Saudi Arabia’s Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) has been recognised by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in the United States, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on 2 October 2026. The recognition was granted to ETEC through its National Center for Academic Accreditation and Evaluation (NCAAA), following a decision by the CHEA Board of Directors, for a full seven-year term.
Three names run through the decision: the Saudi accreditor ETEC, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the NCAAA. The first is the Saudi state evaluation commission, the second is the US body that granted the recognition, and the third is the commission’s accreditation centre, which holds the new status.
According to the SPA report, ETEC is the first national accreditation entity in the Arab world and the Middle East to receive CHEA recognition. The report does not give the date of the CHEA board decision, any conditions attached to the recognition, or how the review was carried out.
What the recognition covers
The scope described by SPA is broad. It covers public and private higher education institutions and academic programmes in all disciplines, from associate degrees to doctorates, delivered in person, in hybrid form or by distance learning. It also extends to international institutions operating outside Saudi Arabia that voluntarily seek NCAAA accreditation, and to programmes delivered by international branch campuses legally operating in the Kingdom.
Under the recognition, institutions accredited by NCAAA are eligible to apply for international affiliate membership of CHEA, which SPA says gives access to a network of more than 1,600 higher education institutions and shared academic resources. SPA linked the move to the Study in Saudi Arabia programme for international students and to the Human Capability Development Program under Saudi Vision 2030.
Saudi accreditor ETEC, CHEA and the NCAAA: who does what
ETEC, in full the Education and Training Evaluation Commission, is the Saudi state body for evaluation, assessment and accreditation across education and training. Its own site lists seven affiliated centres, among them the National Center for Assessment, known as Qiyas, the school evaluation centre Tamayuz and the training accreditation centre MASAR. NCAAA, the National Center for Academic Accreditation and Evaluation, is the centre within that structure that accredits universities and their academic provision. It has been a member of INQAAHE, the international network of quality assurance agencies, since March 2016, according to the network’s member directory.
CHEA, formed in 1996, is a US membership association of degree-granting colleges and universities. It recognises non-governmental institutional and programmatic accrediting organisations, and its published standards state that CHEA recognition is separate from, and independent of, recognition by the US Department of Education. Recognition conveys that an accreditor meets the CHEA Recognition Standards.
What the CHEA decision summary adds
CHEA has published a recognition decision summary for NCAAA that supplies detail missing from the SPA report. The CHEA Board of Directors took the decision at its meeting of 28 September 2026, four days before the Saudi announcement. The action is an initial recognition, the centre’s first, with an interim report due at the midpoint of the term, on 1 April 2030.
The summary records NCAAA as an institutional and programmatic accreditor with 62 accredited institutions and 2,748 accredited programmes. Its recognised scope matches the SPA description and adds one line: the centre also accredits Arabic language teaching centres and programmes for speakers of other languages. The document puts the three parties, the Saudi accreditor ETEC, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the NCAAA, on a fixed timetable, with the next full review due when the seven-year term runs out in 2033.
How CHEA recognition works
The review ran under the CHEA Standards and Procedures for Recognition, approved by the CHEA board on 29 September 2025. The maximum term of recognition is seven years, so NCAAA has received the longest term available. Applications go first to a Committee on Recognition of at least seven members serving three-year terms. The committee meets in open session to clarify the application and hear public comment, then recommends recognition, denial or withdrawal to the board, which decides.
The standards cover four areas: academic quality and student achievement, accountability and transparency, accreditation structure and organisation, and capacity and compliance for accreditation activity outside the accreditor’s home country. The fourth matters most for the Saudi accreditor ETEC and its NCAAA centre: the centre’s recognised scope crosses borders in both directions, taking in foreign institutions that volunteer for its accreditation and programmes run by branch campuses inside the Kingdom, a group TED follows on its campus tracker, where the University of Strathclyde’s Riyadh campus is among the entries. A recognised accreditor must also file substantive change notifications between reviews.
Context
The announcement came three days after the Saudi Cabinet session of 29 September 2026, chaired by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman. According to SPA’s account of that session, the Cabinet reviewed domestic reports and commended the successive international recognition of the leadership of the Saudi Model for Education and Training Quality, which it described as an integrated set of programmes, tools and measures supported by a broad database.
ETEC’s own page on international recognitions and memberships for higher education, last updated on 8 September 2026, lists the World Federation for Medical Education, the Seoul Accord and Washington Accord membership through the International Engineering Alliance, covering medical education, engineering and information technology. CHEA was not listed on that page when TED read it on 12 October 2026.
CHEA is also working with other Gulf quality bodies. The Qatar News Agency reported on 8 October 2026 that Qatar’s National Committee for Qualifications and Academic Accreditation organised the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Forum in Doha in cooperation with CHEA.
What it means
TED analysis:
- For Saudi universities: NCAAA accreditation now carries a route to CHEA international affiliate membership, which institutions can cite in partnership talks and international recruitment. Its practical value will depend on how partner universities abroad treat that membership.
- For foreign providers: programmes of international branch campuses legally operating in the Kingdom fall within the recognised scope, so NCAAA review of those programmes now sits inside a CHEA-recognised framework. Providers planning a Saudi presence should build NCAAA accreditation into their timelines.
- For Gulf regulators: ETEC says it is the first Arab national accreditor to gain CHEA recognition, and Qatar’s accreditation committee organised a forum with CHEA, according to a QNA report six days later. US accreditation practice is becoming a common reference point for national quality agencies in the region.
