaking, regional bodies only accredit schools and universities – not individual programs, courses, diplomas or certifications.
When international organizations conduct an accreditation exercise for an institute, it is irrespective of any geographical boundaries and hence, has no territorial restrictions. Therefore they are valid throughout the world. Moreover, it has been observed that international accreditation bodies and organizations accredit individual programs.
Often, with regionally accredited institutes, a person relocating to a different country or continent has to get their certifications through a lot of red tape, as each country often conducts an equivalence exercise in which it converts foreign degrees to bring them on the same comparative scale as the local degrees. Moreover, some countries’ universities are not recognized in certain parts of the world. With international accreditation, students benefit as they avoid unnecessary hassles, and at the same time, their certifications are acceptable on the same scale – whether locally or overseas.
Other differences include the amount of time accreditation takes, because regional accrediting bodies take more time as they cater to a large number of institutes. International accreditation bodies have only a few institutes that have a truly global presence, so they are able to process and grant accreditation faster, again benefiting students.
The most striking difference between the two accreditations is in the standards and models of best practices. Regional accreditation takes local standards and local best practices into account, whereas international accreditation is more demanding because they have to adhere to global standards and global best practices. Online institutes do not benefit from the fact that they are global; rather, more stringent criteria are applied when assessing them, resulting in a more thorough accreditation that is acceptable around the globe.
