Once the audit is complete, the final phase of the accreditation process is the accreditation decision. The accreditation decision is made in two steps.

1. The Accreditation Panel reviews all the materials related to the case to answer the following questions:

• Are the evidence and the arguments in the Brief sufficient to support the program’s claims that it meets TEAC’s quality principles and standards?
• Are the program’s graduates competent, caring, and qualified? Is the evidence reliable, valid, and sufficient?

TEAC’s Accreditation Panel then determines if the evidence, as verified by the audit, is of sufficient magnitude to support the claims in the Brief, and if it is valid and reliable. On the basis of its examination, the panel recommends an accreditation decision to the Accreditation Committee.

2. TEAC’s Accreditation Committee, a committee of the TEAC board of directors, then makes the TEAC accreditation decision. The committee arrives at the decision after a systematic evaluation of the panel’s recommendations and the process that led up to it. In this work, the committee is guided by two overarching questions:

• Should the Accreditation Panel’s recommendation be accepted?
• Was the TEAC process that ended in the panel’s recommendation followed properly?

In their deliberations, the panel and committee are guided by a set of heuristics for the accreditation decision. These heuristics are the same for both the Inquiry Brief Proposal and the Inquiry Brief with regard to the rationale (2.1), Quality Principle III (3.1 and 3.2), and the evidence of commitment and capacity (4.1–4.7).

Once the committee makes its decision, the program is notified. If the decision is to accredit, and the program accepts the decision, TEAC announces the decision and schedules the annual report. If the decision is not to accredit and the program appeals, TEAC initiates its appeal process.



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