What is Accreditation and Why is it Important

One of the major decisions a student has to make is choosing the right university or college, especially when it comes to online education. Before enrolling, you want to ensure that you’re selecting a legitimate online school. If you’re worried about the reputation of the degree you see online, one way to check its quality and credibility is by confirming its accreditation.

Online colleges and universities usually undergo voluntary accreditation to prove their education programs’ legitimacy and that they adhere to certain levels of quality and standards. Although it’s not really difficult to find out if an online program is accredited, it’s important that you do the necessary research to ensure that you’re choosing a school that has the standard and accepted accreditation.

The key to finding the best online degree for your educational and career needs is taking the time to understand what accreditation is. Learning why it’s important will be beneficial whether you’re looking for options for your first college degree or pursuing advanced education to boost your career and widen your opportunities. But before you dig deeper into why accreditation is important, you must first know what it is and why it could be a big deal.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is a formal recognition from an education authority or accreditation agency to ensure that an educational institution is credible and has met a certain level of academic standards. Simply put, accreditation means quality check. Before a school gets accredited, it has to go through rigorous checking by a third-party accrediting body. The accrediting bodies develop educational criteria for post-secondary universities or institutions and conduct evaluations to assess whether the criteria they set have been met. After evaluation, they award accreditations to qualifying universities or colleges, like Utel University, a leading online university that offers students quality, flexible, and affordable online higher education.

Utel University has accreditation from international accreditation agencies and is a member of many organizations on higher education. It has been authorized by the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) to confer official degrees that have also been recognized as academically equivalent by foreign credential evaluators in multiple countries around the globe, including a NACES-accredited agency in the USA. Moreover, Utel University is accredited by the Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges & Universities (ASIC) of the United Kingdom and by the Federación de Instituciones Mexicanas Particulares de Educación Superior (FIMPES).

Utel University has also partnered with industry and NGOs to boost the university’s program relevance and competitiveness, including UNESCO, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), the Mexican Association of Continuous and Distance Education (AMECYD), the Ibero-American Association of Distance Higher Education (AIESAD), and the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Quality in Distance Higher Education (CALED).