What is Academic Accreditation

The concept of academic accreditation is driven by the global and local demand for performance and quality standards in the educational process. Academic accreditation has become one of the most important issues in the educational community around the world, as it is essential for the improvement of all elements of the educational process.

Academic accreditation as a term has arisen as a result of the numerous changes around the world and the rise of quality concepts in educational organizations. Also is considered to be a group of procedures taken to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an educational organization, based on which the organization is accredited or not as a reputable place of learning. The purpose of accreditation is to improve the quality of learning and provide organizations with proven quality education with recognition.

Educational organizations around the world are facing increasing pressure to obtain accreditation for various reasons, including acceptance of their certificates and student assessment, and so that it may be dealing with other organizations, both locally and internationally.

Another primary goal of academic accreditation is to ensure the public that the educational programs are reliable and achieve the desired results. It also helps provide the society with an educated workforce that is prepared for the job market.

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The Importance of Academic Accreditation

• The educational organization can identify its strengths and weaknesses and work to improve the quality of education in provides by reviewing its plans and curriculum.
• Encourage investors to invest in newer educational ideas and concepts after providing objective results.
• Providing the society with authentic and detailed information regarding the education provided by the organization.
• Implement the systems and procedures that allow it to achieve higher educational quality for its students and teaching staff.
• Manage educational work in an effective system that provides students, teachers, and parents with satisfaction.
• The educational motivation for students to learn more about the latest in modern developments.
• Spreading the principles of accountability and responsibility in education.
• Empower parents and specialists to follow all the reports related to their student’s performance in the school.

 

Types of Academic Accreditation in Education

1- Institutional Accreditation

Institutional accreditation evaluates the performance of an educational institution as a whole and certifies that it can provide educational services based on specific criteria. Institutional accreditation is considered the basis for any other form of accreditation. It is also considered an essential step in ensuring the completion of an educational institution’s components has been provided. Institutional accreditation then leads to academic accreditation.

Institutional accreditation is given on the bases of architectural standards, lab preparations, required educational methods, libraries, general and managerial services, and employee affairs, in addition to academic standards pertaining to educational programs for teachers and students.

 

2- Academic Program Accreditation

Academic program accreditation is the next step after institutional accreditation. This form of accreditation is only given to schools after one year since the first class has graduated to ensure full detailed evaluation of the curriculum at all grade levels, the teaching staff and their credentials, and the students.

Academic program accreditation certifies the school’s academic program’s effectiveness and acknowledges that it meets the accrediting organization’s quality standards.

There are several types of academic program accreditations. Some types focus only on specific areas, stages, or subjects while others focus on all aspects of a school’s academic program.

Skolera LMS is one of the top 20 learning management systems in February of this year, according to eLearning Industry, and is considered one of the most famous learning management systems in the Middle East as a result of its holistic approach to all the aspects of the learning process.

 

3- Professional Accreditation

Professional accreditation focuses on the professional level of an individual and his/her eligibility to teach. An accrediting organization tests the individual and ensures his/her knowledge and skills are up to its standards before granting the certificate.

How Can an Educational Institution Gain Academic Accreditation

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Any educational institution can gain accreditation with the following five stages:

1. Self-Study: Any educational institution that wishes to gain accreditation should create a committee that prepares a detailed and comprehensive study on all components, programs, and plans of a school and prepares a future plan to develop and improve the school’s effectiveness, in light of the accrediting organization’s standards. This is to be considered a self-evaluation that highlights the strengths and weaknesses and presents a plan to resolve the weaknesses, to be presented to the accrediting organization.
2. External Evaluation: The accrediting organization forms a committee that reviews the documents it received from the educational institution, and confirms the documents’ authenticity and honesty.
3. Field Visits: The accrediting organization’s committee creates a specialized team that visits the educational institution. The team carries out interviews and confirms the quality level of the education provided by the institution. The team also confirms the truth of the documents presented earlier. A report is then sent to the accrediting organization.
4. The Final Decision: After confirming that the educational institution matches the standards required by the accrediting organization, a final decision is taken whether to accredit the institution for a given period of time or not.
5. Continuous Evaluation and Accreditation Renewal: Accreditation and evaluation are renewed periodically to ensure the quality of an educational institution’s services. The previous steps are repeated whenever the time for renewal comes.
   Accreditation is renewed to ensure the quality of education of the institution, and the process is repeated whenever the time for renewal comes to confirm that the institution still meets the standards.

 

The Major Academic Accreditation Organizations

• International Baccalaureate Organization (IB): IB is a nonprofit educational organization based in Geneva and was founded in 1968. The organization created the primary education program PYP, the intermediate program MYP, and the secondary program, also known as the diploma program, DP and The organization covers more than 3,500 schools in 144 countries and is a consulting organization for the UN.
• Advance-ED: Advance-ED is considered the largest educational organization in the world, serving more than 30,000 schools, both public and private, in the US and in more than 70 other countries. The organization is considered a global leader in educational advancement through the improvement of schools and their accreditation. Advance-ED has more than 100 years of experience and is based in the United States of America.

 

LMS and how it will help your school

Maintaining a high quality of education is always the main goal of all parties of the educational process. Competition and technological advancement have compelled these parties to search for and find tools that help evaluate students or teachers and provide the teacher and parents with confidence in the educational process.

Skolera LMS found the solution for creating student progress and performance reports, as well as reports pertaining to the inputs and outputs of the educational process, making it easier for educational institutions to present the data required to accrediting organizations, including Advance-ED, IB, Cambridge, and Edexcel.

 

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