U.S. Accreditation as International Accreditation: Casting U.S. Practices as Global Standards and "Best Practices" for Quality Assurance

• In Event: 18.026 - International Higher Education and Geopolitical Power: Critical Perspectives on University Activities in the United States

Abstract

Despite facing a crisis of public confidence at home, US-based accreditation continues to enjoy a strong international reputation. Many countries aspire to develop American-styled quality assurance procedures and standards. On the program accreditation front, US-based accreditors in Business (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, AACSB) and Engineering (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, ABET), among others, serve as global program accreditation providers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the internationalization of institutional and programmatic accreditation and how this process centers US practices and traditions as global “best practices” and standards.

This paper employs postcolonial theory as a conceptual lens to analyze how international accreditation reinforces global hierarchies that legitimize not only US higher education institutions and programs, but also the role of US organizations as legitimate evaluators of global standards and best practices (Blanco Ramirez, 2014; 2015). Postcolonial theory focuses not on the direct forms of domination, but rather on the complex system of representation that casts colonial subjects as under-developed and incapable of self-government (Said, 1978). The paper combines text and image-based critical discourse analysis (Ng, 2014) to explore how U.S-based accreditors cast their roles as primarily global.

This study explores a corpus of text and images comprised by five US-based accreditation organizations: 2 regional agencies focused on institutional accreditation, 2 specialized or program accreditation organizations, and the national organization that coordinates and represents most institutional and program accreditation associations. As such, the study analyzes public documents, reports, and websites from the following organizations: (a) the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, (b) the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission, (c) the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, (d) the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, and (e) the Council for Higher Education Accreditation International Quality Group.

The ongoing data analysis has revealed a set of discourses and taken-for-granted ideas about the role of US accreditation in the current global context. The first of these discourses characterizes US accreditation as an “international gold standard of quality in higher education.” The second discourse justifies the central role of U.S accreditation in terms of introducing stability in “an age of uncertainty” despite the fact that much of this uncertainty is attributed to the current international policies in the US Finally, a third discourse relies upon the traditional strength of the US higher education system along with a focus on innovation and dynamism.

Accreditation plays a crucial role in higher education quality assurance and has a significant impact on reputation building and maintenance within a globally competitive environment. The present study explores the current balance between competition and collaboration at a time when post-Truth has introduced instability in nearly all sectors of society. While US accreditation has made many significant contributions, our scholarly responsibility requires shedding light on those instances where unearned privilege and unequal power relations exist.

Author

• Gerardo Blanco