Provisional Accreditation is an accreditation status granted by the ARC-PA for a limited, defined period of time (3 years) to a new PA program that has demonstrated its preparedness to initiate a program in accordance with the Accreditation Standards for Physician Assistant Education. Only those institutions which are actively engaged in establishing a program for the education of physician assistants (PA) are eligible for provisional accreditation. The provisional accreditation process involves a thorough review of the planning, organization, and proposed content of a program that is in the advanced planning stages, but not yet operational.
Provisional accreditation is the only entry way for new programs into the accreditation process, and must precede the matriculation of students. Provisional Accreditation does not ensure any subsequent accreditation status.
Programs applying for Provisional Accreditation are not eligible to propose a distant campus as part of the application process.
The ARC-PA accredits only qualified PA programs offered by, or located within institutions chartered by and physically located within, the United States and where students are geographically located within the United States for their education.
A single institution must be clearly identified as the sponsor of the program and must be authorized under applicable law to provide a program of post secondary education. It must be accredited by a recognized regional accrediting agency and must be authorized by this agency to confer upon graduates of the PA program a baccalaureate or graduate degree.
Sponsoring institutions applying for provisional accreditation of a new PA program must be accredited by, and in good standing with, a recognized regional accrediting agency and must be authorized by that agency to confer upon graduates of the PA program a graduate degree.
Institutional representatives should carefully read the accreditation Standards and Provisional Application on this web site. To initiate the provisional accreditation process, a representative of the proposed sponsoring institution must contact the ARC-PA executive director in writing, via mail or email. The ARC-PA will provide information to the institution to allow it to decide if it wishes to apply for accreditation as a new PA program.
Upon determining that the program is eligible to apply for Provisional accreditation, the ARC-PA will provide the program information on the application process and timeline for submission of materials. Programs will be asked to submit all materials requested to the ARC-PA eight weeks prior to the scheduled site visit.
Initial Provisional Accreditation visits are conducted during the calendar year prior to enrollment of the charter class of students. Provisional visits evaluate a program's readiness to matriculate students into the first 15 months of the program and a program's readiness for the program curriculum beyond the first 15 months. Based on the accreditation application to include a feasibility study and descriptive report, the report of the site visit team, and the evaluation of these by the ARC-PA, the ARC-PA will determine whether to award Provisional Accreditation.
Follow-up provisional visits are conducted to programs that have successfully achieved provisional accreditation. Follow-up visits must occur no sooner than four months after students have entered the clinical phase of the program and no later than six months after graduation of the first class. The ARC-PA retains the right to require an earlier follow-up provisional visit. A report of the visit is written for consideration and action by the ARC-PA. Failure of a provisionally accredited program to achieve accreditation within the specified time will result in withdrawal of accreditation.
The Accreditation Resources page of the web site contains important information from ARC-PA presentations at national meetings aimed at helping programs prepare for their ongoing self analysis, prepare for site visits and develop syllabi.
The Accreditation Manual for the Standards, 4th edition is available in the Standards section of this web site.
Accredited programs pay an annual accreditation fee, billed each year in December.
During the year of its accreditation visit, the program pays an accreditation application fee. The site visitors’ direct expenses for these visits are covered by the ARC-PA.
A copy of the fee schedule as of September 2011 is available here.
Programs that cancel their visit within sixty days of their scheduled visit will be responsible for any expenses associated with the visit that have been incurred by the ARC-PA.