Institutional Academic Accreditation Journey and Challenges

Abstract

Background: Institutional academic accreditation is essential for the universities and a pre-requisite for requesting program accreditation. Academic accreditation is a structured review process to ensure the availability of minimum quality and the ability for continuous quality improvement. The accreditation process helped educational institutes to determine the areas for improvement and priorities improvements. Aim: Investigate the impact of the institutional academic accreditation process on continuous quality improvement and address the challenges of the accreditation journey. Method: A cross-sectional survey was used to record the impact of accreditation by collecting data through focus group discussions with the standards committees’ members. The interview was carried out in a structured format following the self-evaluation scale format. Data collected were managed and analyzed descriptively. Results: The accreditation process impacted the quality of education positively. Different aspects of education including program specifications and reports, assessment, evaluation, academic counseling, and student support were improved significantly, and automation was introduced to foster quality. The major challenges during the accreditation journey were identifying unified governance to institutional resources, and community partnership. Conclusion: Accreditation improved education quality in the university without commanding any major change in the curricula and fostered the university ranking.