Section 02 · 3 pages
Who says a degree counts
Accreditation as a private function.
In most countries a ministry decides whether a degree counts. In the United States the judgement belongs to private associations that institutions join voluntarily, and the federal government works at one remove: it recognises the associations, then attaches student aid eligibility to their verdicts. These pages follow that chain, the two categories of accreditor, and what actually happens during a review.
- 02.1A private committee certifies the degree. The government pays for it.
American accreditation is carried out by private bodies, and the federal role is exercised through funding eligibility rather than approval.
- 02.2Regional against national accreditors
The two categories are not tiers of quality but different histories, and transfer credit is where the difference bites.
- 02.3What a site visit actually is
Peer review by visiting academics against published standards, on a cycle, with a report that is not always public.
The Carnegie unit, and the degree assembled from it.
The Morrill Acts and what they built.
How rankings are actually made.