USIU-Africa is dually accredited by two accrediting commissions: WASC Senior Colleges and Universities Commission (WSCUC) since 1978, and by the Commission for Higher Education (CHE) now Commission for University Education (CUE) in Kenya in 1999. This means that our systems and quality are inspected and guaranteed by both bodies.
Accreditation is a formal recognition by an accrediting body that an institution is competent to carry out specific tasks. The purpose of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher learning meets acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation aids institutions in developing and sustaining effective educational programs and assures the educational community, the general public, and other organizations that an accredited institution has met high standards of quality and effectiveness.
WSCUC is an acronym which stands for WASC Senior College and University Commission. It is one of six regional associations that accredits colleges, and universities in the United States. It is recognized by the Department of Education of the U.S. federal government, and is in fact one of the most prestigious commissions in the North American continent.
WSCUC accredits all the universities and colleges in the Western side of United States, including Stanford University, the nine-campus University of California system and the 23-campus California State University system, making up a total of 210 institutions. USIU-Africa is the oldest among the nine universities outside United States which are accredited by WSCUC, and it is the only one in Africa.
WSCUC accreditation confirms that an institution possesses the resources, policies, and practices to achieve its educational goals and that the university has provided evidence of the quality of its educational programs. Degree certificates from WSCUC accredited institutions open many doors thus providing great advantages to USIU-Africa graduates.
More details on USIU-Africa accreditation by WSCUC can be found here.
USIU-Africa is also accredited by the Commission for University Education (CUE) in Kenya since 1999. CUE's mission is to regulate and assure quality university education by setting standards and monitoring compliance to achieve global competitiveness, and is mandated to promote the objectives of university education, by regulating and accrediting universities and programmes, among other functions.
Every six, eight, or ten years, institutions accredited by WSCUC are reviewed to reaffirm their accreditation status. The two- to three-year process of reaffirmation of accreditation usually involves the completion of an institutional self-study and institutional report, an off-site review by WSCUC, and an on-site visit from the WSCUC team.
The process of reaffirmation of accreditation begin with the formation of a self-study team which gathers data and fill in a compliance sheet. The taskforce then prepars and submits an institutional self-study report, before hosting an off-site review.Specifically, the visiting team follows up on outstanding issues and verify or revise its preliminary findings concerning both compliance and improvement with WSCUC standards and the status of systems that ensure student success.
The advantages of dual accreditation are as follows: