Conclusion UMKC Self Study for HLC Re-Accreditation

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	Accreditation Accreditation The University of Missouri-Kansas City dates its first accreditation to 1938 when its predecessor institution, the private University of Kansas City [UKC], first received full approval from the North Central Association. The University has maintained accreditation since that time. In 1963, UKC joined the University of Missouri System and thus became UMKC. In common with other universities and colleges that are fully accredited by their relevant regional accrediting associations, UMKC has prepared a self study for each of the intensive evaluations that have taken place at 10-year intervals.
The 2009 self study, like those preceding it, has a dual purpose. It serves to enlighten and inform the University faculty, staff, students, administration, and other constituents. At the same time, it provides comprehensive information about UMKC to the members of the team from the North Central Association’s Higher Learning Commission [HLC] who will come to Kansas City to examine the University, and make recommendations regarding its reaccreditation. (The 2009 site visit will take place between October 12-14.) For both of these reasons, the self study is of vital importance. Producing such a comprehensive study is an enormous undertaking, but it is more than worthwhile. By requiring a university to examine itself thoroughly on a recurring or even continual basis, the process of the self study performs an essential function over and above its connection with accreditation. As for accreditation, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance for an American university to be accredited by the appropriate regional accrediting body. Regional accreditation applies to an entire institution; therefore, it is the whole of UMKC that HLC will be evaluating, not merely a given program or school. The evaluation takes into consideration, among other things, the University’s educational programs, its rate of student success and academic achievement, its administration and governance, its organizational effectiveness, its financial stability, its relationship with the broader community and its overall resources and how they are used. Regional accreditation is required for a university’s programs and professional schools to be eligible to receive specialty accreditations from professional associations, and it confers an overall mark of approval that makes a university eligible for federal financial aid. Furthermore, accreditation is one of the indications of academic quality that assists in obtaining the respect of other institutions, and it helps to facilitate the transfer of credits among them.
As higher education has evolved, so, too, have the requirements for accreditation. In recent years, HLC has been in the forefront of a national trend; it has revised its criteria in order to encourage universities to set standards for quality, to emphasize the measurement of success, and to set a clear path to the future. Departing from older notions of checklists, HLC now encourages institutions to examine themselves continually, to test themselves, to assess their academic programs, and to emphasize student learning.