International accreditation in the Georgian educational space is a real legal mechanism, and its key is written in one formula: foreign accreditation works when it is carried through the channel of Georgian recognition. This page explains how the accreditation of a higher education programme may be carried out by a foreign organisation, on what standards accreditation rests, and what decisions and terms this process can produce.
The content and purpose of accreditation
Under the law, the purpose of accreditation is, through determining the compliance of an educational programme of a higher education institution with accreditation standards, to promote the raising of the quality of education, the establishment of the institution's systematic self-assessment and the development of quality-assurance mechanisms. The standards are written in the law itself: the programme's aims, learning outcomes and the programme's correspondence to them; teaching methodology and organisation and the adequacy of assessment; students' achievements and individual work; provision of teaching resources; opportunities for developing the quality of teaching. The conduct of accreditation is ensured by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement. Accreditation is thus not a one-time administrative formality: its purpose is to root systematic self-assessment and quality assurance mechanisms in the institution, and it is precisely this internal system that becomes the object of external evaluation.
Accreditation by a foreign organisation
The international dimension is stated in the law directly: the accreditation of a higher education programme — including a joint programme — may be carried out by a foreign organisation with the appropriate competence, recognised by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement under the procedure established by the accreditation regulations. This means: a foreign accreditation organisation operates in Georgia when the Center recognises it — under the procedure set by the accreditation regulations. Accordingly, the American regional accreditation organisations and the networks of the European Higher Education Area — as non-Georgian bodies — create a Georgian effect only through this channel of recognition: their certificate does not work automatically in the Georgian system.