University Rankings and Accreditation: What They Mean

When choosing a university and degree programme, there is usually a long checklist to consult first: fees, courses offered, graduate prospects, career opportunities, financial aid, and more.

But what about rankings and accreditation?

That can be quite confusing and can feel like a blind spot. What do rankings and accreditation actually mean? Why do they matter?

Rankings and accreditation can be a useful starting point. They provide reference points and a basis for comparing several options.

It is equally important to have a clear idea of what you want to get from the information they provide. Are you more interested in a traditional research university or a modern, practice-oriented institution? Are you more concerned about a programme’s graduate employment prospects or its teaching quality?

Being able to define what matters to you in a university and a degree will make it easier to browse rankings and decide which kinds of accreditation to pay attention to.

Let’s take a closer look at both of these areas...

Rankings

Rankings are a useful tool for distinguishing between and comparing universities, degree programmes, and even student cities and graduate employment rates. Each ranking draws on customised comparison data based on a range of measures and factors, such as teaching quality, research quality, staff-to-student ratios, student satisfaction, and more.

In recent years, many universities from around the world have climbed the rankings, even pushing aside some of the most prestigious institutions in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

The University of Lima in Peru is one such university, and it is doing exactly that. In 2019, the University of Lima appeared for the first time among the top 75 universities in Latin America in the QS World University Rankings 2020 and the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020.

More importantly, in 2018, the University of Lima was awarded a three-star rating in the QS Stars rating system.

"We wanted to know what the University of Lima is on a global scale, and here we have some indicators that begin to produce that satisfying effect of seeing ourselves through the eyes of those who know and train us," said Óscar Quezada Macchiavello, the university’s president. "For us, this map is essential, because it is already an X-ray - of course, a very vivid X-ray - of what we are."

But remember: rankings are only one indicator of how well a university and degree programme fit your needs. We strongly recommend visiting universities whenever possible so that you can get a real feel for the place, meet the teaching staff, and speak with current students and alumni who are studying or have studied the degree programme that interests you.

Accreditation

Accreditation is a big, impressive word that essentially means "quality assurance."

Depending on the institution or degree, they may undergo rigorous checks to ensure they meet certain standards set by national education authorities or independent accrediting bodies.

If an institution or degree programme is labelled as accredited, it can be seen as an official seal of approval, meaning that it meets and upholds the highest quality standards.

You are most likely to see the term "accredited" in relation to a specific field of study if it leads to a professional qualification or registration with a professional body, such as actuarial science, accounting, medicine, and engineering.

The University of Lima is one such university, with several undergraduate programmes receiving accredited status over the past three years.

These include its Psychology programme, which received interactive accreditation from IAC-Cinda in 2018, and its Economics programme, which was recognised in 2019 as a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute University Affiliation Program, making it the first undergraduate degree in Peru to receive this global distinction.

Also in 2019, the University of Lima became the only institution in Latin America to join Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE).

Even more importantly, last year the university’s Industrial Engineering and Systems Engineering programmes were accredited by ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, a respected organisation that accredits higher education programmes in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology around the world.