What are the different types of accrediting organisations?
There are some bodies whose role it is to accredit entire institutions, whereas other more specialised bodies focus on particular types of programmes – such as business (see http://www.efmd.org or http://www.aascb.org, nursing (see http://www.anmc.org.au/index.php), or engineering (see http://www.engab.org.uk/). In many countries the national accrediting body for institutions is a government one, but this is not always the case. In certain countries (such as the USA) accreditation is normally carried out by private, not-for-profit organisations. At the more specialised course or programme level, the vast majority of accrediting bodies are not-for-profit organisations who’s focus is on quality assurance. Typically they focus on the accreditation and quality assurance issues, and do not actively seek to help in providing any marketing support to the institutions or programmes they have accredited.
