Accreditation
 Accreditation is when members of the Association of Bible Colleges voluntarily agree to meet a set of established standards to create a better, quality educational experience for their students. ABC evaluates and advises our membership on how to meet these standards so that they operate at their best level of performance and train their students to have a real-world knowledge that allows them to go out into the world and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ with knowledge, authority and a stronger faith. We help each institution to identify weaknesses and improve their programs. However, you must be a member first for at least three months before you can apply for accreditation. This gives you time to improve the areas already given you for consideration when you became a member. So, first, apply for membership. Then after three months, you can consider accredited membership.
Our accreditation process is set up not to criticize, but to advise. After you have gone through the procedures, you will find your institution making great strides towards improvement as a bible and ministry training institution. It is not our goal to "find something wrong", but to advise you on how to make your curriculum, training platform, instructional materials, policies, and procedures better for the benefit of your school, your staff, your faculty and your students. Many Christian schools began as church endeavors with a weak background in higher education. Often, they begin as a volunteer effort at a mission to train others to spread the gospel. There are also degree mill bible colleges out there taking money from students for a worthless education. We are serious about helping institutions that use the "Scripture" that "is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17 ESV), including training them to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. That is our mission - to help you with your mission. We hope you will consider us when looking for a better higher learning association that helps rather than admonishes, that works hard to encourage and equip your institution to be its best.
How to Apply for Accreditation
The first step in the application for accreditation is to become an institutional member. The process of becoming a member actually begins the process of evaluation. Think of membership as what some accrediting agencies call a being candidate for accreditation. In fact, your insatitutional membership certificate will state that. Member institutions are advised and mentored towards the accreditation application process. You can be a member and reap many of the benefits of many accreditation agencies without the expense of the accreditation process. However, we encourage all of our members to become accredited members after you have improved to the point of success. Therefore, we ask all those seeking accreditation to be members of ABC for a minimum of three months before applying for the accreditation process. Go to the membership page and apply today.
Steps to Accreditation
1. Compliance
We ask institutions to provide documentation concerning their nonprofit status. ABC does not accept "for profit" organizations. This can be in the form of nonprofit documentation for the school itself, or if under the umbrella of a church, the church's documentation. Then, we request proof that they have licenses or a religious exemption statement or certificate from each state or country in which they have a physical campus. We look at the organizing documents, such as the nonprofit corporation papers, to look at how the governing body is organized for the institution. There must be a chief execution officer who has the appropriate authority to govern the institution and a board of trustees or similar to help make the important decisions regarding that institution. There must be an administration section which may or may not include board members who govern the administration of the school, to include admissions, registration, and support services. There must be an academic structure of leadership, that may or may not include the trustee board members and administrators, dedicated to the conduct of the learning process to include a dean of the college and school directors, or deans of colleges in larger institutions and their faculty department heads. In smaller institutions with few students, multiple roles may be held by a single person. The importance is that these areas are structured to provide the proper support for these areas by the school staff and faculty.
2. Policies and Procedures Each institution must have a catalog that states clearly the policies and procedures of the institution. It should have a clearly defined missional statement, statement of faith, a non-discrimination policy, admissions and transfer policies, student and standards of conduct policies, financial fee and refund policies, academic standards, academic program requirements with needed courses and minimum courseload for the program. Students must be appointed an academic advisor and periodically be advised on their degree progress. These policies and procedures should be provided in a school catalog. Such catalogs may be provided as hardcopy books or as E-copies (i.e. .pdf) or online in a website, but should be easily viewed by students and prospective students alike.
3. Academic Programs and Curriculum
Degree requirements must be in keeping with accepted standards Program courses must be based on the semester hour system. We as that quarter hour systems be converted to semester hours for compatibility with association member schools at one quarter hour = two-thirds of a semester hour. It should be pointed out one semester hour should require at least 3 hours of weekly effort to include all weekly lectures, study or research, readings, writing, and assignments on average throughout the course. Therefore, the standard 3 semester hour course should require 135 hours of study and effort during the term. Terms should be 15 weeks long, however, they may be abbreviated to 7 to 14 weeks to account for the summer term or mini-terms, as long as the overall hourly effort requirement is met during that term for the course. Grades must be based on the standard A, B, C, D, and F system, though percentages may vary down from the normal 10% disparity (A = 90% to 100%, B = 80% to 89% etc.) if higher standards are required by an association school (i.e. A = 94% to 100%, B = 84% to 93%, etc.) It is the opinion of ABC that if the standards of each course are at quality requirements, that a variation of the 10% disparity is unnecessary. Grade points must be assigned and maintained for each student, with the standard A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1 and F = 0 being assigned for each credit hour of effort completed. A grade point average should be provided students at the end of each term. ABC can only evaluate biblical and ministry related programs. We cannot provide accreditation for programs unrelated to either biblical studies, church or religious nonprofit ministries or religion. The program title must show a clear relation to those types of areas. For example, you can have a Bachelor of Leadership and Administration for Churches and Nonprofits, but we cannot provide accreditation for a Bachelor of Leadership program. We can accredit some of your programs, but not others depending on their meeting minimum standards. The school can claim accreditation from ABC only if three-fourths of its programs are accredited. Certificates must have a minimum of 12 semester hours credit, Associate degrees a minimum of 60 semester hours credit, Bachelor degrees a minimum of 120 semester hours credit, Masters degrees a minimum of 30 semester hours credit to include a 3 - 6 hour masters thesis or project, Master of Divinity degrees a minimum of 90 semester hours credit to include a 3 - 6 hour masters thesis or project, Doctorate degrees a minimum of 30 semester hours credit to include a 3 to 6 hour dissertation or doctoral project. All programs and curriculem must be provided in detail either in a hardcopy or E-copy (i.e. .pdf) form or on the website for the students to view at any time. Exceptions to these standards may be reviewed on a case by case basis, as long as the different standard equates to the same amount of effort and trained knowledge.
4. Faculty Qualification
Faculty should possess a graduate degree from a reputable institution of higher learning that meets the mininum standards set forthwith in this accreditation statement. Those with master's degrees may only teach undergraduate students.Faculty must only teach course subjects for which they have obtained a minimum of 18 semester hours of credit in a related subject. For example, a Master of Divinity graduate may have sufficient hours to teach biblical studies, ministry, other subjects related that were acquired during that degree program. Graduate student instructors with at least 18 semester hours in the course subject taught, may teach courses with an faculty advisor overseeing their student teaching with proper creditials. Masters level programs may be only taught by faculty with a terminal degree (doctorate). They must also have 18 graduate hours in the subject in which they are teaching, and the doctorate degree must be related to biblical studies, ministry, theology or religion. Persons with a master's degree directly related to the graduate program taught may be allowed to teach masters level courses as long as they have 18 semester hours in the course subject and are appointed an advisor to oversee their instruction with a terminal degree.
5. Sustainability
We are not as tough on financial resources as many accrediting agencies who require you to have large sums of cash in your reserves and significant brick and mortar real property available to you, especially in this day of increased remote learning. What we are looking for is your plan to be here next year and the next. You should have at least a five your plan of sustainability and back up plans for staff, faculty and finances in case something goes wrong. We have seen one bible college proper for decades only to die because their leader died, who apparently was carrying most of the load of the small college. Answer questions like, if I lose several volunteer staff or faculty this year, how do I recruit more. What have been my successes and failures and what is my plan to succeed five years down the road?
There are numerous degree mill accrediting agencies out there who do no favors to those institutions who shell out a hundred or two hundred a year for a fake accreditation just so they can say they have such a certificate. There are also degree mill bible colleges out there taking money from students for a worthless education. If you are the latter, we can help you become a real college if you will put in the effort. If not, we cannot help you.
Also, many are weak financially and you are turned down for accreditation because you do not have an extensive and expensive brick and mortar existence with a large staff and faculty. Because you are unable to get accreditation through Department of Education recognized agencies means that often you will have financial difficulties because you cannot charge the exorbitant fees of those institutions. Often your students are poor as you reach out to train those who likewise cannot afford to go to these schools or amass a great student loan debt, or are in other countries where that is not an option. Also, some of you are newly formed with a small student body. We understand this. We want you to succeed. It is for your institution this association was formed.
However, the accreditation process is the last arbiter of association members and their ability to meet these minimum standards. On this, we work with you to make sure your institution is one that any Christian scholar would be proud to say is their alma mater.
* The Association of Bible Colleges is not recommended by the U.S. Department of Education, but is an independent religious association that maintains a separation from the state in its accreditation of Christian schools of higher learning. ABC holds all schools to a higher authority which is the Bible, God's Holy Word.
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