Accreditation

As of 2020, Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges accreditations were reaffirmed by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges/Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC/WASC).

Accredited status from an institutional accreditor enables an institution to qualify for federal grants and contracts, to distribute federal financial aid to its students, and for students’ credits to be more easily transferred to other accredited institutions. However, accreditation offers far more than that.

ACCJC Accreditation Standards focus on continuous quality improvement efforts around the critical elements of student learning and student achievement. These standards provide a framework for best practices that lead to achievement of the institution’s mission, student success, academic quality, institutional integrity, and excellence.

ACCJC believes that clearly sharing institutional outcomes required in our Standards, along with consumer-based social mobility outcomes in transparent public-facing dashboards and websites, can help refine campus efforts and increase transparency for students, parents, and the public.

The peer review process, integral to accreditation, is a robust resource for quality improvement, using inquiry from peers to gain a deep understanding of an institution and to provide useful feedback for the institution’s ongoing improvement. This process of peer review ensures institutions of higher education meet established standards of quality and provide degrees, certificates, and credits that students and the community can trust.