The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) has accredited Waynesburg University’s online counseling program.

“Our in-person masters of arts and counseling program and Ph.D. program has been accredited for years,” Director of the Graduate Counseling Programs Dr. Devon Bowser said. “We had to show them that we’re meeting high standards for delivering online education.”

The accreditation of counseling programs in the United States is seen by Professor James Hepburn as, “the gold standard.”

“Having accreditation will ensure the vitality and strength of our counseling programs,” Hepburn said.

In January of this year, BestColleges ranked Waynesburg University as having one of the best online master’s in counseling programs. 

“The fact that we have an online program has allowed us some flexibility with students,” Bowser said. “It allows us to be able to help students continue their studies without having to take a pause because they’re not physically able to be in person.”

Despite the results just now surfacing, it has been a long process for the program to get accredited.

“We started designing the online master’s in counseling program back in 2019,” Bowser said. “COVID-19 caused our affirmation of accreditation to be delayed, which then ended up delaying us being able to seek an accreditation for our online master’s.”

“CACREP also approved the transition to a fully digital asynchronous and synchronous curriculum for the doctoral degree in Counselor Education and Supervision for all future cohorts,” as stated by Waynesburg University Relations in their press release on the accreditation. 

The counseling program will now allow students to go from online to in-person and vice versa.

“We have a pathway available for people to make that transition once,” Bowser said. “It really allows us to be able to bring in a wider group of people that are able to share their experiences together.”

Hepburn recognized all of the positives with offering an online and in-person program, but when asked about the negatives he simply put, “There are no negative impacts to the counseling program.”

In the new age of technology and higher education, Hepburn finds it will become difficult to not have an online program.

“It is difficult to imagine how any program will sustain itself without an online option,” Hepburn said.