To accredit is to assure basic standards of excellence

Accreditation is a system of voluntary self-assessment and external review of educational institutions and of professional programs offered by those institutions. Accreditation provides an assurance of quality to students, parents, and the public. In the accrediting process, the performance of educational units is measured against national standards.

The organization that oversees external review and grants accreditation of journalism and mass communications programs is the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC).

Objectives and Purposes of Accreditation

From the beginnings of our democratic society, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has provided guarantees of free press and free speech. These freedoms have enabled journalism and mass communications to become important, powerful components of American democracy.

Ideas, information, and images find expression in a variety of forms: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, advertising, public relations, business communications, databases, and other digital formats.

Practitioners in the media are held to high standards. Most practitioners by far learn skills, ethics, history, and theories of journalism and mass communications in professional programs at colleges and universities. Professors in these programs play a special role in preparing students for careers in journalism and mass communications.

ACEJMC supports the ideals of professional education through the accrediting process. Accredited programs must satisfy eight standards setting forth the objectives of professional education in journalism and mass communications. The standards encourage improvement and innovation and recognize the special or unique missions of individual institutions.

Values and Benefits of Accreditation

The process of accreditation requires a rigorous self-examination. Each unit measures its performance against its own mission and goals and against the nine accrediting standards. Once the self-study is completed, the unit undergoes external evaluation, first by a site-visit team composed of peers and practitioners, then by the Accrediting Committee. The full Accrediting Council makes final decisions on accreditation status.

Among the benefits of accreditation, two are especially important. One is the substantial value of the self-study and peer review that the process requires. The other is the assurance of quality and standards that accreditation gives to parents and prospective students, prospective employers, and the general public. This second benefit is supported by the Council’s commitment to full public disclosure of its actions

Each unit that applies for accreditation is measured on its own performance. It is not compared with other units, nor are units ranked. ACEJMC encourages research and innovation. The thorough and detailed process of accreditation typically results in progress and improvement by each program. Seen from various perspectives, the value of accreditation becomes even more clear.

• Students and prospective students
  Accreditation is an assurance of quality in professional education in journalism and mass communications. Students in an accredited program can expect to find a challenging curriculum, appropriate resources and facilities, and a competent faculty. Accredited programs may offer scholarships, internships, competitive prizes, and other activities unavailable in non-accredited programs.
• Parents
  Parents want to know their children will have an educational experience of high quality that will help prepare them for a career. Accredited programs in journalism and mass communications offer the assurance that they have been evaluated by academic peers and leading practitioners and have met the tests of the nine standards.
• Secondary teachers and guidance counselors
  High-school teachers and guidance counselors can influence students’ choices of college or career. To these advisers, accreditation provides a sound basis for recommendation.
• College and university administrators
  Accreditation provides external validation to university administrators that a program on their campus is recognized by national academic and professional organizations. Many administrators believe that accreditation confers prestige, which aids in fund-raising.
• Accredited programs
  Measuring the educational merit and relevance of the program typically brings improvements, both through the internal examination by the staff and administrators and through the insights of external evaluators. More-over, accreditation enhances the stature and reputation of a program.
• Media and mass communications professionals
  Practitioners seeking to hire entry-level or more experienced candidates know that accredited programs prepare students with a solid professional education and a firm grounding in the liberal arts and sciences.
• Governmental and public agencies
  Accredited status is an important criterion in the evaluation by government agencies of proposals to fund scholarships and research.
• The public
  To a public concerned about the performance of the media, accreditation offers an assurance that those entering journalism and mass communications are appropriately educated.