Council for Higher Education Accreditation

You may or may not have hear of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

If you have hear of this organization, you may not be familiar with its mission and purpose.

CHEA is a non-government entity that participates in "recognizing" accreditors.

CHEA is actually a membership organization made up of over 3,000 colleges and universities.

It also recognizes over 60 regional, national, and specialized accrediting organizations.

The United States Department of Education (USDE) is officially in charge of "recognizing" accreditors. One of the main reasons for USDE recognition is for the purposes of granting financial aid. If a school is not accredited by a USDE "recognized" accreditor, the school will not be able to offer federal financial aid to it students.

While the United States Department of Education is the main recognizer of accrediting bodies, CHEA also performs this function. CHEA serves to sort of "second" the motion. The waters get muddied a little when they do not agree. However, what affect this non-agreement has is really unknown.

See the chart below to see which accreditors (that accredit schools with MBA programs) are recognized by CHEA and USDE.