Institutional Accreditation

• What is institutional accreditation?

• What is the process for institutional accreditation?

• Who is responsible for institutional accreditation at The UWI St. Augustine?

• Is the St. Augustine campus currently accredited?

• How is the candidacy for continuous institutional accreditation different from the original accreditation bid seven years ago?

• What is the difference between ‘institutional accreditation’ and ‘programme accreditation’?

• Do professional programmes at The UWI St. Augustine have specialized accreditation?

• If the UWI St Augustine is not re-accredited, does it affect the quality of degrees already awarded?

What is institutional accreditation?

Institutional accreditation refers to the process of the assessment of the operations of a higher education institution, guided by criteria and standards of an accreditation agency, with the aim of conferring upon the institution accredited status.  For the St. Augustine Campus, accredited status means that our Campus has met or surpassed the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago’s (ACTT) criteria and standards to be recognized as a quality institution within Trinidad and Tobago.

What is the process for institutional accreditation?

In higher education, institutional accreditation entails certain established transactions between an institution and the accreditation agency. These include:

Self-Study - this is an institution-wide activity where senior administrators, faculty and other personnel engage in the preparation of a self-study report which discusses and provides evidence that the institution demonstrates compliance with various higher education quality criteria and standards. The report also identifies areas for continuous improvement and presents relevant recommendations. The self-study process can take as long as 1 to 2 years to complete and results are submitted in a detailed report to the accreditation agency. 

Site Visit - Having reviewed the institution’s self-study report, external peer evaluators, commissioned by the accreditation agency visit the institution to examine its compliance with accreditation criteria and standards. Depending upon the size and complexity of the institution, this site visit can last between 2 to 5 days.

Evaluation Report - Having undertaken the site visit, evaluators prepare and submit an external evaluation report which documents the institution’s compliance with accreditation criteria and standards and identifies recommendations for the advancement of the organization as a quality educational institution.

Institutional Commitment and Response - the institution considers the evaluators’ report, determines whether it would accept the recommendations offered and responds by monitoring and improving its processes and outcomes to conform to the standards.

Who is responsible for institutional accreditation at The UWI St. Augustine?

The campus senior executive management is ultimately responsible for institutional accreditation.

In terms of the current continuing institutional accreditation process, there is a campus Self-Study Steering Committee of which the Chair is Dr Sandra Gift, Senior Programme Officer, Quality Assurance Unit. The Deputy Chair is Professor Jonas Addae, Professor of Physiology and the Self-Study Coordinator is Mr Kristen Cockburn, Project Coordinator-Process Improvement Team, Institutional Effectiveness Unit, Office of the Campus Principal.

The members of the Self-Study Steering Committee are as follows:

Self-Study Steering Committee

Is the St. Augustine campus currently accredited?

The St. Augustine Campus has full institutional accreditation from the ACTT for the period 2011–2018. The Campus’ accredited status can be viewed at www.actt.org.tt. Although currently accredited, the St. Augustine Campus has begun its candidacy for continuing institutional accreditation as required by the ACTT.

Institutional accreditation is managed at the campus level with oversight by the Board for Undergraduate Studies. Presently, all four campuses of The UWI are accredited by national accreditation agencies.

These accreditation agencies are:

The UWI is also a member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies for Higher Education (INQAAHE) and its sub-regional association, the Caribbean Area Network for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education (CANQATE)

How is the candidacy for continuous institutional accreditation different from the original accreditation bid seven years ago?

2011 was the first time The UWI St Augustine sought institutional accreditation; this was granted for seven years. This current process for continuing institutional accreditation will serve to further validate the campus as continuing to meet the criteria and standards of ACTT.

What is the difference between ‘institutional accreditation’ and ‘programme accreditation’?

Programme or specialized accreditation is an external evaluation performed by a competent professional body which espouses quality standards for its profession. The evaluation focuses on ensuring that a programme’s learning outcomes, its educational processes and administrative practices meet the professional licensure or recognition requirements that permit graduates of the programme to be admitted to the profession. 

Institutional accreditation confirms that all The UWI St. Augustine’s educational programmes meet or surpass the acceptable minimum quality standards set by the ACTT. Institutional accreditation, however, does not specifically mean that those programmes that require professional licensure for their graduates to practice in certain professions such as engineering, and medicine have met those standards.

Do professional programmes at The UWI St. Augustine have specialized accreditation?

At the St. Augustine Campus, professional accreditation is managed at the faculty level. To date, degrees in engineering, business and medicine all maintain professional/programme accreditation.

Business Accreditation

The St. Augustine Campus, through The UWI Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, has business accreditation from the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the Association of Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Details can be viewed here.

Medicine and Health Science Accreditation

The St. Augustine Campus has received programme accreditation in medical sciences, dentistry and veterinary sciences from the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) headquartered in Jamaica.  

Details can be viewed here.

Engineering Accreditation

Engineering programmes at The UWI St. Augustine Campus are accredited by relevant accreditation bodies in the UK:

• The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
• The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)
• The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
• The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
• The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
• The Geological Society of the UK. 

 See more details on programme accreditation in the Faculty of Engineering here.     

If the UWI St Augustine is not re-accredited, does it affect the quality of degrees already awarded?

Traditionally measures to assure and preserve the quality of The UWI degree have been internally driven and sustained by the institution’s high academic standards, the quality of the intake of students, long held to be the best in the Anglophone Caribbean, the quality of academic and non-academic staff and its rigorous quality assurance processes and procedures including international benchmarking, inter alia.

The St Augustine Campus has been voluntarily submitting itself to institutional accreditation which is externally driven. While institutional accreditation is important for public confidence, failure to be re-accredited does not affect the quality of degrees already awarded. Rather, it is likely to affect the perception of the quality The UWI degree which of course is not in the best interest of The UWI, its students and its graduates. This effect on perception is linked to the focus of accreditation processes on evaluating how well quality indicators are met by the institution. The St Augustine Campus, therefore, is fully committed to ensuring a successful outcome of the current continuing institutional accreditation self-study process.