International Fire Service Accreditation Congress - Degree Assembly (IFSAC)
The IFSAC Degree Assembly is one of two assemblies in the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress providing specialized accreditation in the fire service profession. To know more about this accreditation read this blog.
International Fire Service Accreditation Congress - Degree Assembly (IFSAC)
Established in 1990, as a new National Accreditation System for fire service certification programs and by 1992 accreditation system for fire-related degree program began. The IFSAC is a peer-driven, self-governing, not-for-profit system which does both higher education fire-related degree programs and self-governing system of both fire service certifying entities. They have a mission to plan and administer a high-quality and uniform acceptance of accreditation with an international scope.
It is a degree program accredited by IFAC symbolizes that course offerings, institutional allowance, and qualified faculty are working together in completing their educational mission. After a panel consisting of representatives from other member institutions comes and reviews only then accreditation is granted.
Functions of the Degree Assembly
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Produce and/or adopt guidelines for accreditation.
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Degree Assembly Board of Governors have a set of policies and operational guidelines established by the degree assembly
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The Degree Assembly tries to promote networking among the post-secondary institutes that provide a degree program in the disciplines of fire.
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Member entities would be identified and accreditation would be provided to them
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One of the important work of the Degree Assembly is to get recognition from the agencies who evaluate, accredit, recognize, or approve accrediting bodies.
Membership and Accreditation Process for Fire Related Degree Programs
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Membership application that would be submitted to the degree assembly would be accepted by voting by the degree assembly members
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IFSAC administration would verify the accreditation of the Institute
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Governor's chairperson of the degree assembly board would approve the application for membership
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Qualified members of the IFSAC degree assembly would visit the site
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Based on the site team report and recommendation approval would be given by the degree assembly
board.
Accredited degree programs and Institutions
| Institution | Degree Programs |
| Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) |
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| Kaplan University |
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| Montana State University |
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| Oklahoma State University (OSU) |
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| Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) |
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Conclusion
An accreditation started in order to certify institutes that provide the degree in Fire Services. They have a Degree Assembly who checks through various standards before giving the accreditation to colleges for a course. The standard they keep are quite high as these type of courses require high safety. As a result of that, there is the regular security standard checking done in these institutions. Thus, in all IFSAC an accreditation program started for improving the standards of Fire Service degree and they are constantly working to improve it more to an international standard.
