how do you know your school is RA?

Here is a link to check if your school of interest is regionally accredited:
http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.asp

 

Accreditation statements are usually located within the first few pages of nearly all college catalogs.

 

I'd recommend checking directly with the RA in question, or with CHEA.

 

Granted, but one would still need to verify

• That the organisation actually is accredited by the claimed accrediting bodies.
• That the accrediting bodies are themsleves reputable.

The CHEA/DoE lists are then helpful, but not when it comes to foreign bodies (unless one takes the stance that anything not on the lists is not an accreditor).

 

Despite a very few momentary lapses* the International Handbook of Universities is still the most reliable source for checking on universities outside the US: lists more than 15,000 of them, usually with very detailed descriptions. The 18th edition is just out, and a mere $340. Many university libraries have them.

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* I believe they briefly approved both Berne and MIGS for inclusion, although I don't know if either made it through to the print edition.

 

As to online searching, Rich is 150% correct, Dennis (as is Dr. Bear regarding offline lookup of international institutions). The USDE database is about as unreliable as any government database I've ever seen. It's shameful. See this thread, and this report for details.

Rely on the CHEA database except for institutions accredited by the fewer-than-a-dozen accreditors that are found only in the USDE database.

It's true that neither the CHEA nor the USDE databases are helpful for foreign institutions... that is, unless they're accredited by an agency that's USDE- and/or CHEA-approved. But with non-US institutions, there's usually a government-run web site in the non-US country where the non-US institution physically resides where one may look-up said non-US institution and see if it's "accredited" or "approved" or whatever word said non-US country uses instead of "accredited" in the sense that we, here in the US, tend to use that word. (Don't mind me. I was just trying to see how many times I could use "US" or "non-US" in the same sentence and still have it make sense.)

But seriously... in the UK, for example, if the university isn't listed on this page, or this one, then it's not "accredited" in the sense that we tend to use that word around here. Other countries usually have similar web sites where one can do similar lookups.

For US institutions (only), I, personally, take precisely that position. As I have said (and been attacked for saying) in other threads, I believe the word "accredit," and all conjugations thereof, should be a legally protected word with respect to educational institutions and the agencies that accredit them; and that only agencies approved by USDE and/or CHEA should be allowed to call themselves "accreditors," or what they do "accreditation." All others can "approve" or "endorse." Just my opinion, mind you. And just for US institutions. For other (non-US) countries, I'd make a similar argument, but not for USDE or CHEA, of course; rather, with respect to whatever governmental department or agency either does all the accrediting in said country. or approves the agencies which do.

 

As long as you're covering offline lookup, Dr. Bear, for the benefit of the reader, what's the best and most reliable handbook/directory for looking-up US institutions? What edition, and at what cost? And do you think it's more, or less complete/accurate than the CHEA online database?