To ensure a basic level of quality, the practice of accreditation arose in the United States as a means of conducting non-governmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs. Private educational associations of regional or national scope have adopted criteria reflecting the qualities of a sound educational program and have developed procedures for evaluating institutions or programs to determine whether they are operating at basic levels of quality.
The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit institutions or programs. Accreditation is done by independent accrediting agencies; however, the Department maintains a list of accrediting agencies and accrediting bodies that it recognizes. You can find these lists of agencies on the following website: http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html.
The Department has a website that provides access to a master list of accredited colleges, universities, and career and trade schools. The database lists approximately 6,900 postsecondary educational institutions and programs, each of which is accredited by an accrediting agency or state approval agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a reliable authority as to the quality of postsecondary education. To access the database, please visit https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home.
Colleges and universities operate independently, although they have some state supervision. If you have complaints against a postsecondary institution, contact the state department of higher education for help with resolving the complaint. For issues about financial aid, fraud, waste or abuse of federal funds, special education or civil rights contact the U.S. Department of Education. Listed below is contact information for these issues:
Office of the Inspector General investigates fraud, waste or abuse of federal educational funds, including federal student aid funds.
Federal Student Aid's Ombudsman will help resolve issues regarding student loan complaints, by working with you and the lender.
Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces several Federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance from the Department of Education. You may contact OCR at 1(800) 421-3481 or locate the enforcement office that serves your state or territory.
College Navigator is a database of over 7,000 institutions of higher education. You can search for a college based on its location, program, or degree offerings. You can also find out about colleges: their programs, costs, admissions, results, and more at https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) (HEOA) was enacted on August 14, 2008, and reauthorizes the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). Visit the legislation page to learn about new or revised regulations for institutions of higher education that receive funding from the Department.
The U.S. Secretary of Education publishes a list of accrediting agencies by category. The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit educational institutions or programs. However, the Department provides oversight over the postsecondary accreditation system through its review of all federally recognized accrediting agencies. The Department holds accrediting agencies accountable by ensuring that they enforce their accreditation standards effectively. For the latest on accreditation and to access the full list of recognized accrediting agencies, please see Accreditation. To conduct a search to determine whether your online or distance education program is accredited, please visit https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home.
NOTE: The recognition of accrediting agencies only applies to domestic postsecondary institutions (not high schools). To inquire about a high school's accreditation, you must contact the state education agency where the school is located.
The Office of Postsecondary Education's Campus Safety and Security website provides access to the security statistics of all institutions participating in the Federal Financial Aid program (Title IV), as well as those receiving Federal grant program funding from the Department. If you are thinking of attending college in a large urban city, a small liberal arts college, a specialized college, or a community college, you can find their security statistics at Campus Safety and Security search page. The Campus Safety and Security Survey allows schools to enter in their updated security data each year.
The information you seek is available through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS provides data on enrollment, program completion, faculty, staff, and finances. These data are made available to students and parents through the College Navigator college search web site and to researchers and others through the IPEDS Data Center. These data come from surveys of all institutions and educational organizations whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary education. IPEDS is the core postsecondary education data collection program of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). NCES provides summaries of IPEDS data in the Digest of Education Statistics. Please note that some information may not be up to date, as this information is processed and analyzed after schools provide their reports.