Ph.D. Counselor Education and Supervision: Accreditation

Due to the regulatory nature of a professional degree program, students should be familiar with the aspects of educational accreditation.

  1. Accreditation is a process of external quality review created and used by higher education to scrutinize colleges, universities and programs for quality assurance and quality improvement. In the United States, accreditation is carried out by private, nonprofit organizations designed for this specific purpose. External quality review of higher education is a nongovernmental enterprise (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 2015, ¶ 1-2).

Accreditation is the responsibility of recognized accreditors. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (2012, September), explains the significance and types of recognition of accreditors.

  1. The United States Department of Education (USDE) and a private organization, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), both recognize over 80 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. The USDE process is governed by federal law and regulations. The CHEA process is private and is governed by policies adopted by a 17-member board of directors. The U.S. Department of Education, under the federal Higher Education Act (HEA) (p. 2). Only those institutions that are accredited by a USDErecognized accrediting organization are eligible to receive federal financial assistance for their students (p. 3).

Essentially, two categories of educational accreditation are significant: 1) institutional and 2) programmatic accreditation.

Institutional Accreditation

  1. Institutional accreditation applies to an entire institution, indicating that each of an institution’s parts is contributing to the achievement of the institution’s objectives. The regional and national accreditors perform institutional accreditation (U.S. Department of Education, 2016, June 15, ¶ 13).

Divine Mercy University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award master’s and doctorate degrees. Questions about the accreditation of Divine Mercy University may be directed to: 

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

1866 Southern Lane
Decatur, GA 30033-4097,
(404) 679-4500,
www.sacscoc.org

Divine Mercy University is an approved institutional participant in the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). As an approved SARA participant, Divine Mercy University complies with established standards for offering postsecondary distance education courses and programs among SARA member states, districts, and territories. SARA is intended to make it easier for students to take online courses offered by postsecondary institutions based in another state.

Divine Mercy University is authorized to operate in all SARA member states (https://nc-sara.org/directory), and is registered, authorized, or otherwise not subject to approval in all states not currently participating in SARA that require such authorization.

Programmatic Accreditation

The Ph.D. in Counselors Education and Supervision program and curriculum is aligned with premier industry programmatic standards. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), grants accreditation for master’s and doctoral programs in professional counseling.

The Ph.D. in Counselors Education and Supervision program at DMU is not yet accredited by CACREP.  DMU cannot hold any promise or guarantee of becoming CACREP accredited; however, DMU is committed to following the CACREP standards in the design, preparation, and deployment of the program and then applying for CACREP accreditation.