Accreditation levels

The EEAA accreditation scheme makes a dual statement of comparability to two other existing frameworks. The first is the UNESCO International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) that supplies a methodology to translate national educational programmes into an internationally comparable set of categories for the levels of education (see detail of ISCED Level 5). The second framework is found in the worldwide nomenclature generally recognized within the networks of schools associated with the International Council for Theological Education (ICETE) that provides international evangelical “peer-review accreditation”, and facilitates mutual international recognition between institutions of degrees and programmes. This common theology-degree nomenclature also grants a high level of international recognisability by missions, denominations and potential employers of graduates. Having an accredited programme with the EEAA means that the school’s degrees will usually be recognized by evangelicals worldwide and that the school itself has succeeded in reaching significant quality standards in theological higher education.

The relationship of the EEAA to the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area is explained on a separate page.

The EEAA accreditation levels also make an important distinction between vocational and academic degrees. Deciding whether a programme of theological education will have a greater academic or vocational emphasis is very important and will have direct bearing on the curriculum as well as on the kind of certification and accreditation classification given by the EEAA.   The EEAA believes that both academic and vocational emphasis in theological education are equally important, and refuses the dichotomy that would consider academic training "superior" to vocational training. While EEAA does not wish to polarize these two emphases, it does however see the need to keep them distinct.  An entire edition of The Theological Educator deals with this topic (Vol 3.1). 

Since the distinction between vocational and academic training is not always clear, a Vocational Academic Test test has been devised by the EEAA as a tool to help initiate a conversation. 

As of 2006, the EEAA is involved in accreditation that leads to a statement of comparability to the following levels: