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 What is accreditation?
What is Middle States?
What is reaccreditation?
What is a self-study report?
What is the Selected Topics Option I model for the self-study?
Do institutions ever lose accreditation?
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is the process by which an external agency examines a program, a curriculum, or an institution and determines whether it does or does not meet certain established standards. In the United States, institutions of higher education are accredited by a nongovernmental peer review process, and institutions participate voluntarily. Accreditation does not rank institutions or programs.
What is Middle States?
Middle States is a shorthand reference for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The Council on Higher Education Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education recognize Middle States as one of several regional accreditation authorities. Middle States accredits institutions in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and several locations abroad.
What is reaccreditation?
Colleges and universities in the Middle States region normally are reevaluated every five years, but commission staff members also monitor each institution to determine if special circumstances require more frequent evaluations. The most comprehensive reevaluation occurs approximately every 10 years after an institution’s initial accreditation. This comprehensive reaccreditation is based upon a report that the institution prepares about itself, called a self-study report.
What is a self-study report?
Self-study is an intensive review of a university’s educational programs and services, student learning, and achievement of its stated goals and mission, as measured against standards that have been developed by Middle States. In order to demonstrate compliance with all 14 Middle States standards, Rutgers is required to produce a self-study report based on one of four available models. Rutgers has chosen the Selected Topics Option I model.
What is the Selected Topics Option I model for the self-study?
This model allows the university to identify certain important topics for in-depth analysis in its self-study, rather than carrying out an exhaustive review of every aspect of the university covered by the Middle States standards. Rutgers has chosen to concentrate its self-study on the following topics:
- Undergraduate Admissions and Retention and Student Support Services
- Undergraduate Education and Related Educational Activities
- Using the Research/Graduate Context to Enhance Undergraduate Education
- Assessment of Undergraduate Student Learning
- Education and Research in an Urban Setting (emphasis on the Newark Campus)
- The Community Context of the New Brunswick/Piscataway and Camden Campuses
For those Middle States standards that are not substantially addressed by these topics, the university has assembled already existing documentation as a roadmap to verify institutional compliance.
Do institutions ever lose accreditation?
Following a review, it is common for the Middle States review team to make recommendations for improvements to universities. This impartial external peer feedback provides the university with an opportunity to enhance its programs and strengthen its mission. Normally, a university is given a reasonable time frame to address the recommendations. A more detailed explanation of potential steps
that may be taken by Middle States can be found at http://www.msche.org/documents/P2.3-RangeofActions.doc.
01/25/2008 |
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