Accreditation is an instrument which certifies that a certain institution accomplishes the required quality standards, and constitutes an information source for taking decisions from parents, applicants and society in general.
In Peru, the National Quality Assurance System for Accreditation, Evaluation and Certification (SINEACE) and its onsite bureau Higher Education Quality Committee for Accreditation and Certification (CONEAU) are the ones in charge of the evaluation and carrying out this process. Differently from other international accreditation processes, this is an independent, objective and transparent body. This is verified by the publishing of all the information generated throughout the process, from the self-evaluation up to the reports with the corresponding evaluations from those who do the assessment.
The Peruvian process of accreditation is recognized for being innovative in that it has some aspects of the organizational culture, systematization of academic and administrative processes for a continuous improvement and better control. It also requires a quality management system, the profile of applicants, as well as incorporating interest groups (businessmen, professional associations, etc.) to the training program, and not as in other models which have these models out of the process.
The National Quality Assurance System for Accreditation, Evaluation and Certification (SINEACE) is a technical, specialized organism connected to the Peruvian Ministry of Education, and the methodology it applies for providing accreditation in educational quality, is based in national reality. It works with external assessment offices with the objective of accreditation and certifying assessment offices, trying to stay neutral. National Quality Assurance System for Accreditation, Evaluation and Certification (SINEACE) tries to articulate the development and competitiveness demands in the context of prospective elementary guidance, technical and professional training to new scenarios appearing in a changing world.
In Peru there are two kinds of accreditation: the specialized institutional one focused on areas, programs or careers, and the integral one. Accreditation is settled in three levels:
1. University Higher Education in Peru: Accreditation looks for a quality standard in education, it´s voluntary for universities with the exception of careers belonging to Health, Education and Law.
2. Colleges and Higher Education Schools in Peru: in the area of Colleges and Higher Education Schools, Education Quality Accreditation corresponds to public and temporal recognition that on behalf of the Peruvian Government, SINEACE serves as on-site committee, to the Educational Institution, program of professional career to prove that they fulfill the standards and evaluation criteria properly verified and informed by the external assessment committee officially authorized and registered.
3. Primary Education and technical studies in Peru: the process of accreditation of management quality is a tool that contributes to the assurance of the right to quality primary education and technician studies, as it promotes among the institutions the idea of providing all Peruvians with opportunities to knowledge and opportunity fading away educational inequality.
In Peru, there are 114 accredited careers (68 technological and 46 university ones), apart from the pedagogical institutes and a school with the same prize.
SINEACE informed that only in the year 2015, 55 of the 128 accreditations have been granted, in other words, 42,9% of the certifications given. “This is due to the self-evaluation processes which last, as an average, between two to three years, followed by three months to be assessed by the external committee", the institution explained.