UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Every eight years, Penn State’s national accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), requires its more than 130 member institutions to complete a comprehensive self-evaluation demonstrating educational quality, success in meeting institutional mission, ethical practices and positive student outcomes. The self-study must also provide evidence of compliance with MSCHE standards for accreditation and serves as an opportunity to recognize the University’s strengths as well as opportunities for improvement.
Institutional accreditation from MSCHE assures students, their families and the public of the quality of a Penn State education. Continued institutional accreditation also is a requirement for the University to participate in the Department of Education’s Title IV federal financial aid program.
The self-study effort is being led by a self-study steering committee, co-chaired by Lance Kennedy-Phillips, vice provost for Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research and the University’s MSCHE accreditation liaison officer; and David Callejo Pérez, interim chancellor and dean at Penn State Harrisburg. Steering committee members serve as tri-chairs on one of seven working groups, one for each of MSCHE’s standards of accreditation. Full listings of the chairs of each steering committee working group and working group members are available on the University’s self-study website.
The University’s self-study process officially kicked off in February 2022 followed by a visit to University Park in April from Terence Peavy, MSCHE vice president for institutional field relations and Penn State’s MSCHE liaison. In May 2022, MSCHE approved the University’s self-study draft design, which served as a blueprint and guide for working groups as they researched and wrote chapters of the self-study report.
In early 2023, second and third drafts of the report were submitted to the steering committee. In fall 2023, hundreds of individuals on various University committees, councils and groups acted as designated readers. After the consideration and incorporation of feedback from these groups, a draft report was submitted to the MSCHE-appointed chair of the team of peer evaluators, Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University.
The final report will be submitted to MSCHE in early February. After the subsequent site visit by the peer evaluation team to University Park in spring 2024, MSCHE will review the recommendations of the evaluation team, and in June 2024, the commission will issue a determination whether accreditation will be reaffirmed.
Before submitting the report to MSCHE, members of the Penn State community with standard access accounts are invited to review the self-study report and provide feedback.
Visit the University's Self Study website to access the draft report and learn more about the self-study process. The report is open for review and feedback until close of business on Wednesday, Jan. 17. The final report will be shared publicly in late February.
The Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (OPAIR) supports the self-study process and is available to answer questions. Community members who have questions can contact OPAIR at selfstudy@psu.edu.