OVERVIEW: INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION Merry Bullock American Psychological Association Panel: International Accreditation – ICOPE 2014

Quality assurance/Accreditation – why is it important? Rapid growth of educational institutions “massification of higher education” - external validation of quality Within psychology – rapid growth of psychology programs, especially in applied fields Quality assurance of professional skills Educational qualifications Professional competences Benchmarking to international standards Mobility

Quality assurance – an overview Quality Assurance of higher education institutions Developed gradually since the 1950’s Models Required, Governmentally sanctioned Ministry of Education, Parliament, Government-appointed Council provide accreditation or recognition to degree-granting institutions Voluntary, External organizations Accrediting bodies funded by institutions to provide voluntary accreditation; Governments recognize these accrediting bodies Institutional self-accreditation Institution or consortium of institutions perform self-assessments (e.g. Rector’s councils)

Quality assurance – an overview Quality Assurance of professional disciplines (psychology) Variable Models Who performs accreditation: Government (Ministry of Education, Department of Health; government –appointed Psychology council) Professional Association of Psychology Commercial organization Who funds What is accredited Undergraduate, post-graduate, entire programs, specialties

Why international accreditation? National Needs Building a system for protection of the public / protection of the discipline attainment of “international” standards reach out to others with established systems as model Mobility: Mobility of individuals across educational and regulatory systems Regional interests in cooperation and harmonization

Models for International Cooperation in Accreditation National Systems use a set of standards shared across countries or regions – each country adheres to these common standards National Systems agree on a common set of accreditation procedures Mutual recognition procedures – countries recognize the QA systems of other countries as equivalent US-Canada Australia-New Zealand Subdisciplinary Examples Development of international accreditation bodies/international standards (ISO example) 6

How did APA get involved? Requests to accredit programs internationally History of accrediting programs in Canada History of APA members offering expertise Request for APA to become an international accreditor For US programs abroad For programs in other countries APA’s response – gather advice from a task force addressing international issues in quality assurance 7

APA’s role in international accreditation Opportunity for dialogue and engagement But - APA is not equipped to serve as an international accreditor Why? Quality assurance systems are tied to local needs, legal systems, structures Variability in local systems Variability in local regulatory needs Importance of local context, culture in defining scope of discipline and practice Not appropriate to impose US standards, perspectives, orientations 8

Goals …APA will strive to be: A source of information and expertise to work and learn with and from others … A collaborator in convening with others around shared goals for policy in quality assurance for psychology An agent of capacity building about quality assurance in education and training internationally among its own members and with other psychologists around the world A collaborating organization in developing policies to promote international mechanisms for review of professional credentials. And APA will strive to: Use the knowledge gained from collaborations with others to evaluate, enhance and refine its own efforts in this area.

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