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History and Mission

 

The UCRED, the International University Council Accrediting Inter-collegiate and Special Programmes Worldwide, was established in 1972 as the Inter-collegiate Advisory Council for International Programmes (IACIP). The UCRED acronym was adopted in 1992. In the past thirty-five years senior representatives and faculty members from more than eighty leading institutions of higher education, located around the world, joined the Council.

 

In view of the educational paradigm shifts that typified the 1970s and 1980s, then followed by the surge of higher education offered via the internet (in the 1990s and 2000s), the UCRED functioned as a special commission for the validation of academic and degree programmes that were not within the immediate scope of competence of local governmental or other official accreditation bodies. The mission of the Council also coincided with the rapid growth of cross-national alliances and intercontinental agreements by educational institutions offering joint-venture or specialist degree-programmes, as well as the emergence of new types of degree programmes offered by independent, tutelary, or specialised institutions of higher education.

 

Changes in 2005-2006 ("Ensign")

 

In the past the IACIP-UCRED coordination units were hosted on a rotating  basis by the Council-members' organisations, their faculties, or associated entities. In 2005 the Brexgata University Academy, the independent trans-national academic assembly, became the permanent host for UCRED. The ENSIGN Project, a fourteen months' process that consisted of integrating the Council into the University Academy, was completed in December 2006. Since then the enlarged organisation's activities involve institutions of higher education; public, supranational, and non-governmental organisations; as well as corporations and other educational associations around the world. 

 

Accredited Programmes (1972-2006)

 

Between 1972 and 2006 the UCRED accredited sixty-eight programmes (curricula). Thirty-five programmes were subsequently recognised by a governmental agency or other official accreditation body. Thirty-three degree programmes continue to be monitored by UCRED, of which seventeen programme-contracts are managed on behalf of a governmental body or supranational constituency. 

 

In May 2006 the Council decided it would not follow the trend of market-driven accreditation services offered by a number of other organisations around the world. As a result thereof the Council's role and activity of assessing and validating institutional requests for accreditation of newly established programmes has been gradually phased out.  In order to avoid any possible conflicts of interest for, or between educational institutions or other parties, the phasing out process was harmonised with the ENSIGN integration project, and fully completed in December 2006.    

 

Continued Services (2007- 2012)

 

Since January 2007, and until at least January 2012, the Council continues to ensure the full-scale and independent monitoring of all programmes that were under its custody or aegis prior to the ENSIGN integration (e.g. for the accredited programmes that were already monitored by the UCRED prior to 31 December 2006). This uninterrupted service is provided in accordance with the high quality standards and norms the UCRED has maintained during the past three decades. These norms have been adopted as best practices by many educational institutions and other accrediting bodies around the world.  

 

Verification of Accreditation

 

In order to prevent possible fraudulent use of information made available on the internet, the Council no longer publishes an open-access list of accredited programmes (see also: Public Notice). Persons who wish to verify by means of the internet the current accreditation of a programme are invited to contact the educational institution that offers the programme, which will provide the access-coordinates of the official accreditation data on the extranet of the Council's website (e.g. with the same URL-track of this website).  

 

For further information or clarifications please contact the Council at the University Academy. 

    

 

 

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© Copyright 1972-1992, 1993-2006, 2007-2008, BRIDGEGATE on behalf of Brexgata/UCRED/IACIP. 

All rights reserved for all countries. This page was updated on: 30 April 2008