Master's Summit: Quality Assurance and Accreditation

Universities across the United States are granting master's degrees in many areas of psychology, including areas in which graduates provide behavioral health services. In this growing market, counseling psychology graduates comprise more than one third of all psychology master's graduates (American Psychological Association [APA], 2017c). Given the role graduates are playing in service provision to the public, the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Working Group considered (a) the current context of master's education and training in APA, and (b) APA's potential role in quality assurance. Without challenging APA's position on the doctoral standard for independent practice, there was consensus among group members that the legal and ethical responsibilities inherent to serving the public meant that programs resulting in master's-level health service provision should be subject to quality assurance and public protection afforded by the process of accreditation. Public Significance Statement An increasing number of universities across the United States are granting master's degrees in counseling psychology. Graduates are delivering much needed mental health services. In this article, the American Psychological Association considers how to ensure that these practitioners have high quality, scientifically informed, education and training experiences.