When an online college or university receives accreditation, it is being held to the same standard that any brick and mortar college would be. Simply put, that means that accreditation granted to an online university is no different than that given to a traditional college. Online colleges don’t have to maintain a college campus but they must still meet the criteria for quality education, service and faculty laid out by the Council for Higher Education that any other college must meet in order to gain accreditation.
The best form of accreditation in a school, whether online or off, is regional accreditation. The accrediting agencies that give out this designation are:
- Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
- New England Association of Schools and Colleges
- North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
- Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
- Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
- Western Association of Schools and Colleges
These agencies work with both traditional colleges and online schools to appraise the quality of education, and hold both types of schools up to the same criteria when making their assessments.