The American University of Bahrain (AUBH) is proud to announce that it will apply for U.S. regional accreditation through the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), which officially invited AUBH to apply after reviewing AUBH’s  Expression of Interest (EoI), submitted two months ago.  AUBH is the only institution approved to seek eligibility for accreditation by WSCUC in Bahrain. If accredited by WSCUC, AUBH would be among a handful of universities that are accredited by WSCUC in the MENA and GCC regions. Other U.S.-based universities accredited by the WSCUC include Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and California State University, Northridge (CSUN), AUBH’s proposed academic partner.

U.S. regional accreditation, recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), holds the highest level of quality assurance at the institutional level for higher education. The accreditation process usually takes five years and is guided by 16 rigorous eligibility criteria. Those include a “First Seeking Accreditation Visit” (SAV), during which WSCUC Commission members will fly to Bahrain and visit the American-style University to inspect the state-of-the-art campus, which was built with U.S. regional accreditation in mind by U.S. architect, Ayers Saint Gross.

Dr. Saxton commented “With quality assurance as a strategic priority, we are very proud to be selected to apply to WSCUC, especially knowing that they are not currently accrediting so many international universities.  We are also thrilled to have the opportunity to share the same accreditor as our future academic partner, the California State University, Northridge (CSUN).”

AUBH is licensed by the Higher Education Council of the Ministry of Education in Bahrain, the national regulator for the Kingdom’s Higher Education Institutions, and is a CIQG Member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in the U.S.