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What is accreditation? Accreditation is a voluntary process that universities elect to undergo in order to maintain additional external levels of accountability and support. Though accreditation is not mandatory, CVCU believes that having the delegated governance of a national accrediting body not only helps an academic institution maintain its intended academic integrity but that it also provides a national benchmarking standard that ensures students are receiving a level of educational excellence and career preparation that is comparable to that of other nationally recognized institutions. 

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New academic institutions must undergo a period of institutional candidacy before achieving full accreditation status, which can take between three and eight years depending on the accrediting agency. During that time, the accrediting agency provides virtual support and conducts leadership and curricular assessments to determine the institution's viability for candidacy. Accreditation is retroactive; thus, degree candidacy beginning at the start of the accreditation journey will also be considered accredited degrees once full accreditation status is achieved. CVCU is currently entering its fourth year of the pre-candidacy journey of institutional accreditation. To date, all steps necessary to achieve accreditation have been submitted  and completed. The next phase of the journey is an institutional visit by the accrediting team. 

 

CVCU is committed to providing the highest level of academic rigor and career readiness and will continue to post updates on accreditation candidacy status as applicable. All stakeholders are invited to our annual fiscal-year-end meetings to hear the progress on our accreditation milestones and related organizational assessments. 

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