SFU pursues American accreditation
With no Canadian accreditation body, universities look south of the border for stamp of approval
The NCCU approved SFU’s application in January 2009, which is the first step of accreditation. The process will take another five to seven years before completion.
Over the next year, SFU will complete a detailed self-study then a team of academic peers from American universities will visit the campus. “We feel that this is going to be an enormous benefit to us,” says Nicholls. “We can share best practices with high profile American universities.” U.S. accreditation has other advantages as well, according to VP-academic and accreditation sponsor, Jon Driver. “As we did our homework, it became clear that accreditation could also lead to numerous academic and other non-athletic benefits.”
Accreditation will strengthen SFU’s efforts to recruit international students. “International students are seeking assurance that SFU has accreditation. This will put us on the standing with American universities that they may be considering,” says Nicholls.
With a number of private educational institutions having failed in recent years, accreditation is particularly valuable to universities hoping to distinguish themselves from Canada’s barely regulated private career college sector. For example, when Lansbridge University in Vancouver closed suddenly in 2007, hundreds of international students were left out of pocket for their tuition and with their student visa status in question. “Unfortunately, this has created negative publicity abroad,” says Nicholls.
Although SFU will be the first research university to pursue American accreditation, Athabasca University in Alberta has gained the stamp of approval and Capilano University is more than five years into the seven-year-plus process.
Jackie Snodgrass, VP education at Capilano University, which is not a member of AUCC, agrees that the lax regulation of private schools makes recruitment difficult for public institutions. “With the proliferation of private institutions and few restrictions on using the name ‘college,’ we needed a way to distinguish ourselves as an institution that has gone through a rigorous quality assurance process.”
Although this may have been the primary reason Capilano University pursued accreditation, many unexpected benefits have come of the process. “At first people thought it was busywork,” Snodgrass says. “But then it was a big aha moment for a lot of people who really benefited from the self study.” For instance, academic departments had to evaluate their outcomes in a way they hadn’t previously, which led to increased discussion about best practices in the classroom. “Students ultimately benefit from improved programs.”
Nicholls believes that accreditation will be advantageous to SFU students and alumni alike. “Alumni working in the States will get increased credibility from their degree,” he says. “The improvements will cascade through the institution.”
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I have to confess, I just about fell of my chair when I read that SFU was trying to submit itself to a quality control mechanism. Now that I know it’s really just to help its relationship with a sports organization it all makes sense. Oh well, at least students will now have some means of trying to seek improvement.
Whats wrong with a US-based evaluation – as long as its the right kind of evaluation?
So many of our Canadian universities REALLY want to do well on the American’s “Campus Sustainability Report Card” that the pour a lot of time and money into doing all they can to report every little bit of eco-goodness.
Ya know, it gives ‘em a lot of ‘street cred’ to do well on the Report Card, and they’re sooooo disappointed when they see how much better the Americans are doing.
Yep! Them thar Yankees really take this campus sustainability stuff seriously!
Check out how well YOUR Canuck campus did on the American Campus Sustainability Report Card: http://www.greenreportcard.org/map
Now, if Canadian campuses really suck up to our American cousins on THEIR list of criteria – we do well!
I write as Director of Accreditation for CIPS, the Canadian Information Processing Society http://www.cips.ca. Your article “SFU pursues American Accreditation” is misleading in a number of respects. For many years CIPS has offered peer review based accreditation of Canadian college and university programmes in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology and Management Information Systems. Thus, your claim that “Canada lacks any national mechanism for assuring quality of post-secondary institutions” is just not true. Neither is your suggestion that “Canada is the only developed country in the world that lacks a national accreditation system for post-secondary schools.” Indeed, in Canada most professions, including law, medicine, engineering as well as Computing, provide Canadian based accreditation of post secondary institutions that prepare students to enter their respective professions.
The CIPS accreditation process assesses academic programs in the context of the entire institution offering the program under review. Many believe that an assessment of the institution in the context of the accreditation of specific programmes is a strength of the approach which CIPS uses. CIPS’ accreditation is in demand across Canada, and has been sought by post-secondary institutions beyond our borders. Through the Seoul Accord, CIPS accreditation is recognized by other national accreditation bodies around the globe.
Faculties of Applied Science and Engineering across the country are also rigorously evaluated by CEAB, a national body that accredits post-secondary enigneering programs. I’m willing to bet there are numerous other national accrediting bodies for other disciplines as well.
I would also add that the accounting professions in Canada all have accreditation programs at the provincial level, overseen by a national body. Each has a set of academic requirements, and post-secondary education is reviewed for qualification for credit in their respective programs.
your post is misleading you douche
but sfu rocks!