Institutional accreditation is a review of an organisation as a whole: legal form, governance, resources, programme architecture, assessment, student protection, and public information. The decision applies to the named legal entity for a validity period. It is not a lifetime badge and it is not a government charter.
It does not make a company a public university. It does not confer authority to award academic degrees under another country’s higher-education act. It does not separately accredit every named programme or specialisation unless a programmatic decision is issued. It does not replace company, consumer, data-protection, or professional-licensing law.
After listing, the institution may indicate institutional accreditation on completion documents as accreditation of the Institute, provided the wording does not imply separate programme accreditation of an individual designation. Logo use must follow the guidelines supplied with the accreditation pack.
Readers should check the legal name on the certificate against the name on the decision, and the dates on the listing. Those two checks prevent most misunderstandings.
