Criteria for Accreditation

The criteria for accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education have been developed based upon The Attributes of Cooperative Education Programs, a structural model that reflects the founding principles and distinctive definition of cooperative education. They provide a set of standards that are subscribed to by a significant number of programs of cooperative education and a conceptual framework that advances cooperative education as a discipline.

CRITERION ONE: The institution has effectively included cooperative education as an integral part of the academic program and has implemented policies and practices appropriate to achievement of program educational goals.

• A permanent record of student participation in cooperative education work experiences, for each work term, is documented on the official institutional student academic transcript.
• Cooperative education work experiences are formally identified by the institution as part of the curriculum.
• Student work experiences and related learning take place under real-world working conditions.
  • While on cooperative work experience periods students are considered as employees of the hiring organization and subject to the policies and laws that relate to other employees of the organization.
  • Participating students will receive compensation in the form of wages for work performed.
  • Students will be under the supervision of the employing organization and perform work assigned by the employer.
• New students in the program are provided with an orientation to program purposes and policies and the expectations for their participation.
• The institution engages in ongoing assessment to ensure that cooperative education work experiences are related to student academic and/or career goals.
• The program’s monitoring practices of student workplace experiences are used to facilitate breadth of practical experiences for students and/or provide for progression to increased responsibilities as they advance in their education program.
• Methods are used to evaluate student performance for each work period.
• Process and methods are used to assist all participating students in assessing their work experiences and in integrating their classroom studies with the practical knowledge obtained.
• Policies and systems are in place for maintaining information on student participation, including employer evaluations of students and student evaluations of each work experience.
• The institution offers a form of academic credit for cooperative education work experiences, i.e. A, B, C and credit hours; substitute for required elective courses; requirement for the degree; Pass/Fail; etc.
• Student learning outcomes have been established for your program and assessment tools are being used to measure the accomplishments of those student learning outcomes.

CRITERION TWO: The institution has a clear and publicly-stated, formalized plan for the alternation, full-time or half-time, of campus-based classroom study with multiple periods of work experiences appropriate to a program of cooperative education.

• Time spent in the work portion of the curriculum should encompass a significant portion of the overall degree program (minimum guideline - 20% of the total time) to be an effective augmentation to the curriculum. (No cooperative education program consists of 100% Summer employment. This is a Summer Employment Program.) Recognized plans include Full-Time Alternating, Parallel, and Combination Alternating / Parallel
• Participating students fulfill a minimum time specified for the work portion of the curriculum for each formalized alternating plans

CRITERION THREE: The Program demonstrates faculty involvement in the cooperative education program.

• Faculty have endorsed the program’s fundamental policies, including the methods for awarding credit for periods of cooperative education work experience.
• The opinions and views of faculty about the cooperative education program are discussed and brought forward to the co-op unit.
• The cooperative education program’s operating unit maintains a productive relationship with faculty in the involved academic departments.

CRITERION FOUR: The program demonstrates efforts to achieve understandings with employers as to the goals for cooperative education and to encourage agreements on policies and expectations for the cooperative relationship.

• Policies and practices of the program are communicated to employers to help ensure that the employer, students and institution, equally, meet individual objectives from participation in the cooperative education program.
• Institutional written statements include understandings for employer program participation that demonstrate a commitment of cooperation between the employer and the institution to ensure student learning and an agreement on the process for evaluating the student’s work experience.
• The program makes efforts to encourage participating employers to maintain an on-going cooperative education employment relationship that lasts beyond a single student’s participation and/or beyond the completion of a project.

CRITERION FIVE: The program has been effectively defined in the institution’s literature and its mission, goals and policies are appropriate to a program of cooperative education, as defined in the ACCE “Attributes of Cooperative Education Programs.”

• Institutional literature includes the mission and goals for the cooperative education program.
• Institutional literature identifies the disciplines in which cooperative education is included in the curriculum.
• Institutional literature includes policies related to student eligibility for program participation that requires the applicant to be classified by the institution as at least a half-time, matriculated student and that the initial cooperative work experience will not precede the student’s first academic term, or occur after the final school term.