The Regulatory Body and the Accreditation - Admission/Application Essay Example

Regulatory and Accreditation Body Paper Introduction Regulation along with accreditation offers varied strata of professional responsibilities as they are associated with the provision of safe, comprehensive and proficient patient care. The accountability depends largely upon the institutions and the education offered. In this regard, the objective of accreditation is to ensure that the institutions providing education meet the standard along with quality. Accreditation plays an important role in the education system of the United States of America. The regulatory body along with the accreditation is vital pertaining to the faculty role in a higher education setting. In the US, accreditation is conducted through the nationwide recognized agencies. Due to this, the accredited organizations abide by a set of prerequisites which assists in standardizing the education core competencies. On the contrary, the regulatory bodies have reedy authority determined by specialization along with governmental jurisdiction (Koenig & Lofstad, 2004). In this context, US Department of Education as a regulatory body and Council for Higher Education Accreditation as an accrediting body have been evaluated along with their important roles in higher education. United States Department of Education The US Department of Education creates policies in accordance with the federal government in order to facilitate proper education. The department is assists the President in executing proper education policies for the benefit of the nation along with law enactments. The objective or purpose of the education department of the US is to encourage the students and assist them in achieving global competiveness by nurturing educational excellence. The regulatory body of education started operating in the year 1980 for the promotion of proper education and welfare of the students of the nation. The role of the education department is to encourage education and its effectiveness in the society and for the welfare of the society at large. The department of education has its own history as it assists the department of health and also human services. There are many roles of the US Department of Education as a regulatory body, wherein the primary role is to implement policies concerning civil rights as well as privacy. It is worth mentioning that education is decentralized in the US and hence the effectiveness along with quality of the institutions is maintained with the help of accreditation. The department focuses on providing equal and easy access to education to every student of the US (Koenig & Lofstad, 2004). Moreover, the department engages itself in several activities in order to serve the students of the US. It creates policies regarding financial help for education along with monitoring their usages. The education programs by the department are initially authorized and signed by the President. The programs are created as per the needs and requirements of the student for better result and competency. The education department with due respect to welfare and education distributes financial help to the applicants in order to complete their primary and secondary education. These education programs are also implemented in order to serve the students with disabilities and who have a poor financial background. Also, immigrants with inadequate proficiency in English are provided with the benefit of the education program by using the process of a fixed formula, competition as well as financial need determination (Koenig & Lofstad, 2004). The US Department of Education gathers data regarding American’s schools and circulates the gathered information to the educators as well as the Congress. The importance of this endeavor is that the techniques of teaching are highlighted. The information aims towards facilitating in seeking innovation regarding the teaching process and its importance in meeting excellence. The education department acts as a reform agent as it identifies the needs and the issues which are to be dealt with. Additionally, the department restricts discrimination and assists in ensuring equal opportunity (Net Industries and its Licensors, 2014). However, the department is not responsible for establishing the schools and education curriculum. The department is led by the secretary of education in order to facilitate proper higher education with adequate policies. The headquarters of the Department of Education is in Washington DC and it is established to support the education system of the US. Therefore, with regard to its role, it can be stated that The United States Department of Education recognizes the accrediting institutions. The accreditation is done in order to determine whether the standards in the education setting are met as per the policies of the education department (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Council for Higher Education Accreditation Accreditation is a procedure which is voluntary in nature and which aims to confirm the enduring accountability along with quality of the education based on consistent review by the higher education community. Accreditation exists in every level of education and is responsible to ascertain the minimum standard of education in the system. Accreditation is renewable in nature and is based on good practice standards. It is neither a government activity nor it is administered by law. However, it is ruled by the accepted standards and good practices. U.S. Department of Education and Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) are the organizations which review and approve accreditation bodies. CHEA is an organization which is non-governmental in nature and supports the higher education standards. The members associated with the CHEA aid in providing standards to the institutions for approval. The CHEA is of importance in an education setting as it determines the commitment of the institutions towards high quality, accountability along with enhancement for fair decision making process. Accreditation plays a vital role in the US education setting in order to ensure proper education and high standards (Gaston, n.d.). The CHEA was first initiated in the 19th century and it provides an evaluation of work which is synchronized by accreditation commission. The CHEA initiative is taken into account as it balances amid ‘accountability to the federal government’ as well as ‘academic work of accreditation’ in response to improvement in quality. The accreditation is of importance as it helps in creating better education with quality and standards. Subsequently, the accreditation is beneficial in authorizing the Higher Education Act 2013 for sustaining long-term goals with regard to the academic works. The CHEA is closely linked with the department of education for quality and standard education. Accreditation is vital as it encourages education institutions to offer accurate along with fair academic knowledge for excellence in the long run (Eaton, 2011). The primary role of CHEA is to strengthen the quality of academics and also bring continuous changes by improving the courses in order to increase competitiveness and provide degrees. The recognition of CHEA is based on a few basic standards which involve the quality of the academics and regular innovation. Moreover, in order to seek approval of CHEA, the organizations must grant degrees. The functions of the accreditation body are to measure and to identify that the academic institutions meet the standards set. It protects the academic institutions from the external pressures in order to achieve self-improvement of the students due to proper evaluation and planning. The function with regard to higher education setting is to offer professional certification along with licensure on the basis of eligibility. The accrediting procedures regarding education and approval are based on standards, on site evaluation, proper monitoring and also reevaluation. CHEA is an entity which provides recognition to the private as well as non-governmental sectors. In other words, the role of Council for Higher Education Accreditation is to assure quality, access to the funds for the programs, stimulating confidence of the private sector along with easy transfer. In the US, the bodies of accreditations are accountable for the institution they accredit (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 2012; Gaston, n.d.). Conclusion Pertinent standards are developed by US Department of Education and CHEA which are implemented by the institutions for recognition. Both the regulatory and accrediting bodies view the effectiveness of the institution for better competency. The primary role of the education department is to provide funds and of CHEA is to assure better standard of education. The key objective of both the bodies is to render benefits to the students and make them competent with the help of excellence in education. References Council for Higher Education Accreditation. (2012). The CHEA initiative. Final Report, 1-12. Eaton, J.S. (2011). An overview of U.S. accreditation. Council For Higher Education Accreditation, 1-10. Gaston, P.L. (n.d.). Higher education accreditation: how its changing. Why It Must, 1-29. Koenig, A.M., & Lofstad, R. (2004). Higher Education Accreditation In The United States. EAIE Conference, 1-51. Net Industries and its Licensors. (2014). U.S. department of education - overview, international role. Retrieved from http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2527/U-S-Department-Education.html U.S. Department of Education. (2010). Overview of the U.S. department of education. Retrieved from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HgtcLEm1kZAJ:www2.ed.gov/about/overview/focus/what.pdf+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in Read More