For Institutions / Schools which do not have ASFOR Accredited Masters, there is a verification phase for the eligibility criteria. The Institution / School declares that it has read the requirements for the accreditation of a Master as defined by ASFOR (The Master Accreditation Process: the criteria) and sends the application form for preliminary eligibility to start the accreditation procedure and the form for preliminary examination of eligibility, to the Accreditation Committee using the forms prepared by ASFOR (application form - preliminary form).

The Accreditation Committee examines the preliminary application and instructs a Didactic Reviewer to carry out a one-day pre-verification at the Institution / School.
Following examination of the Didactic Reviewer's report, the Committee makes a decision regarding the feasibility of starting the formal procedure: if the application is refused, it sends a report to the Institution / School highlighting the weaknesses of the Master; if the application is accepted, it sends the Institution / School the necessary forms to proceed with the formal application to initiate the procedure.

The applicant Institution / School sends the Self-Assessment documentation to the Committee to begin the formal procedure.

The Committee examines the Self-Assessment documentation sent by the applicant Institution / School and checks that it is complete. It then proceeds to appoint the team of Reviewers who will have to carry out the field visit.

The team of Reviewers agrees the dates of the field visit and the two-day program with the Institution / School. Following the visit, the team of Reviewers sends a report to the ASFOR secretariat. The secretariat sends the report to the Institution / School, in order to allow it to make any comments on objective issues and point out any incongruities with the information gathered during the field visit. These must be sent by the Institution / School within 15 days of receiving the report.
Based on the information provided within the deadline, the team of Reviewers prepares the final report to be submitted to the Accreditation Committee.

The assessment regarding the granting of accreditation is the responsibility of the Accreditation Committee which, based on the report of the team of Reviewers, expresses an opinion and submits a proposal to the ASFOR Governing Council.

The Governing Council, on the basis of the proposal formulated by the Accreditation Committee, makes a decision on the level of accreditation as follows:

• Ordinary accreditation (5 YEARS): granting of accreditation for a duration of 5 years and authorized use of the trademark with the relative contractual clauses when the program fully satisfies all the requirements of the Master Accreditation Process;
• Conditional accreditation (3 YEARS): granting of accreditation and authorized use of the trademark with the relative contractual clauses for a duration of 3 years if the Master program does not significantly meet up to three requirements but improvement is reasonably feasible over the three-year period. This accreditation is subject to the Institution / School's commitment to adopt the changes and / or corrections specifically indicated which, if not implemented by the Master Management, might lead to the suspension or revocation of accreditation before the end of the 3 year period.

For the entire duration of the accreditation, the Institutions / Schools must submit to ASFOR, using the forms prepared by ASFOR, a final report on the progress and results of the editions subsequent to the one examined during the accreditation phase.