The power of accreditation: views of academics1

This paper is based on a more detailed presentation by the author at the European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Seminar on Accreditation in Rome in December 2003.

Abstract

Accreditation in higher education is examined by drawing on the experiences of academics and managers in Britain, the United States and Canada. The qualitative comments are used to deconstruct the notion of accreditation. Accreditation processes, it is argued, are not benign or apolitical but represent a power struggle that impinges on academic freedom, while imposing an extensive bureaucratic burden in some cases. Accreditation can also act as a restraint on innovation and run counter to pedagogic improvement processes. There is a taken‐for‐granted underlying myth of an abstract authorising power, which legitimates the accreditation activity. This myth of benign guidance is perpetuated by the powerful as a control on those who provide the education and represents a shift of power from educators to bureaucrats.

Notes

* Correspondence: Lee Harvey, Centre for Research and Evaluation, Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1WB, UK; email: [email protected]

This paper is based on a more detailed presentation by the author at the European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Seminar on Accreditation in Rome in December 2003.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lee Harvey *

* Correspondence: Lee Harvey, Centre for Research and Evaluation, Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1WB, UK; email: [email protected]