About the third-party evaluation of JACA

JACA guarantees the quality of education of junior colleges in Japan and supports and promotes overall “improvement and reform.”
JACA sustains the overall quality of junior college education, and in doing so, it assists and supports member junior colleges in their efforts for self-improvement.

JACA is recognized as a certified evaluation and accreditation agency (School Education Law, Clause 109) for junior college by the MEXT (School of Education Law, Clause 110). It accredits junior colleges as a third-party evaluator.

This third-party evaluation evaluates the standards of junior colleges as higher education organizations, to determine whether they are fulfilling the evaluation standards of junior college. We conduct the evaluation based mainly on peer reviews, which are provided by registered evaluators from member junior colleges of JACA, who are experts on junior college education. In order to raise the quality of the nature of “third-party assessments,” we also use the evaluation determinations made by scholars from non-member institutions. Therefore, the junior colleges that are given passing evaluation by third-parties are deemed to be qualified higher education institutions.

In order to promote communication and to gain broad public understanding and support, JACA widely publicizes the results of third-party evaluations and ensures the transparency of the accreditation process. JACA also makes consistent efforts to enhance the accreditation system, publishing information about system as well as fulfilling public expectations.