In this section we provide information about the international accreditation of universities and study programmes. International accreditation is one of the most relevant quality criteria for choosing a university for studying, studying abroad or for continuing a study program. Accreditation is a dazzling term in higher education (every institution and program wants to be accredited somewhere, somehow) and we will try to demystify things.

A. First of all the term "accreditation" is used for all kinds of institutional accreditation. Institutional accreditation is really the very minimum standard for a university and says more or less only, that the institution is nationally accepted as a institution in higher education. All kinds of institutional accreditation reflect strongly the higher education system of the country; being accredited is saying: this is a university (some building, a budget, some students etc.) in this country and the national authorities (normally the respective department of education or higher education) accepted the institution for offering higher education. In terms of quality these kinds of "institutional accreditation" are quite often not really relevant. Nevertheless the "institutional accreditation" of a university or any other institution in higher education is a very first indicator about the institution and its listing by the national authorities indicates a kind of national recognition of the institution. In case an institution is not listed by the local authorities it is definitivly not recommended for studying. In higher education the most popular classification of institutions is based on the classification of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Though this classification became more confusing in the last years it differs for the most relevant types in: a) research universities (large and small), b) master's and bachelor's degree granting universities (large, medium, small) and c) bachelor's degree universities (large, small).

B. Second, the term "accreditation" is used to indicate the quality of study programs in a discipline. In this context the differentation of a national or international accreditation of a study program or faculty/school is useful.

B.1: One may find various kinds of national accreditation organizations or agencies providing accreditation seals, quality labels etc. These kinds of national accreditations is strongly related to the national system of higher education and within a system you may find various competing organization and labels. For externals it's rather difficult to evaluate the quality of these kind of national labels and its accreditation organizations or agecies. The national accreditation label quite often is not a serious indicator for the quality of a school, faculty or a study program.

B.2: International accreditation organizations set up and evaluate worldwide standards for disciplines. Institutions (faculties, schools etc.) that meet these international standards may get a label for international accreditation of these study programs. Only the international accreditation of a worldwide acting organization or agency will provide a comparative information about standards and the quality of an institutions.

In the field of Business and Management the system of international accreditation is - compared to other disciplines - well established and developped. International accreditation labels are provided in fact by two agencies:
a) AACSB International - worldwide accreditation of Business School with a focus on the United States of America. The quality label is "AACSB accredited"... please note: AACSB membership does not necessarily mean accreditation. A list of accredited institutions is available via the AACSB website.
b) EFMD (worldwide accreditation of Business School with a focus on Europe). The quality label is "EQUIS" for the Business School; for single programs within a school the quality label "EPAS" is available. Also here: membership is not accreditation. A list of efmd accredited institutions is available vie the efmd website.

In addition to these most important players in international accreditation and quality there are two smaller agencies with a more limited impact: CEEMAN (especially active in Eastern Europe) and CLADEA (especially active in Latin America); both provide a special accreditation label. Mostly for and in the United Kingdom you may find AMBA as an accreditation society for MBA programs.

Because of an over decades established system of international accreditation student's interested in Business & Management programs should consider primarily the quality labels of AACSB and EFMD. Both labels are more or less a guarantee for the quality of the program, academic recognition and the options for a credit transfer towards other accredited programs.

In Engineering the situation in the field of international accreditation of faculties, schools or study programs is not yet clear; a worldwide system of accreditation and standards is - though many years of discussion - still more in an experimantal phase. Relevant for Engineering programs are various national accreditation agencies (for exampl like ABET for the USA or FEANI for Europe). But though various attempts to establish international standards, these agencies are far away from a worldwide accepted standard for engineering education. The Washington Accord was the first attempt to establish international standards in engineering education in harmonizing the minimumm standards for national accreditation associations and agencies... some other agreements (Sydney Accord, Dublin Accord) followed. But the outreach of these activities (actually called International Engineering Alliance) is more related to countries in Asia, Australia and Northamerica. Though having also a World Fedeartion of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) a system of global accreditation is not existing.

The European countries and the relevant accreditation bodies are more or less in a phase of fighting against each other and the rest of the world. The proposals to introduce some min. standards for a European Engineering education (EUR-ING) are a good example for European (and bureaucratic) failures. FEANI seems to be the strongest association to harmonize the different agencies and actually within the project EUR-ACE about a dozend of European engineering association may either work together or may ignore each other: FEANI, SEFI, CESAER, EUROCADRES, ENQHEEI, ASIIN, CTI, IEI, CoPI (Conferenza dei Presidi delle Facoltà di Ingegneria) & UNIFI, OE, UAICR (Union of Associations of Civil Engineers of Romania), RAEE, ECUK

Important national accreditation agencies are:
USA: ABET
Canada: CEAB
United Kingdom: The Engineering Council UK
Ireland: Engineers Ireland IEI
Germany: ASIIN
France: Commission des Titres d'Ingenieurs CTI
Portugal: Ordem Dos Engenheiros

And you may find many other organizations in the field of engineering related somewhere, somehow to quality issues and standards. The International Engineering Consortium (IEC) or the
European Council of Civil Engineers (ECCE) you may find as examples.

Beside these engineering organizations you may find consortia involved in engineering exchange. Also these consortia will define some quality standards for becoming a member. Some of the wellknown consortia are:
Global E3 coordinated by the IIE
GE4 (Global Education for European Engineers and Entrepreneurs) as a non-profit association. The GE4 covers various crosscontinental streams for the exchange of students in engineering disciplines like the Amercian European Exchange in Engineering (AE3), the ASEAN European Exchange in Engineering (ASE3), the Russian European Exchange in Engineering (RE3), the Latin American European Exchange in Engineering (LAE3) and the Japan European Exchange in Engineering (JE3 / JYPE).

The International Engineering Program IEP (as one of the oldest networks coordinated by the University of Rhode Island) also moved from a binational to a multinational network.

In the field of Design and/or Arts and Design you may hardly find a discussion about international standards for accreditation or global accreditation agencies. Only in some countries you may find accreditation agencies for Design and/or Fine Arts. In the USA the NASAD is one of these few accreditation organizations.

In an broader sense consortia or rankings are related to quality standards also. For Design the CUMULUS Association (located in Finland) is a consortium of Design School; the membership in CUMULUS will require some vague quality standards (normally based on general reputation). In any case the membership is a good indicator for the relative national importance of the respective institution. Related to rankings in the field of design the Business Week Ranking seems to be the most relevant ranking; it covers Designschools worldwide.

For all study abroad programs students should consider seriously both, the institutional and the discipline oriented accreditation of the university and the faculty/school. Only accredited programs may get a credit transfer towards other accredited study programs. Studying within accredited programs is definitivly an added and relevant value while studying abroad. International accreditation is seen as the minimum standard in a global world of higher education. The minimum standard is a kind of guarantee for a prospective students for getting a serious learning experience and a serious piece for the the future career. And of course also within the group of international accredited programs or schools you may find in terms of the quality of the programs quite a variety... in any case, spending some time in choosing adequate accredited programs is a "must" for studying abroad.