In essence accreditation holds institutions accountable by verifying if they’re complying with the standards of higher education and if they’re fulfilling the values and ethics of the school’s mission statement. Direct and indirect costs of accreditation can annually cost colleges between $32,000 to $41,000 per year depending on the length of the accreditation cycle (Whelan & Elgart,2015). Accreditation costs come from annual fees, collection, and processing of peer reviews, paying roughly $2,500 per consultant per day for accreditation visits, consultant travel expenses, etc (Whelan & Elgart,2015).
Accreditation can be a costly mandate but it’s necessary in order to evaluate student support and overall effectiveness within an institution. In order to compensate for some of these expenses, colleges can collect peer reviews electronically to save on paper supplies, and use a processing program instead of hiring personnel to sort and analyze data. Colleges can also save money by implementing internal auditing instead of utilizing an external agency to ensure that all documents are correct prior to