PAASCU stands for Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities. It is a private, voluntary, non-profit and non-stock corporation which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 5, 1957.

PAASCU is a service organization which accredits academic programs which meet commonly accepted standards of quality education.

In November 1967, the Bureau of Education and Culture (now the Department of Education, Culture and Sports) officially recognized PAASCU and endorsed its work as an accrediting agency.

Yes. Since 1991, PAASCU has been a full member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE). As of 2005, INQAAHE is composed of 150 accrediting agencies coming from over 60 different countries. These agencies have also created regional networks, one of which is the Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN), with PAASCU being one of its active members.

PAASCU also has linkages with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), which is a private, nonprofit national organization that coordinates accreditation activity in the United States, as well as with the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA), which is based in Washington, D.C.