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Why become accredited?

Accreditation creates a competitive advantage as you will be recognized as one of the best cooperative education and/or academic internship programs in the country.
Undergoing a national review process every six years attests to the quality of your programs.
The Accreditation Self-Assessment, Peer Review Process, and the Site Visit verify that your program meets the gold standard of excellence in the field, which can be advertised to potential students and employers.
Advertising accredited status provides the opportunity to enhance your program’s profile and credibility.
Accreditation criteria may be used to support policies and procedures established for your operation when dealing with ordinary student and employer issues.
A certain level of credibility and respect among the academic units on your campus comes about as they learn of the program’s accreditation status.
Accreditation helps in developing resources for the program as higher education administrations recognize that in order to maintain quality standards, they must supply necessary resources.
Accreditation criteria and status can be beneficial in discussions with senior administration to support program structure and provide a benchmark for the development of new programs.
Membership within the accreditation council provides a forum to engage with like-minded colleagues to set future directions for the field.

Objectives The specific objectives are to establish and maintain an accreditation process, to effectively review programs seeking accreditation, to provide mentoring and training to raise standards, to promote the significance of student participation, and recognize and promote excellence in cooperative education and academic internship programs.

Purpose The purpose of this organization is to serve the public through the establishment and maintenance of criteria and procedures for accrediting academic internship and cooperative education programs.

Mission The Accreditation Council for Co-op and Internship is an association dedicated to encouraging and recognizing excellence in programs of cooperative education and academic internships.