It can serve as an important alternative to competition, market forces, and compliance to governmental rules and regulations. It remains the only academic community peer based mechanism for evaluating quality that includes faculty. It can reinforce the faculty's role in planning and implementing the curriculum, balancing historical and intellectuals traditions with current pressures for relevance and immediate results. In short, it builds on the perspective of peers evaluating one another. Accreditation differs from certification or licensure in which competencies of graduates are tested for admission into some profession.
Accreditation is about the vitality, quality and the future of academic programs and institutions.
It is a prospective decision. As such it can serve an important public protection function. It can protect the public against overly eager entrepreneurial purveyors of education who are quick to offer program without due concern for quality. In summary, accreditation can play a valuable role in higher education's social contract with society. Second, it can make sure the fundamental values of higher education are always present when its service to society is negotiated among the stakeholders.