Our Approach to Accreditation
What accreditation with The Commission involves — how reviews work,
what we ask of institutions, and what institutions can expect from us
Judged Against Your Own Mission
The Commission does not apply one template to every institution. A community college, a research university, a seminary, and an institution teaching entirely online are held to the same standards, but those standards are applied in light of each institution’s own stated mission.
That means the question is not whether an institution resembles an ideal college. It is whether the institution is doing what it says it does, doing it well, and able to show it.
Reviewed by People Who do the Work
Reviews are conducted by faculty and administrators from other member institutions. They read the evidence, visit the campus, and report what they find. They are not government officials and they are not Commission staff.
Peer review has a practical consequence worth naming: reviewers have usually faced the same problem the institution is describing, at their own institution, and they know the difference between a real answer and a well-formatted one.
Built Around Improvement, Not a Verdict
Accreditation is not a one-time examination. It runs on a cycle, with reporting between reviews, and it asks institutions to examine their own work continuously rather than to prepare for a test.
Most institutions find that the preparation itself surfaces things worth fixing. That is the intended outcome, not a side effect.
A Staff Member Who Knows Your Institution
Training & Preparation
Published Standards, Published Decisions
Our standards are public. Our policies are public. Accreditation actions and disclosure statements are published. Anyone may file a complaint about an accredited institution, and the process for handling complaints is public.
An institution considering accreditation can read exactly what will be asked of it before applying.
The Range of our Membership
More than 780 institutions are accredited by The Commission, across the United States and internationally — research universities and community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, seminaries and art schools, institutions enrolling tens of thousands and institutions enrolling a few hundred.
That range is not incidental. Standards that have to work across institutions this different are standards built on principles rather than on prescription.
