Evaluation of the Processes and Procedures of University Accreditation: Putting the University Academic Ranking in Perspective

Introduction

Several bodies now conduct the Ranking of Higher Education Institutions. This comprises the Cybermetrics Lab (Webometrics), Times Higher Education (World Universities Ranking), and The Ranking Web or Webometrics. The Ranking Web or Webometrics is the most significant academic ranking of Higher Education Institutions because it sets out to offer full coverage of Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) regardless of the geographic location or discipline. Ever since 2004 and every six months, an independent, impartial, free, open scientific exercise is performed by the Cybermetrics Lab (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) by providing reliable, multidimensional, updated and helpful information about the performance of universities all worldwide centered on their web presence and impact. Accreditation is a five-year assessment programme for institution of higher learning while ranking is carried out every year. Accreditation gives absolute grade, ranking is relative to the other institutions similarly placed. For institutional purpose, higher institution of learning affirms that accreditation aids in shaping and guiding the constant quality improvement drive of academic programs. Accreditation’s peer-review progression provides insight, feedback, and recommendations on the vision, objectives, policies, and strategic plans to accomplish scholastic missions and improve academic quality. Accreditation can also assist any institutions make informed judgments about compliant with academic credit from other colleges or universities. The Government and general public also rely on accreditation exercise to ensure quality control and assurance. As the federal government created new federal benefit programs, in the form of grants and loans, for veterans and college students pursuing higher education, it sought a mechanism or system to assure the quality of institutions where students were spending their federal funds. To accomplish this objective, the federal government deferred to an existing system – accreditation – to delegate the role of quality assurance and ensure that students were only using their federal funds at credible, legitimate, and quality institutions (Jamienne, 2012).

Accreditation is when academic institutions follow the standard of accountability set by the external or monitoring organization to measure the ability and competence by following predetermined standards set by an expert and professional organization in different disciplines. It must be observed that academic institutions participating in this process are intentional, and the reviewers' committee are self-governing and independent of the institution seeking the accreditation. The attainment of accreditation may be used to gain academic mileage and competitive advantage in student employment, improve global recognition and admiration, strengthen institutional status, and portray the academic values and goals to both internal and external stakeholders. Allied to the above, it helps to affirm the academic tenets by providing stakeholders with the evidence that the set standard is met, if not surpassed. Accrediting agencies assess or rate the educational institution based on the general quality but guarantee that essential criteria are met in accordance with the mission statement of the institution. Accredited institutions must be devoted to exhibiting a commitment to quality assurance and uninterrupted enhancement (Bennett, Geringer and Taylor, 2015). It should be noted that the aim of the ranking is not to classify websites, so the priority should be to involve everybody in the University in the generation and publication of web content and not on the task of monitoring the ranks. In this paper, the focus is on Institutional Accreditation. In Nigeria, the body assigned to carry out this assignment is National Universities Commission (NUC). Quality assurance has been defined by The National Universities Commission (NUC, 2006) as a systematic review of educational programmes with a view of ensuring that satisfactory standards of education, scholarship, and infrastructure are being maintained and sustained.