Candidacy Status
The Council for Interior Design Accreditation’s (CIDA) mission is to “…provide the foundation for excellence in the interior design profession by setting standards for education and accrediting academic programs that meet those standards.” Accreditation is a voluntary process that promotes the achievement of high academic standards. Accreditation makes education responsive to student and societal needs and provides quality assurance for protection of the public.
Who is the public CIDA serves?- CIDA serves students who are seeking or attending interior design programs by ensuring that baseline knowledge, skills, and educational credentials are acquired to ensure success in the profession.
- CIDA serves programs through maintaining up-to-date standards that reflect the requirements of employers and industry and thus provides a tool for continual development by which programs maintain currency with professional requirements.
- CIDA serves employers by ensuring that interior design education meets baseline requirements for preparation to practice.
- CIDA serves the profession by strengthening interior design education, the foundation upon which the profession is built.
CIDA’s Board of Directors adopted candidacy status policy and procedure, effective January 1, 2007.
Purpose of change
The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) requires interior design programs to have graduated a minimum of two classes before they are eligible to seek accreditation. The reason for this requirement is that CIDA’s Standards for accreditation are heavily focused on student learning; therefore, the assessment of student learning must be based on a representative body of student work produced from a program’s current and on-going curriculum. While interior design programs that have not yet graduated two classes may show great promise, these programs still lack the body of work required for full assessment of student learning.
Although the graduation of two classes is an important element in the evaluation of student learning, this requirement poses difficulty for programs that are newly formed or undergoing significant restructuring in order to seek accreditation. Graduates of these programs may have difficulty securing positions in the field without CIDA’s recognition of the quality of their education.
Many accrediting agencies address this potential problem by offering candidacy status, which recognizes the quality of academic programs in development. Candidacy status is public recognition that an agency grants to an institution or program for a limited period of time (no more than 5 years) to signify that the agency has determined the institution or program is progressing towards accreditation and has the potential to achieve compliance with the agency’s standards within a limited period of time.
Candidacy status is most typically offered by agencies accrediting professions that require licensure, registration, or certification in order to practice. Offering candidacy status supports legislative efforts and the formation of new programs in states or provinces that have strict licensure requirements. As state and provincial regulation of interior design becomes increasingly common, candidacy status forms a mechanism for graduates of programs that are in development to gain access to registration and licensure.
Candidacy status policy and procedures are modeled on best practices in accreditation and honed to fit the community served by CIDA. The administrative cost is reflective of the value of candidacy status to developing programs and their students. Defining statements ensure that the difference between candidacy status and accreditation is clear to the public.
Schedule for implementation
As of January 1, 2007, eligible programs may submit an application to seek candidacy status from CIDA. Candidacy visits are scheduled one year in advance; therefore, the first candidacy visit will not take place until spring 2008.
For more information and to download policy and procedure and forms, click here.