In this month’s edition of World Education News and Reviews, we continue our review of accreditation procedures across Latin America and the Caribbean with a look at developments in Panamá and Nicaragua.

These two Central American nations are both slowly entering the discourse on quality assurance that is growing in the region, but are not as far along in introducing system-wide accreditation practices as a number of neighboring countries. In Nicaragua, growth in the private education sector has prompted heightened competition for student enrollments and a subsequent increase in concerns about accountability and quality at both public and private institutions. In Panama’s case, it has taken years of planning to build the capacity to introduce a national accreditation body, and after much preparation it appears that implementation may soon be a reality.

The two overviews in this edition of WENR reveal that both countries have made substantive progress in recent years towards improving academic standards in tertiary education. However, both countries still have a long way to go before quality assurance procedures meeting international standards are fully operational.

• Panamá
• Nicaragua

Previous countries covered:

• Belize
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras