Accreditation is an external recognition of the quality of educational programs. It can be voluntary, required, or coerced, and carried out by government agencies, peer institutions, professional organizations, or a combination. Accreditation criteria can range from general educational goals to specifying course content. The level of criteria specificity is an important consideration. Accreditation serves various stakeholders including governments, universities, faculty, students, and the profession. International recognition of accreditation is increasingly important as engineering becomes more global.