Institutional Accreditation Introduction
What does it mean to be accredited? Accreditation is a process of recognizing educational institutions for performance, integrity and quality, which entitles them to the confidence of the educational community and the public. Such recognition is required for federal funding of financial aid and the transfer of credit hours between institutions. Accrediting bodies grant either institutional or specialized accreditation. Institutional accreditation is granted by regional accrediting commissions which accredit total operating units only, not parts of them. Specialized accreditation of professional schools and programs, such as engineering, music and forestry, is granted by a number of national organizations. UAF’s accredited schools and programs are listed at http://www.uaf.edu/catalog/current/overview/accreditation.htmll.
UAF has been continuously accredited as an institution since 1934. Our accreditation is granted by the Commission on Colleges and Universities of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (NASC) which is one of the regional accrediting institutions approved by the U.S. Secretary of Education. To maintain institutional accreditation UAF is periodically (at least every 10 years) re-evaluated by the commission. UAF’s last full-scale evaluation was completed in 1990. An interim fifth-year report was submitted to NASC in 1995 and our accreditation was reaffirmed. The commission will re-evaluate our accreditation in December 2001.
The commission re-evaluates each institution for reaffirmation of accreditation based on the following three steps:
- First, an institutional self-study is conducted and a report produced. This usually takes 18 months to two years to complete,
- Second, an evaluation team reads the self-study report, visits the institution, and prepares an evaluation report.
- Third, the commission reads the evaluation report, receives a recommendation from the evaluation team, and makes a decision on reaffirmation of accreditation.
As required, UAF submitted a full-scale self-study report in August 2001. The information required by the NASC for our self-study is detailed in the 1999 Accreditation Handbook. Every UAF unit and all of our constituents were asked to participate in the self-study. Please explore the other accreditation links provided for more information.
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Provost's Office
P.O. Box 757580
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775(907) 474-7096
3rd floor Signers' Hall
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Contact Dana Thomas or Sarah Lewis
