Counseling and Human Services
Accreditation
Accreditation refers to the process by which an outside professional organization reviews educational programs to ensure that they meet national standards of quality and comprehensiveness. Our Master's programs and our Doctoral program are fully accredited by the highest accrediting bodies in the counseling profession. The accreditation process involves identification of appropriate preparation curricula by the profession, followed by extensive self-study and evaluation by the aspiring counselor education program. Only then does a visiting team of experts come to the university to verify that the program meets national standards. Finally, the visiting team's report is given to the accrediting board for review and action. Programs may be accredited for eight years, at which time the institution must submit for re-accreditation, following the same process described above.
The Master's degree program in Counselor Education has five concentrations:
- School Counseling
- Community Counseling
- Student Affairs Counseling
- Rehabilitation Counseling
- Rehabilitation and Community Counseling
Four of these concentrations (all but Rehabilitation Counseling) and the Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision are accredited by CACREP.
CACREP (Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs) states "schools with programs accredited by CACREP have accepted their responsibility to provide quality training programs. Accreditation is a powerful tool for self-evaluation and improvement. The Council remains responsive to the changing needs of society and those persons serving as counselors. CACREP-accredited programs are encouraged to make continual evaluations and revisions to remain current."
Counselor Education students graduating from a CACREP-accredited program may sit for a special administration of the National Counselor Examination (NCE) in their final semester. Upon successful completion of the program and the exam, they can become Nationally Certified Counselors (NCC's) without additional supervision hours required of graduates from non-CACREP accredited programs. The NCE is also used by many states as part of their licensure requirement.
For more information about the NCC credential, you can visit the National
Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Web site.