Accreditation of Library and Information Science programmes in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations

This paper investigates the accreditation possibilities and prospects for the library and information science education programmes located in the six member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This paper has been based on the findings of a study focused on the evaluation practices of these programmes and the perceptions of the leading academic managers in these schools. The respondents provided information about their choices of accrediting agencies. It was found that most programmes had conducted evaluation through self-assessment or external review, focusing on a range of important aspects related to programme design and administration. The respondents also provided information about the changes that had taken place, subsequent to evaluation exercises. All the respondents favoured accreditation. It is proposed that accreditation initiatives might be pursued under the authority of the Gulf Cooperation Council's university forum and initial recommendations of how this might be undertaken are presented. The paper also discusses problems that the programmes in this region might face in introducing and implementing accreditation.