According to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, a national advocacy group for academic quality, accreditation means that a program or institution has gone through a rigorous review and evaluation process by experts in the field. Accreditation assures that the quality of teaching, student achievement, curricula, academic support, and other criteria meet certain standards of excellence and quality. - Newsweek, 2014
Nursing degree programs are nationally accredited; specializations within degree programs are often accredited by professional organizations dealing with that specific type of nursing (nurse anesthesia, for example). Many employers and graduate nursing degree programs require that prior degrees were earned at schools that are accredited.
Degree programs at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing are nationally accredited. Several specializations and non-degree programs are also accredited by the appropriate organizations.
Undergraduate
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org).
from 04/08/2019 through 12/31/2029
Graduate
The Master of Science in Nursing degree program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org)
from 04/08/2019 through 12/31/2029
The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org)
from 02/26/2024 through 12/31/2034
The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Nurse-Midwife Doctor of Nursing Practice Program midwifery program is accredited through February 2027 by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME), 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 1230, Silver Spring, MD 20910-6374; Tel: 240-485-1803, acme@acnm.org; www.midwife.org/acme.
from 02/01/2016 through 02/01/2027
The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Nurse Anesthesia Program BSN to DNP and MSN to DNP programs are currently accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs until 2030. The Program received a 10-year accreditation in June 2020 (this is the maximum accreditation length) and received no citations. The Nurse Anesthesia DNP Program is also accredited by the Council on Collegiate of Nursing Education (CCNE) of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing until 2034. The University of Pittsburgh as a whole is accredited by the Regional Accreditor Middle States Commission on Higher Education with accreditation reaffirmed 2022
The post-graduate APRN certificate program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org)
from 02/26/2024 through 12/31/2034
The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation (PO229) until July 31, 2025.
The University of Pittsburgh successfully completed the decennial accreditation process with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education during the 2021 and 2022 academic years. Accreditation was reaffirmed in June 2022, demonstrating how Pitt meets the accreditation standards, requirements of affiliation, and verification of compliance with accreditation-relevant federal regulations.
Code of Federal Regulations
Title 34 – Education
CFR-2020-title34-vol3.pdf – page 78 (Part 600.2) of Chapter VI – Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.
Credit hour: Except as provided in 34 CFR 668.8(k) and (l), a credit hour is an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally established equivalency that reasonably approximates not less than—
- One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit, or ten to twelve weeks for one quarter hour of credit, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or
- At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.
Direct assessment program: A program as described in 34 CFR 668.10.
Distance education means education that uses one or more of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (4) of this definition to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously.
The technologies may include–
- The internet;
- One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
- Audio conferencing; or
- Video cassettes, DVDs, and CD-ROMs, if the cassettes, DVDs, or CD-ROMs are used in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (3) of this definition.