Accreditation reviews the quality of educational institutions and provides a reasonable assurance to the public and students who attend of that quality. Accreditations of an institution by the New England Commission indicates that it meets or exceeds criteria for the assessment of institutional quality periodically applied through a peer group review process. An accredited school or college is one which has available the resources to achieve its stated purposes through educational programs and opportunities, and is doing so. Accreditation also assures the public that an institution will continue to do so in the foreseeable future; this is proven through the self-discovery process.

The New England Commission of Higher Education, is the regional accreditation agency for colleges and universities in the six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. NECHE is the crediting body for the whole of UVM. Other accrediting bodies exist for individual program accreditation. Learn more about NECHE on their website.

The work leading up to the periodic accreditation aims to accumulate information about the institution in order to determine that UVM should continue its accredited status. This time of looking inward at the institution is what we're calling the self-study. We look at eleven standards established by our accrediting body that include: mission/purpose, academics, faculty, students and more. Read all the standards for accreditation in the standards section of this website.