Appendix B
Accreditation through Middle States Commission on Higher Education
The Middle States Association is an independent membership organization. It admits institutions of higher education to membership through a process of evaluation and accreditation which has a double purpose. One is to serve the educational world and the public by establishing standards of quality and identifying institutions which achieve them. The other, equally important, is to stimulate and help institutions reach their maximum effectiveness. Member institutions are evaluated periodically for reaffirmation of their accreditation, normally every ten years. Non-profit institutions of higher education are eligible to apply for evaluation and accreditation if they offer two or more years of undergraduate or one year of graduate work leading to degrees or certificates issued under appropriate legal authority, and their principal programs rest upon a base of liberal studies required of all or most students. Accreditation is an expression of confidence in an institution’s actual present performance and in its long range ability to maintain and improve that performance. The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, through which the Association conducts all its work with institutions above the secondary level, publishes descriptions of good practice from time to time but prescribes no quantitative standards. It does not classify its members into categories. It evaluates each applicant for membership in qualitative terms in light of that institution’s own reasons for existence. Accreditation indicates that in the Commission’ s judgment an institution has clearly defined appropriate objectives, has established conditions under which it can reasonably be expected to attain them, appears in fact to be attaining them in substantial measure, and should be able to continue to do so.
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