Study On The U.S.Higher Education Accreditation

Since the establishment of higher education accreditation, it has become one of the successful experiences of higher education in America, which has been strongly pushing the development of American higher education and American society. Taking the theory of pedagogy as reference, on the basis of methods of history, documentation, comparison, this thesis analyses the U.S. accreditation about why it comes into being, how it shapes, what it is today, and what we can use for reference. The whole dissertation consists of five chapters. The conception and background about U.S accreditation are explained in the first chapter. The second chapter analyses the reasons that the U.S. accreditation forms, including internal and external reasons. The third chapter discusses the course how the U.S. accreditation develops. The fourth chapter analyses the U.S. accreditation from five aspects: Type and Organization, Criterion, Cycle and Procedure, Objective and Value, Characteristic and Function. The last chapter puts forward several inspirations through summary, analysis, evaluation of the U.S. accreditation in higher education.The study shows accreditors, which are private, nonprofit, independent organizations, are responsible for the U.S. higher education accreditation. These accreditors map out the criterion, evaluate the institutions, specific programs or schools, and then help them to assure quality. It is a process of external quality assurance based on self-study and peer review. The U.S. accreditation harmonizes the relationship in higher education, the relationship between institutions and the society, the government. It is the primary self-management and the major force to protect the academic values. With all above, the accreditation assures and improves the quality of higher education in the United States.