ICDE - value of their accreditation ?

Is there any value of their QA?
Is their Accreditation comparable to recognized accreditation is USA?


http://www.icde.org/


ICDE is formally linked to a wide range of international organisations.
UNESCO
ICDE has consolidated its position as a major NGO, which is both, privileged and central in UNESCO. We are formally approved and recognized by the United Nations as the Global Membership Organization in flexible, distance and e-learning. It has been for many years an official and active partner of UNESCO, working very closely on a day-to-day basis with UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and regional UNESCO offices around the world. ICDE’s approach is built on a combination of active engagement and expertise in the combined fields of Education and ICT.

If you are interested in reading more about the partnership between UNESCO and ICDE, you are welcome to read Bernard Loing’s, the General Delegate of ICDE at UNESCO, article on the subject: ‘Cooperation – ICDE’

South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO)

ICDE is also an affiliate member of SEAMEO and cooperates on specially financed projects on the development of capacity in distance and flexible learning in the 10 member states of SEAMEO throughout South East Asia.

Organization of American States (OAS)/ Organizcion de Estados Americanos (OEA)
In 2003 ICDE signed a new agreement with the OAS/OEA on capacity development of human resources throughout the Americas, through which OAS/OEA and ICDE will cooperate throughout the continent on development of capacity in distance and flexible learning.

WORLD BANK

ICDE has considerable cooperation with the World Bank in the development of education capacity in developing nations. We implement important World Bank projects in developing countries every year, especially in the African Region.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC)

ICDE participates in several EC supported projects, facilitating and fostering the establishment of educational institutions and networks beyond Europe.


ICDE is actively engaged in the challenging question of Quality Assessment and Certification of trans-national education, especially of ODL and web-based courses.
ICDE was extensively involved in the first UNESCO forum on the Quality of Trans-national Education in 2001, followed by the Global Forums in 2002 and 2004. ICDE provided essential data and an expertise based on the experience of its members on the subject.

ICDE has now developed its own ICDE standards agency (ISA) as a global actor in the field of quality assessment, to promote public confidence that the quality of provision and standards of awards in open, distance and e-learning are being safeguarded and enhanced. ISA’s audits does not involve an audit of academic standards of courses or qualifications, since there exist no agreed international standards for qualifications, curriculum and academic content, although various elements of these can be, and often are, regulated by a country or a region. It assumes that institutions will be operating within the overall national and/or state legislation and guidelines, which are applicable to them at any given time.

ICDE’s audit is concerned with:

The quality and standards of services to students at the point of delivery;
An institution’s responsibility for what is done in its name.
At the centre of the process is an emphasis on students - in terms of the quality of the information they receive about their programmes of study and the ways in which their learning is facilitated and supported so that they can achieve in practice what they might reasonably expect to achieve.