Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada

 Accreditation

 

Our purpose is to furnish, recognize, and verify certain standardized requirements in various fields in which the representative institutions operate in keeping with, and acceptable to, other accredited institutions of higher education. In this effort, we assist the institutions in offering Christian education at a postsecondary school level for effective Christian service or ministries administered through a program of Biblical, general and professional studies that affect a person physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. 

 

Accreditation is a means of assuring students that an institution meets accepted standards of quality. It was developed in the United States in the 20th century and has continued to be one of  North America’s achievement in higher educational quality. Accreditation is throughout the world, and countries all have some form of Accreditation for quality assurance. Accreditation is founded upon three key principles: voluntary participation, self-study, and peer review. Standards are self-imposed by educators among member institutions. Institutions seeking to obtain or accreditation are required to conduct a comprehensive, analytical self-study involving input from every key internal and external institutional constituency and resulting in both an assessment of quality in reference to common standards and in recommendations for improvement. An evaluation team composed of professional educators from institutions do reviews of the institution’s self-study report, verifies the institution’s quality and integrity, offers recommendations and compliance or if needs improvement, and  makes a decision concerning whether to recommend accreditation. The team’s findings of an evaluation along with an institution’s records are typically reviewed by a commission or panel on accreditation. 

 

By improving the quality of this education through carefully described criteria of institutional excellence that will encourage self-examination and stimulate healthy growth, we provide a means of membership and certification of Bible Colleges and Seminaries, similar to that of other national and regional agencies.

 

An accredited institution is one that:

 

Has a clear and distinctive purpose widely understood and embraced throughout the institution;
Has ascertainable goals deriving from the purpose;
Has resources (students, faculty, learning resources, facilities, technology, finances) adequate to assure that goals may continue to be achieved;
Employs processes which ensure integrity and efficiency;
Engages in continuous assessment, planning, and intentional resource allocation toward improvement; Substantially meets accrediting standards.