Accreditation standards are used to assess whether a program of study, and the education provider that provides the program of study, provides graduates of the program with the knowledge, skills and professional attributes to practise the profession.
In developing standards, accreditation authorities take account of relevant national and international standards and codes and consult stakeholders. Each accreditation authority publishes on its website the approved accreditation for the profession and information about any reviews of the standards and opportunities for stakeholder input to those reviews.
AHPRA’s Procedures for the development of accreditation standards (the Procedures) were developed with input from the Australian Health Professions Councils’ Forum and others. The Procedures inform National Boards, accreditation authorities and AHPRA about the matters:
- that an accreditation authority should take into account in developing accreditation standards or changing accreditation standards, and
- which an accreditation authority should explicitly address when submitting accreditation standards to a national board for approval, and
- that a national board should consider when deciding whether to approve accreditation standards developed by the accreditation authority.
National Board approval of programs of study
When a program of study has been accredited, a national board considers whether it will approve, or refuse to approve, the accredited program of study. Only graduates of approved programs are eligible to apply for registration. A searchable list of approved programs of study is available on this website.
More information about accreditation under the National Law
A reference document Accreditation under the National Law has been developed by accreditation authorities, National Boards and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to provide information about accreditation under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act as in force in each state and territory (the National Law).