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Accreditation Overview

The Office of Institutional Planning and Assessment within the Division of Planning and Budget supports the university accreditation process for regional accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Cornell has been accredited by the Middle States Commission since 1921. The Middle States Commission is the regional accrediting agency for the mid-atlantic region recognized by the federal government and by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). CHEA is a private, non-profit organization that coordinates accreditation activity in the United States and is the only nongovernmental higher education organization that undertakes scrutiny of accrediting organizations.

Cornell’s university accreditation status is up for renewal in the year 2011. The process involves a comprehensive self-study and a site visit by a team of external peers.

Additional to the overarching university accreditation, some programs at Cornell have achieved specialized or professional accreditation status, an activity which occurs within the units who earn or maintain this status.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation in higher education is a process of external quality review to scrutinize colleges, universities and educational programs for quality assurance and quality improvement. Accreditation is a form of self-regulation in which colleges, universities, and programs have come together to develop standards, policies, and procedures for self-examination and judgment by peers.

In the U.S., accreditation is carried out by private, nonprofit organizations designed for this specific purpose. Institutions and educational programs seek accredited status as a means of demonstrating their academic quality to students and the public. Accreditation of institutions and programs is required in order for students to gain access to federal funds such as student grants and loans and other federal support. Non-accredited institutions are not eligible for federal financial aid.

Types of Accreditation

  • Regional or “University” Accreditation: Regional accreditors operate in six specific clusters of states (regions) in the U.S. and review entire institutions. Cornell is accredited regionally by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and has been since 1921.
  • Specialized and Professional Accreditation: Specialized and professional accreditors operate throughout the country and review programs and some single-purpose institutions. There are 21 programs which have specialized or professional accreditation at Cornell.

Recent Changes

Middle States Commission’s standards and requirements for accreditation changed dramatically in 2002, right after Cornell submitted its most recent Decennial Self-Study.

Earlier standards focused largely on educational inputs (the quality of students and faculty, library holdings, computer resources, financial resources) and educational processes (curricula, teaching methods, etc.).

Middle States’ new standards require that colleges deal explicitly with outputs or educational outcomes. To use Middle States’ words, “the updated standards concentrate on assessment: evidence that the institution is achieving its goals.” All 14 accreditation standards now include an assessment component.