A school, a college or a training centre that wants an outside opinion has to begin with the institution. The course title can wait. What a reviewer can actually test is the legal identity, the way learners are admitted, how work is assessed, how a complaint is heard, and whether the public site says what the body does. That is institutional accreditation. It is a quality-assurance decision about the provider, not a grant of degree-awarding powers.

The International Association for Quality Assurance in Pre-Tertiary and Higher Education reads private schools, online colleges, vocational centres and training providers against that institutional standard. The file is ordinary, and it has to be complete. A registration extract shows that a legal person exists. A programme overview shows what is taught, and it should not dress a professional designation up as a state degree. Study regulations, an assessment policy, a complaints procedure and a quality-review log show that the work is administered rather than improvised.

Online delivery does not remove those tests. A platform still needs a named owner, a record of assessment, a way to reach a learner, and a privacy notice that matches the data actually collected. A campus still needs the same. The mode changes the evidence. It does not change the question, which is whether a stranger can see how the institution works.

Renewal is the same review, done again. A listing that has lapsed is not cured by a logo left on a letterhead. The committee looks at whether the policies still match the practice, whether the public page still tells the truth, and whether the institution can show a year of decisions rather than a year of intentions. A short quality log is more useful than a long mission statement.

Providers that want the review start with the institutional accreditation application. The form is the door. The evidence is the argument. A listing after approval may be shown on a completion document as accreditation of the institution. It should not be written as accreditation of a named programme unless that programme has been reviewed on its own.

The limit belongs in the same piece as the offer. QAHE accreditation does not confer authority to award national academic degrees. It does not replace a ministry, a grants council or a professional licence in medicine, law, engineering or teaching. Used as a public quality-assurance listing, with the wording kept to the institution, it is a record a partner or a parent can check.