International Accreditation

[Johann]

This article puts forth a somewhat different view of "international accreditation than I am accustomed to seeing.
Al-Fanar Media Updates The Arab World's First Database of Internationally Accredited Universities

They go on and on about the Axact fraud (Pakistan) universities as if the rest of the world had never heard of them. The IAO they talk about is a long-running bogus scheme - it has "accredited" WELL over a thousand um... "schools." There have been forum writeups for years. VERY old news indeed.

I don't think there is really any general system of "International Accreditation" in the sense of institutional accreditation, as the term is used in the US. International forms of programmatic accreditation - certainly. Both AACSB and ABCSP accredit business programs at home and abroad. Program accreditors of all types operate across national borders. I'm sure that's not news to most readers here. 

Legitimacy to grant degrees is conferred by an authority in the University's own country. In a lot of cases, the degrees will be recognized elsewhere -e.g. North America. Although the degrees work outside the homeland, this cannot really be called "international accreditation." It's just that other countries have agreed to recognize the foreign degree. 

Granted, US accreditors have accredited schools in other countries, but that's usually been on top of the individual school's home-country approval. WASC has accredited Amity U. in India and DEAC - formerly DETC - has, in the past, granted its accreditation to recognized schools in South Africa, Australia and elsewhere. And the Middle States Association (RA) accredits Athabasca University in Canada. Still, accreditation across national borders is the exception, rather than the rule. 

There is another kind of "International Accreditation" - that offered by ASIC International. They do this for schools in many countries - but it is not  academic "accreditation" in the American sense. It does not accord, endorse or enhance legitimacy of the degrees of the school. ASIC International clearly states in its own materials that the school's permission to grant degrees comes from its own country and it is not within ASIC's functions to confer such authority.

If someone DOES find genuine ongoing "International Accreditation" or equivalent in the American sense, please let me know, because I've never seen it. I've seen lots of foreign degrees that work here -- but they can't truly be said to be "Internationally Accredited," except possibly those abroad which have been accredited (institutionally - in the US sense) by agencies outside their borders. And those are few in number.