IAC/EADI Accreditation
The International Accreditation Council for Global Development Studies and Research

EADI, as the professional European organisation of institutes and professionals in the field of Development, wishes to influence proactively the process of accreditation and quality assurance as far as Global Development Studies are concerned. To this end it has developed a state-of-the art quality assurance (QA) and accreditation system that take the specific nature of global development studies into account.

The International Accreditation Council for Global Development Studies and Research (IAC/EADI) is the independent council of EADI in charge of the system. IAC/EADI works in close collaboration with the EADI Secretariat in Bonn. The main purpose of IAC/EADI is to promote the quality of Global Development training programmes both in the North and the South.

The primary services provided by the IAC/EADI are:

• to confer Accreditation Trademarks (“IAC/EADI Accredited Programme”) to organisations from the North and the South requesting accreditation for their taught Master programme
• to develop partnerships and capacity building activities with the global South and partner organisations
• to monitor and develop accreditation standards and to seek national and international recognition of the IAC/EADI accreditation standards

IAC/EADI accreditation either stands by itself as voluntary evaluation and accreditation system or it can be complementary to the national systems which are in place in Europe and beyond. Accreditation by IAC/EADI may in certain cases be formally recognised by national accreditation authorities. The QA standards and criteria used by IAC/EADI are state of the art and in line with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area as issued by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

Over time, IAC/EADI will develop a scale of additional service, reaching from (pre-accreditation) advice and capacity building activities on quality assurance to post-accreditation follow-up and support.

To date IAC/EADI has accredited courses in Development Studies at ISS (The Hague), IDS (Sussex) and COIBA (Cantabria). It has also conducted peer reviews of a number of leading development studies Master Programmes in Norway and South Africa. IAC/EADI expects to accredit around 5 to 10 programmes per year.