The accreditation process as a mechanism of efficiency and effectiveness at higher education, reached Panama with greater force in the 90’s. The same is enshrined in our Constitution and in the Universidad de Panama Organic Act No. 24 of July 14th 2005.  With the opening of new higher learning institutions, it became imperative to stablish the controls that would ensure a quality higher education, considering the complex contexts of internationalization and globalization in a neoliberal economy. In that sense, Panama made the arrangements in order to reach a consensus, with all the actors, about the need to establish a body that will ensure a quality education, by means of an Act which legitimizes the regulatory controls. In this paper we have tried to make a report on the process and evolution of accreditation in Panama and point out some accreditation bodies that work in Latin American nations, emphasizing the one that has developed in the Panamanian universities.