The quality of higher education can significantly impact graduates’ careers. Some nontraditional students may rely on employer-offered tuition reimbursement to finance their education. However, not all employers are willing to offer tuition reimbursement for students attending schools that aren’t accredited.1 As a result, earning a degree may be financially out of reach for these students, which can affect their career qualifications.
It’s also known that employers generally prefer to hire graduates who earned a degree from an accredited university, college or program.1 Accreditation is widely known to be an indicator of academic quality and so employers may presume that graduates from accredited schools are better prepared to tackle modern problems in the workplace than graduates from non-accredited schools.3
A third way in which a school's accreditation status can affect students' career options involves professional licensure. Many careers require professional licensure and a common eligibility requirement for taking a licensure exam is a degree from an accredited school or program.1
GCU is an institutionally accredited school, as the regional accreditation distinction no longer exists.2 GCU is proud to continue our tradition of teaching students to be critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers and servant leaders in Christ.
Previously, a university could receive accreditation from national or regional accreditors, however, there is no longer a distinction between the two. Because of this, regional accreditation no longer exists.4 Therefore GCU is not regionally accredited, but we are an institutionally accredited university.
Is GCU accredited programmatically as well as institutionally? Yes, GCU is institutionally accredited and offers programmatically accredited programs. GCU holds institutional accreditation from the HLC and many of our individual programs also maintain specialized, programmatic accreditations from professional- and industry-recognized accrediting bodies.
First, it helps to understand the differences between these two designations. Institutional accreditation assesses the university as a whole. It may assess areas such as mission, integrity, governance, sustainability and overall quality of education. Institutional accreditation affects all students, whether they are taking classes in content creation, criminal justice or engineering.
In contrast, programmatic accreditation takes an in-depth look at just one program at a time. Often focusing on professional fields such as nursing, education and engineering, programmatic accreditation seeks to ensure the quality of the program will adequately prepare future professionals for practice in their field, including professional licensure, if applicable. Programmatic accreditation only affects students enrolled in a particular program and GCU has numerous programs that are programmatically accredited.
