Accreditation, Commercial Rankings, and New Approaches to Assessing the Quality of University Research and Education Programmes in the United States

Abstract

Pressures on American higher education for assessment and accountability are increasing. Non-governmental accreditation provides an effective threshold measure of institutional and programme content and quality; however, both institutional and programme accreditation have problems that are being addressed within higher education. Commercial rankings have emerged to meet consumer demand for more information, but these endeavours have flaws, some of which are inherent in the commercial nature of these activities. The National Research Council (NRC) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) are engaged in efforts to improve the assessment of research doctorate programmes and, generally, of measures of quality in higher education and research.