ACCREDITATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE (STATUS OF THE INSTITUTION)

INFORMATION TOOLS

Sources of information on institution/ programme status

The information helpful to establish the status of an institution and/or programme can be found in the following sources:

• educational documentation:
  • qualification: in countries with an official format for qualifications, only fully recognised institutions (public and private) are allowed to issue an official (state) qualification (e.g. Ukraine, Russian Federation);
  • statement/certificate issued as temporary proof of completion (when the qualification is awarded after the actual end of the study programme);
  • transcript: this may contain information regarding the accreditation status and the name of the accreditation agency;
  • Diploma Supplement: this usually contains information about the status, accreditation and quality assurance system in a given country in chapter 2.3., 2.4 and 8 of the Diploma Supplement model. For more information, please turn to topic 6: “Diploma Supplement (and other information tools) on page 32;
  • website of the awarding institution.

It is recommended to double-check the information provided by the awarding institution with other official sources.

• national official sources:
  • website of the accreditation /quality assurance bodies;
  • website of the ministry of education;
  • websites of the associations of accreditation/quality assurance agencies, e.g. the website of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation of United States of America (http://www.chea.org);
  • official national publications regarding the education system.
• international official sources
  • websites of international organizations, like UNESCO (http://en.unesco.org/ );
  • websites of credential evaluator networks, like the ENIC and NARIC Networks (www.enic-naric.net);
• publications containing information about the national education systems/accreditation and recognition, such as:
  the International Association of Universities (www.iau-aiu.net/onlinedatabases/index.html);
  • EURYDYCE http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/index_en.php();
• websites of international organizations and information tools regarding quality assurance and accreditation, such as:
  • the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) (http://www.enqa.eu) ;
  • the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) (http://www.eqar.eu/register.html).

Need to use official, reliable, up-to-date sources

Always make sure that the source of information is official and up-to date because educational systems often change and so does the status of an institution and /or programme. Also check whether the author of the publication has adequate expertise in the field.

If the requested information cannot be found in the available resources contact the competent authority in a given country, such as the ENIC-NARIC centre, the Ministry of Education, the accreditation agency and the awarding institution.