I often say that it takes a village to accomplish the mission of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP), and indeed it will take everyone lending a hand to support the regional accreditation review preparations for 2020.
Prior to the April 2020 site evaluation, we have the opportunity to reflect on how well we are living our mission through a process of self-assessment and peer-review during our Year Seven review by our regional accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).
The Process
An institution accredited by the NWCCU is required to examine their own mission, goals, operations, and achievements against predefined standards and elements through a series of institutional self-study processes over a seven-year period. The Commission assures quality through a comprehensive analysis by trained peer evaluators that the institution meets the threshold standards and is engaged in continuous improvement. Throughout the seven-year cycle, every institution is reviewed by
- NWCCU Staff
- Teams of Peer Evaluators
- The NWCCU Board of Commissioners
The Value of Accreditation
Regional accreditation is the highest level of institutional accreditation in the United States. This quality assurance process gives potential and current students a reasonable assurance that the level of educational quality available to them has been evaluated by external peers. The regional accreditation process is voluntary and validates the quality of an institution as a whole as well as various characteristics of an institution, including its mission, academic programming, governance, finances, resources, and capacity.
For RMUoHP, this process verifies our quality and integrity while ensuring that student learning and outcome achievement is at the heart of what we do. The accreditation process fosters the framework for an ongoing, University-wide, self-reflective dialogue about institutional quality and improvement.
Embracing New NWCCU Standards
The year 2020 signals the application of new standards and elements by the NWCCU to accredited institutions, further emphasizing improving institutional effectiveness through an analysis of academic quality and student success. RMUoHP is pleased to be a pilot institution for these new standards.
This is the first of a series of blogs on institutional reaccreditation. I look forward to sharing more about this journey and how you can contribute to our legacy in this important process.
Author Dr. Sandy Pennington
