The Accreditation Process
1. Preliminary Remarks.
1.1 Accreditation is a long process in which an academic institution, its programs structure and life are evaluated by the school and by an accreditation team which is made up of qualified evangelical educational leaders who are specially trained for the task.
1.2 The process takes place in several stages, although the length and structure of the evaluation differs from institution to institution. However, in every instance the prerequisite for a school receiving accreditation status is membership in the Euro-Asian Accrediting Association.
2. Candidate status.
2.1 The accreditation process begins when an institution (hereafter—School) sends in a declaration of their desire to receive accreditation for a particular program (or department). The Executive Director then sends the school all the necessary materials (Manual for Accreditation, standards, procedures, forms, etc.).
2.2 When the School has completed and returned the preliminary forms to the EAAA Board then one can say that the official accreditation process has begun.
The Executive Director tells the next session of the EAAA Board of the need for choosing the members of the accrediting team from the reserve of personnel who have been approved by the General Meeting. The EAAA Board approves the composition of the team and the dates of the visit.
2.3 The accreditation team is made up of 2-4 people. (It is desirable that one of the team members is from the country where the School is located.) The team visits the School at an agreed upon time and prepares a confidential account of their visit for the EAAA Board. As a rule, one of the team's members is the Executive Director or the EAAA Office Coordinator.
The School pays for the transportation expenses of all the team members (with the exception of the Executive Director or EAAA Office Coordinator) and organizes their meeting and stay.
2.4 The aim of this first visit is to establish a general impression of the School and to determine the obstacles the School faces in receiving accreditation. That is, the team must come to a main conclusion: Is this School realistically ready to begin the accreditation process, or not, and over what period of time? The team also gives the School recommendation for ensuring that the accreditation process is smoothly carried out. The team's report and all supporting documents (including the School's reaction to the visit) are presented by the team's Chairman at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the EAAA Board which gives the School the status of “Candidate” for accreditation.
The Board's decision on awarding an accreditation status is approved by the General Meeting of members of the Association.
2.5 After the Board has decided to award a School Candidate status, the School can then mention this in all its public relations materials. The School is also then obligated to pay the Association its annual dues for each member of the program being considered for accreditation as of the next academic year. The amount of dues for each particular level of academic program is established by the General Meeting.
3. Full status.
3.1 Immediately after the Board decision to award a School Candidate status the process for receiving full accreditation status for a program (department) begins. However, after its first visit the accreditation team usually sets this timeframe. From the first to the last visit usually takes no less than two to three years.
The School begins the process of receiving full accreditation status by carrying out a self-evaluation (See the “Manual for Self-Evaluation). As a rule this means that the School forms a committee of 2-3 people which is named and headed by a chairman. This committee carries out the self-evaluation which usually takes an entire year.
3.2 The self-evaluation is conducted with the help of the “Manual” and in correspondence with the standards and criteria approved by the General Meeting of the EAAA. If needed the School can receive guidance from the Executive Director or a specially named expert.
3.3 After completing the self-evaluation, but not earlier than one year after receiving Candidate status, the School presents its report (using the designated forms) having been approved by the School's leader. This report is sent by the School to each member of the accreditation team which participated in the first visit as well as to the EAAA office not less than two months prior to the next visit.
3.4 As a rule the “Evaluative” visit is conducted by the same accreditation team which conducted the first visit. The timing of the visit is determined by the EAAA Board after having received a declaration from the School. The Board once again appoints the members of the team. Just as in the case of the first visit the School is responsible for taking care of all the team's members (with the exception of the representatives of the EAAA Office who pay for their own travel expenses).
The team visits the School and, as a rule, at the end of their visit presents a confidential report on its visit for review by the leadership of the school being evaluated. After receiving comments and corrections from the School's leadership the team sends its report on the Evaluative visit to the EAAA Board. The School being evaluated also gives to the Board its opinions of how the visit has gone as well as the conclusions of the team.
3.5 The report of the Evaluative visit must describe the general situation of the School, mentioning its strong and weak points, as well as the work that the School is carrying out in meeting EAAA standards. The report must also give recommendations for changing the situation in the future. Furthermore, the report must contain an evaluation of the self-evaluation that was carried out by the School. Finally, the team's report should give recommendations to the accreditation Board. However, the decision on awarding the status of full accreditation is taken only by the EAAA Board and is approved by the General Meeting.
3.6 The accreditation Board can make the decision to award the School the status of full accreditation with the subsequent approval of the General Meeting. The Board can also postpone accreditation for a determined amount of time having shown the School what it must do to receive full accreditation, or the Board can decline accreditation altogether.
3.7 Full accreditation can be awarded not less than 1 ½ years after having received Candidate status and only after the program to be accredited has had at least one graduating class.
In the instance where a School already has at least one accredited program the accreditation of any other program can be shortened to one year as long as the program to be accredited has had at least one graduating class.
3.8 After the EAAA Board has made the decision to award the status of “Full accreditation” the School then has the right to mention this in all its public relations materials.
4. Maintaining accreditation status.
4.1 The status of full accreditation is maintained for a School only if the School and its accredited program continue to adhere to the standards approved by the General Meeting of the EAAA.
4.2 Schools having the status of full accreditation are obligated to give to the EAAA Executive Director at least once a year (by October 5th) a written report according to a form approved by the accreditation Board.
4.3 If a School has serious changes to its academic program or organizational structure, then the leadership of the School is obligated to inform the EAAA office of this within one month.
4.4 The appointed accreditation team usually makes its “final” visit, as a rule, once every three to five years. This accreditation team for the review visit is approved by the EAAA Board from the reserve of trained personnel and is usually made up of people who did not participate in the first or evaluative visits. The length of the visit is made by the Board with the agreement of the School. Then, during the next academic year the School will conduct a review self-evaluation and present its report not less than two months after the team's visit to each team member. The School also pays for the expenses of team in the same manner as stated above.
The report on the review visit should correspond to the report on the evaluative visit and follows the same procedures approved by the EAAA Board which carries out the decision extending the status of “full accreditation” with the subsequent approval of this status by the General Meeting, or the Board gives the School information on deficiencies which must be rectified within a specific period of time.
4.5 Such information is given to a School (or for a specific program) which has serious deficiencies. Such a situation does not cause a school to lose it's accredited status. Rather it is meant to induce the School to correct the stated problems.
If during the specified timeframe the School does not correct these problems, then the EAAA Board can take the decision to suspend the School's status of full accreditation and send an “extraordinary” evaluation team to the School. According to the results of the team's report the Board can deprive the School of it's status of full accreditation. Such a decision is approved by the General Meeting of the EAAA and is then announced to the wider public. As a result of such a Board decision the School loses the right to mention its accreditation status in its public relations materials.
4.5 In order to restore its status of full accreditation the School must ask for an evaluation team to once again be sent to them and go through an entire evaluation visit.
5. Appeals and withdrawing membership.
5.1 A School can appeal any Board decision by making an appeal to the regular General Meeting of the Association's members. Appealing a decision made by the General Meeting is not possible since membership in the EAAA is on a voluntary basis.
5.2 Any School at any time can decide to withdraw its declaration on accreditation or can leave the membership roll of the EAAA. Withdrawal from EAAA membership can also happen due to changes in the School's Statement of Faith, for non-observance of the EAAA Charter, or for not paying membership fees in a timely fashion.
5.3 If a School leaves the EAAA for any reason it automatically loses its accreditation which will quickly be announced to the wider public. The School loses the right to mention its accreditation status in its public relations materials. Finally, the School permanently loses any dues or other donations it has made to the Association.