Programmatic accreditation is generally administered by professionally-oriented specialty accrediting bodies. The idea is that professionals in a given field are best able to judge a program’s educational quality. In many cases, attending a program that is recognized by the right agency is a prerequisite for obtaining a job in fields such as accounting, Banking and finance, psychology, law, healthcare, and so on. Many programmatic accreditors such as the American Psychological Association (APA) require that accredited programs be housed in an institutionally accredited Institution. Programs may be offered that are judged by these specialty bodies, without necessarily possessing institutional accreditation.

For instance, continuing education programs within non-educational settings (such as hospitals) may be accredited by a specialized accreditation agency. Such courses may count professionally (towards professional certifications or state licenses) but will not transfer for University credit. Similarly, if a specialty body accredits a program at a University, but the University itself is not institutionally accredited, the program may have professional value, yet credits will not transfer and students may not be able to receive federal financial aid. Since professional requirements vary, it is crucial to find out what accreditation is necessary for a given career.

No matter what vocation a student chooses, it is wise for him/her to become familiar with the professional requirements in the field. Tools for investigating professional accreditation requirements include seeking out information from professional associations. These organizations are often either accrediting agencies themselves or can provide students with the appropriate information, and searching for student reviews of the educational quality at a given institution; may be a tip-off that a program lacks accreditation or is on its way to losing accreditation. With a little research into accreditation, students can be assured of taking the right steps towards a rewarding career.

Conclusively, programmatic accreditation is focused on one program (e.g., nursing), or a set of related programs (e.g., business, or engineering/applied sciences/technology), has quality standards that can be very specific (e.g., to the point of providing specific questions that must be asked of graduates in a survey), can affect how easily graduates can find work in their field, can affect whether graduates can take state licensure examinations in their field, can affect whether graduates of a program are admitted to graduate school for further study in their field, and is often managed by the department chair or Dean of the program in question.