Regional accreditation is the gold standard of accreditation. Regionally accredited universities typically only accept transfer credits from other regionally accredited universities and colleges.
The United States has six major regional accrediting organizations along with an accrediting agency for community and junior colleges. Regionally accredited universities are typically eligible for all corporate tuition reimbursement plans. Regionally accredited schools have recognition for providing a comprehensive education.
Regionally accredited schools allow students to easily transfer credits between them, if a student seeks to change schools or take a graduate degree program at another school. Regional accreditation organizations oversee the quality of public and private, for-profit and not-for-profit higher education institutions. These include:
,research universities,liberal arts colleges,state colleges,special-purpose institutions in the arts, sciences, and professional fields,religiously affiliated institutions,military academies,tribal colleges,community colleges
Regionally accredit schools typically have higher standards to meet than nationally accredited schools. Nationally accredited schools often prepare students to enter specific skilled careers. National accrediting agencies often focus on approving career, vocational, and trade schools which provide certificates and degrees. Often students at nationally accredited schools can't transfer their credits to a regionally accredited school. Regional and national accreditation agencies provide institutional accreditation, thus the accreditation extends to the entire school, not only to individual programs. Some organizations provide specialized or programmatic accreditation, which applies to specific degree programs. In some industries, students need to obtain a degree from a program which has accreditation from a professional organization in the field to obtain a license.