Accreditation

Accreditation states that a programme of study “is what it says it is”, “does what it says it does”, meets required standards, and is worthy of public confidence.

To date, the UCJ has seventy-eight (78) registered institutions and accredited five (5) institutions, four hundred and three (403) programmes and eight (8) short courses.

Accreditation is the status granted to a programme or institution that has been found, through self-study and peer review, to meet or exceed established standards for educational quality. This is determined through the process of evaluating the programme or institution against established quality standards.

Accreditation is voluntary and promotes institutional self-evaluation, self-regulation and accountability. The role of the accrediting body is to ensure the attainment and maintenance of quality through the application of educational standards.

There are two types of accreditation: Programmatic Accreditation and Institutional Accreditation.

Programmatic/Programme Accreditation

Programmatic/Programme accreditation focuses on individual programmes but also addresses the broader institutional environment. In this type of accreditation the UCJ evaluates programmes of study against stated criteria for such programmes and as appropriate grants accreditation indicating that the programmes have been found to meet the required threshold standards.

Institutional Accreditation

Institutional Accreditation (IA) is a comprehensive evaluation of the institution and its academic and administrative effectiveness, with specific focus on its Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) system. The institution must demonstrate that it has an effective IQA system that manages quality across the entire institution, in all aspects of the institution’s life and operations resulting in the development, management and delivery of programmes that meet required standards. When an institution receives Institutional Accreditation all programmes offered are recognized.