CFR > Title 34 - Education > SUBTITLE B—Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education > CHAPTER VI—OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (parts 600 to 694) > PART 602—THE SECRETARY'S RECOGNITION OF ACCREDITING AGENCIES > SUBPART B—The Criteria for Recognition (§602.10 to §602.28) > 602.15—Administrative and fiscal responsibilities.

602.15—Administrative and fiscal responsibilities.

The agency must have the administrative and fiscal capability to carry out its accreditation activities in light of its requested scope of recognition. The agency meets this requirement if the agency demonstrates that—
(a) The agency has—
(1) Adequate administrative staff and financial resources to carry out its accrediting responsibilities;
(2) Competent and knowledgeable individuals, qualified by education and experience in their own right and trained by the agency on their responsibilities, as appropriate for their roles, regarding the agency's standards, policies, and procedures, to conduct its on-site evaluations, apply or establish its policies, and make its accrediting and preaccrediting decisions, including, if applicable to the agency's scope, their responsibilities regarding distance education and correspondence education;
(3) Academic and administrative personnel on its evaluation, policy, and decision-making bodies, if the agency accredits institutions;
(4) Educators and practitioners on its evaluation, policy, and decision-making bodies, if the agency accredits programs or single-purpose institutions that prepare students for a specific profession;
(5) Representatives of the public on all decision-making bodies; and
(6) Clear and effective controls against conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflicts of interest, by the agency's—
(i) Board members;
(ii) Commissioners;
(iii) Evaluation team members;
(iv) Consultants;
(v) Administrative staff; and
(vi) Other agency representatives; and
(b) The agency maintains complete and accurate records of—
(1) Its last full accreditation or preaccreditation review of each institution or program, including on-site evaluation team reports, the institution's or program's responses to on-site reports, periodic review reports, any reports of special reviews conducted by the agency between regular reviews, and a copy of the institution's or program's most recent self-study; and
(2) All decisions made throughout an institution's or program's affiliation with the agency regarding the accreditation and preaccreditation of any institution or program and substantive changes, including all correspondence that is significantly related to those decisions.
(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 1845-0003)

Code of Federal Regulations

(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1099b )

Code of Federal Regulations

[64 FR 56617, Oct. 20, 1999, as amended at 74 FR 55426, Oct. 27, 2009]