To be eligible for Institutional Accreditation, institutions must first be registered by the Grenada National Accreditation Board (GNAB). Registration is intended to safeguard learners and members of the public and prevent poor quality providers from operating in the local tertiary education sector. It also encourages institutions to continuously improve their quality. Registration establishes a formal relationship between GNAB and the institution. It is the first step towards Institutional Accreditation. In Grenada, institutions must become accredited or lose their legal authority to operate.

Institutional Accreditation is the status awarded to an institution that successfully undergoes GNAB’s evaluation process against the stated criteria of educational quality. The process is intended to assure the public of the educational quality provided by the institution and to assist the institution in strengthening its internal systems and processes which support continuous quality improvement. Institutional accreditation considers the holistic characteristics of the institution and evaluates the organisational capacity to deliver quality educational programmes at the tertiary level. Institutional accreditation does not analyse any specific programme individually. However, programmes are reviewed as a part of the consideration of the entire institution. Instead, it examines institutional characteristics such as governance, administrative strength, academic policies and procedures, quality of faculty, physical facilities and financial stability.