Promoting Higher Education In Curacao

The Accreditation Agency Curacao (AAC) is an independent and professional accrediting agency of higher education located in on the island of Curacao.

The purpose of the AAC is the promotion of quality assurance in education and professional training. The AAC has been established to accredit study programs at universities, universities of applied sciences, colleges, business schools, and higher education institutions all over the world.

Although the AAC sees itself as a global player in higher education, our focus also remains of course very much on improving the education sector in Curacao.

To become more competitive, Curacao must develop a more well-educated and organized workforce. This is not an easy undertaking.

Much of the economic growth is expected in the fields of health care, science, technology and higher education. Accordingly, the AAC plans to be actively involved in many quality assurance procedures for study programs relating to these specific areas (for bachelor, master, and PhD degrees, but also for other degrees, short-term certificate programs and workforce training).

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”, as Benjamin Franklin once wrote: Beyond the need for workers to fill specific jobs, there are outstanding reasons to encourage people to pursue a postsecondary education:

• A university education leads to higher income wages over one’s lifetime.
• Increased income means higher income taxes paid by graduates to support their government. Less is spent on unemployment benefits, welfare and other social programs when there are more university graduates.
• College attendance has been shown to improve health and life expectancy.
• There is a greater chance that degree recipients have full-time jobs that provide health insurance and retirement benefits.
• Other advantages come from healthy higher education institutions that increase economic development through innovative research programs and partnerships with business and/or government bodies.

The AAC is very much aware that an engaged population and a strong democracy relies on an educated public and intends to do all it can to promote and further develop the higher education sector on the beautiful island it calls home.

CURACAO & THE AAC – NOW IS THE FUTURE!