SUPERIOR QUALITY INSTITUTIONAL ACCREDITATION

What is Accreditation?

Definition of the National Accreditation Council

Accreditation is an act through which the state adopts and publicises the recognition by academic peers of the means employed by a learning institution to verify the quality of its academic programmes, its organization and functioning, as well as the fulfilment of its social function.

A process is then established for institutions that voluntarily decide, to demonstrate their excellence through the legitimate use of their autonomy guaranteed by the Constitution and the law.

Phases in Quality Assurance

Quality evaluation to accredit a higher education institution includes the following phases:

1. Self-assessment by the institution itself
2. External evaluation by academic peers
3. Final evaluation by the National Accreditation Council
4. Public recognition of its quality by the Ministry of National Education.

Where Does Accreditation Originate?

Accreditation processes originate in the outlines set out in the Colombian Political Constitution, stating that education is every person's right and is a public service with a social function, whose purpose is to facilitate access to culture, knowledge, science, technical subjects and other cultural assets and values.

Consequently, as education is a right of all persons, and in view of its capacity as a cultural public service, it is inherent to the state‘s objectives and constitutes an obligation of the President of the Republic to ensure that education is provided efficiently (Article 365 of the Constitution) and that teaching is inspected and supervised in accordance with the law (Article 189).

The state is also responsible for regulating, inspecting and supervising education at the highest level in order to ensure its quality, the fulfilment of its purposes and that it provides pupils and students with the best in moral, intellectual and physical education (Article 67).

These constitutional mandates are legally established in Law 30 of 1992, which governs the public service of higher education, in particular under Articles 3, 6, 27 (point (h)) and 31, which refer to the state's responsibility to inspect, supervise and ensure the quality of higher education.

In the same sense, the objectives of higher education and its institutions are established in the context of the integral education of Colombian citizens, with the aim of improving conditions of development, and the scientific and academic progress of the country.

Who Is Responsible for Control and Supervision?

The National Accreditation Council (CAN, for its initials in Spanish) is responsible for establishing the outlines and defining and applying the processes of accrediting Colombian higher education institutions.

Map of Processes

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Strategic Level

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