New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) is a non-profit, non-governmental membership organization. It relies on its members’ self-regulation, voluntary compliance with the Standards for Accreditation and a system of ongoing evaluation by peers. The Commission’s goal is to promote institutional improvement and public assurance of quality.
The Commission accredits a wide variety of institutions with different missions. Each institution is evaluated according to the Standards in light of its unique mission.
In applying the Standards, the Commission assesses the effectiveness of the institution as a whole. The Commission recognizes that some aspects of an institution are always stronger than others. Meeting the Standards does not guarantee the quality of individual programs, courses, or graduates, but serious weaknesses in a particular area may threaten the institution’s accreditation.
The Commission understands that prospective students, their families, and members of the general public need information to make good decisions. The Commission provides information about the accreditation status of each institution (including for institutions on probation, the reasons for the probationary status), and its reviews of member and candidate institutions. That information is available on this website under “About Our Institutions.”
The Standards for Accreditation require that affiliated institutions make critical information readily available to the public in print and on their websites:
| California, Hawaii, the Territories of Guam and American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. | |
| President: | Mac Powell |
| Contact Information: | 428 J Street, Suite 400, Sacramento, CA 95814 415-506-0234 http://www.accjc.org |
| Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. | |
| President: | Barbara Gellman-Danley |
| Contact Information: | 230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500, Chicago, IL 60604 800-621-7440 http://www.hlcommission.org |
| Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other geographical areas across the United States and internationally. | |
| President: | Heather F. Perfetti |
| Contact Information: | 1007 North Orange, 4th Floor, MB #166, Wilmington, DE 19801 267-284-5000 http://www.msche.org |
| Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, internationally, and other Commission approved states. | |
| President: | Lawrence Schall |
| Contact Information: | 301 Edgewater Place, Suite 210, Wakefield, MA 01880 781-425-7785 https://neche.org |
| Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and British Columbia, along with other domestic and international geographic areas. | |
| President: | Sonny Ramaswamy |
| Contact Information: | 8060 115th Street, N.E., Suite 100, Redmond, WA 90852 425-558-4224 http://www.nwccu.org |
| Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Latin America, and other Commission approved international sites. | |
| President: | Belle S. Wheelan |
| Contact Information: | 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033 404-679-4512 http://www.sacscoc.org |
| California, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, the Republic of Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and other Commission approved states and international sites. | |
| President: | Jamienne S. Studley |
| Contact Information: | 533 Airport Blvd., Suite 200, Burlingame, CA 94010 650-696-1060 http://www.wscuc.org |
Accreditation is an activity long accepted in the United States but unknown in many other countries that rely on governmental supervision and control of educational institutions.
The record of accomplishment and outstanding success in the education of Americans can be traced in large part to the reluctance of the United States to impose governmental restrictions on institutions of postsecondary education, and to the success of the voluntary American system of accreditation in promoting quality without inhibiting innovation.
The high proportion of Americans benefiting from higher education, the reputation of universities in the United States for both fundamental and applied research, and the wide-spread availability of professional services in the United States all testify to postsecondary education of high quality, and to the success of the accreditation system which the institutions and professions of the United States have devised to promote that quality.
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