This document defines the rules applicable to the audit and certification of educational organization management systems (EOMS) conforming to the requirements given in ISO 21001 (or other sets of specified EOMS requirements). It also provides the necessary information and confidence to customers about the way certification of their suppliers has been granted.

Certification of EOMS is a third-party conformity assessment activity (as described in ISO/IEC 17000:2020, 4.5), and bodies performing this activity are third-party conformity assessment bodies.

NOTE 1        This document can be used as a criteria document for the accreditation or peer assessment of certification bodies which seek to be recognized as being competent to certify that an EOMS conforms to ISO 21001. It is also intended to be used as a criteria document by regulatory authorities and industry consortia which engage in direct recognition of certification bodies to certify that an EOMS conforms to ISO 21001. Some of its requirements could also be useful to other parties involved in the conformity assessment of such certification bodies, and in the conformity assessment of bodies that undertake to certify the compliance of EOMS with criteria additional to, or other than, those in ISO 21001.

NOTE 2        Certification of an EOMS according to ISO 21001 is a management system certification, not a product certification.

NOTE 3        ISO 21001 is a standalone management system standard, not a sector application of ISO 9001.