Accreditation FAQs

Students, Families, & the Public

Accreditation is a review process in which an institution’s work is examined by its peers against standards the member institutions set for themselves. An institution that meets those standards is accredited. It is voluntary, and it is repeated on an ongoing cycle rather than granted once.

Institutions accredited by The Commission are listed in our directory. Many accredited institutions are accredited by other recognized accreditors and will not appear there — to check any institution in the United States, search the U.S. Department of Education’s database of accredited institutions.

Accreditation means an institution meets a set of shared standards. It is a threshold, not a ranking — accredited institutions are not scored or ordered against one another, and accreditation is not a statement that one institution is stronger than another or a guarantee about any individual program or student’s experience.
The Commission accredits institutions as a whole. Individual programs — nursing, engineering, business, and many others — may also be accredited separately by programmatic accreditors in those fields. An institution can be accredited while a particular program within it is not separately accredited, and that is normal.
No. The Commission accredits degree-granting colleges and universities only. Our former name included the words “and Schools,” which caused frequent confusion — elementary and secondary school accreditation in this region is handled by a separate organization.

The institution remains accredited, and its students remain enrolled at an accredited institution. A sanction means The Commission has identified a matter requiring correction within a set period and is monitoring it. Sanctions are disclosed publicly, and the disclosure statement explains what is at issue.

Yes. Federal student aid is available only at accredited institutions. Accreditation is one of three requirements for an institution to participate in federal aid programs, along with state authorization and certification by the U.S. Department of Education. The Commission does not administer aid or decide any individual student’s eligibility.

The Commission does not hold records for closed institutions. Records are typically transferred to a state agency or another institution, and where we have that information it appears with the institution’s listing in our directory. Your state’s higher education agency is usually the right place to start.
The Commission reviews complaints that an accredited institution is not meeting our standards. Most complaints must go through the institution’s own grievance process first, and there are matters we cannot review — including grades, employment decisions, and individual admissions or aid decisions. Our complaints page explains what we can review and what to do if your concern falls outside it.
File a Complaint ⟶
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