Educational Accreditation & Recognition Cycles

Once Educational Accreditation is awarded an institution will move on to a 6 year cycle of surveillances.

Once Educational Recognition is awarded an institution will move on to a 3 year cycle of annual reviews.

The table below demonstrates both cycles and how programmes and courses, both Accredited and Recognised can be aligned.

*NB for institutions on the current 5 year cycle of surveillance reviews will not be affected by this year.  All institutions will move onto the 6 year cycle at the point of the next full Reaccreditation visit.

Full Reaccreditation and Recognition Renewals would then take place in Year 1 and the cycles starts again.  

When an institution is awarded Educational Accreditation, Educational Recognition or Educational Endorsement the award date agreed by the Accreditation Sub-Committee (ASC) is then set in stone.

All subsequent Reaccreditation, full Recognition Renewal or full Endorsement Renewal visits should endeavour to marry with that date irrespective of the various dates of the intervening paper surveillance, surveillance or annual renewals.  The Society is normally very flexible in agreeing dates that meet the needs of the university or institution and it is not uncommon for surveillance reviews to be delayed by a quarter, or in exceptional circumstances, two quarters.  However, when agreeing dates for the Reaccreditation visit we endeavour to pull back the time frames to meet the original accreditation date.

An exception to this would be when an institution wishes to bring forward a Reaccreditation visit.  In this case the 6-year cycle will then follow the new agreed accreditation date.

Costs will be charged throughout the cycles apart from the year when there is no surveillance required.  For details on costs then please email the Educational Quality Standards Administrator or call +44 (0)1423 534646.

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