By Exec Edge Editorial Staff
What Employers Want
When you see a job posting that lists a degree as a requirement, you might find yourself asking: Which degrees will do? How do I know that the diploma I earned from my school is one that counts—one that signals the work I put in, the skills I developed, and the value I bring? And many employers might be asking themselves the same questions, wanting to hire employees who earned their degree from an institution that meets educational standards. And that’s where accreditation comes in.
Accreditation is a big word, and it’s also a big deal. It’s how a college or university assures its students that its degrees come from an institution that has earned a seal of approval from third-party evaluators—evaluators who dig deep into what schools are doing to provide their students with the educational quality they deserve. Many employers give preference to degrees from accredited institutions—in fact, many financial aid opportunities are tied to a school’s accreditation. In other words, whether or not a program is accredited matters a lot when you seek to enroll.
All in all, if you want your degree to pass muster not only with evaluators, but with potential employers, accreditation is a key way of measuring that quality. And at University of Phoenix, where we have been continuously accredited for more than 45 years, we know students deserve an education that can help them achieve their personal and professional goals—and that they should have transparency into what accreditation is, how it works, and how it can help them get the most they can from their education.
What Accreditation Is
What is accreditation exactly? As the Council for Higher Education puts it: “‘Accreditation’ is review of the quality of higher education institutions and programs. In the United States, accreditation is a major way that students, families, government officials, and the press know that an institution or program provides a quality education.” In the United States, these evaluations come from third-party organizations, known as accreditors, created specifically to dig deep into institutions and their curricula to evaluate their quality. What’s more, institutions need to be able to prove to these evaluators that not only do their current programs pass, but that they are actively planning how to ensure their programs can grow and evolve to meet future needs.
There are two types of accreditation in higher education: institutional and programmatic. It’s helpful to break down what each of these means, according to the Department of Education:
- Institutional accreditation (formerly regional accreditation) means that a school or university meets the quality of standards required to effectively educate its students and has processes in place to continually evaluate and improve its offerings. In other words, the school offering the degree is one that has earned a stamp of approval and offers its students a credible, quality experience.
- Programmatic accreditation ensures individual programs meet an additional level of evaluation and quality assurance. This might be especially important in certain industries or fields that require certain professional standards, as well as whether or not a degree makes you eligible to serve or earn licensure in certain states.
So how do you know if a school is accredited? You can turn to a variety of resources for this, including CHEA, as well the U.S. Department of Education, which has an entire accreditation database. University of Phoenix is institutionally accredited by Higher Learning Commission, which is recognized by these authorities—ensuring our students can trust us.
What Accreditation Offers You
Yes, employers and government agencies might want institutions to be accredited so they can be sure the employees they hire or the financial aid they provide meet rigorous standards. But accreditation also matters to students, who deserve to know what level of quality they can expect. So before you enroll, consider how an institution’s accreditation can:
- Give a fair and accurate representation of their offerings, including descriptions of services available to you should you enroll, as well as the accomplishments of previous graduates.
- Assure you that a recognized third-party accreditor has reviewed the quality of education provided to ensure it meets their standards.
- Provides insight into institutions and programs’ processes and plans to meet changes what universities and students expect from them.
- Provides for eligible students to have access to federal financial aid if they attend institutions accredited by accreditors that are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
- May help you transfer credits between institutions or admission to graduate school, since universities are more likely to accept credits from accredited institutions that unaccredited ones—though it’s important to note that credit transfers are always at the discretion of the receiving institution.
- Signals to prospective employers that you pursued a degree under the standards of an accreditor.
Case Study: Accreditation at University of Phoenix
To show just how much work goes into accreditation—and why you should know whether your school has it—consider University of Phoenix, where the institution has held continuous accreditation from the Higher Learning Council since 1978. HLC works with institutions “to define, develop and implement comprehensive strategies for institutional improvement.” It also offers professional development training for colleges to strengthen the quality of their programs and curriculum, faculty, research and scholarship and support services.
University of Phoenix accreditation was most recently evaluated in 2022-2023, when it received a 10-year Reaffirmation of Accreditation—and this came after receiving a mid-cycle evaluation in 2018. The university is scheduled for its next reaffirmation in 2032-2033—and it is already taking steps to continuously evaluate and reevaluate its programs to ensure they meet these standards and more in the years leading up to it. What’s more, a number of programs—including the Master of Science in Counseling, Bachelor of Science in Business, Master of Science in Nursing, and more—have received programmatic accreditation. A full list of accredited programs is available in the University’s Academic Annual Report.
- Master of Science in Counseling
- Bachelor of Science in Accounting
- Bachelor of Science in Business
- Master of Business Administration
- Master of Health Administration
- Master of Science in Nursing programs
The university takes great pride in its accreditation, especially serving nontraditional working adult students who face additional challenges in their educational journeys—the university wants to give them everything they need to know that the degrees they’re pursuing are ones they can trust, and come from an institution they can put their faith in.
Key Takeaways
Sure, when an employer says they want an applicant with a degree, it’s important to be able to show them that yours comes from an accredited institution that meets rigorous academic standards. But more than anything, before you invest your time and money into a school or program, you deserve to know that you’re joining a community that holds itself accountable, not just to agencies or other parties—it meets your standards, too. Accreditation provides valuable assurances that you can use to make important decisions on educational and career journey.
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