Accreditation

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About MSCHE

"Bryn Athyn College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE).  MSCHE is recognized as an accrediting organization by the United States Department of Education."

In order to maintain its accreditation status, Bryn Athyn College must sustain compliance with the MSCHE Standards and Requirements of Affiliation (https://www.msche.org/standards/) and MSCHE policies and procedures ( https://www.msche.org/policies-guidelines/ ).

View more information about MSCHE  and the MSCHE Mission.

Accreditation Review Cycle for Bryn Athyn College

Annual Institutional Update (AIU): (July 12 – August 16 2021)
The AIU requires BAC to provide key data indicators on an annual basis, including but not limited to enrollment, financial information, and measures of student achievement. The data submitted from the AIU are aggregated into trends for use in other monitoring and review processes.

Self-Study:  (April 2022)
Every 8 years Bryn Athyn College is required to complete a self-study.  This includes a rigorous self-examination of all aspects of the college culminating in a written report that is presented to peer evaluators followed by an on-site visit.  The peer evaluators recommend an accreditation action based on their assessment of the institution’s compliance with the Standards and the Requirements of Affiliation and MSCHE Policies.  The Commission then reviews the recommendation of the peer evaluators and issues formal action hopefully leading to reaffirmation of accreditation for another 8 years.

Mid-Point Peer Review (MPPR):  (2026)
The Mid-Point Peer Review, or MPPR, is a peer review of the accumulated financial data, student achievement data and responses to Commission recommendations (if requested in a prior Commission action) submitted by institutions through a series of Annual Institutional Updates. The MPPR occurs 4 years after the completion of a Self-Study.

 

Self-Study 2022: What is a Self-Study?

Every 8 years Bryn Athyn College is required to complete a self-study.  This process begins two years prior to the formal submittal of the self-study report.   The institution chooses two people to lead the institution through the Self-Study process.  The Self-Study co-chairs and the Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) attend the Self-Study Institute where MSCHE staff walk through the complete process.

The Self-Study includes a rigorous self-examination of all aspects of the college to ensure compliance with the MSCHE Standards and Requirements of Affiliation.  This is also a time for the college to reflect on how it achieves its mission, take note of what it does well and identify opportunities for improvement.

The co-chairs assemble working groups that are representative and inclusive of all areas on campus to assess and collect evidence of compliance.  It is important that the perspectives of all constituencies are considered.  For that reason, the working groups are comprised of faculty, staff, administration, students, alumni and trustees.

The findings of the working groups culminate in a 100-page written report that is presented to a group of 6-10 peer evaluators carefully selected by MSCHE staff to help the college focus on self-identified institutional priorities.  The peer evaluators read the report and review the evidence compiled by the college thoroughly.  This is followed by a three day on campus visit in which the visiting team will interview a wide range of constituencies to determine compliance with the Standards and the Requirements of Affiliation and MSCHE Policies.

At the end of the visit the peer evaluators will recommend an accreditation action.  The Commission then reviews the recommendation of the peer evaluators and issues formal action leading to reaffirmation of accreditation for another 8 years, a warning with follow-up actions, or requiring the college to show cause as to how they can remediate serious non-compliance.

 

Self-Study 2022: Timetable

 

Self-Study 2022: Institutional Priorities

Bryn Athyn’s institutional priorities represent areas of significant educational and operational focus and are topics of active conversation among various stakeholders on campus. The initial draft was first articulated by the Self-Study Co-chairs and the Accreditation Liaison Officer after they attended the MSCHE Self-Study Institute. These priorities have been modified and honed through a consultative process. Feedback has been sought from the following individuals and groups:

• President
• President’s Cabinet
• Self-Study Steering Committee
• Self-Study Working Groups
• LIONS Committee (a retention-focused committee with cross-campus representation)
• Faculty Council
• College Committee of the Board of Trustees
• End-of-year meeting of all employees

Bryn Athyn’s institutional priorities are as follows:

Priority 1: New Church Higher Education
How do we meaningfully draw on our New Church educational mission to educate and better prepare the members of our diverse student body for their futures, and how do we grow as an intellectual center for Swedenborgian research and thought?

Priority 2:  Student Success
What strengths do students develop through their education at Bryn Athyn College? 

Priority 3: Finding a Sustainable Model
What financial and enrollment models position us for sustainability? 

Priority 4: Governance
How can we improve our governance—both its model and its execution—to help our New Church educational mission flourish?

Priorities 1 and 2 focus on education and stem directly from the mission. They have driven curricular development in conjunction with Priority 3. Priorities 3 and 4 focus on operations and represent key areas of both challenge and opportunity.

Each priority has been articulated as a question in part to represent the nature of the campus dialogue related to each priority and in part to guide and connect the lines of inquiry in our Self-Study.

 

Self-Study 2022: Intended Outcomes

Bryn Athyn College seeks four key outcomes from engaging in the Self-Study process:

1. To maintain accreditation by meeting the Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation. Reaccreditation allows us to continue to offer our students a strong and ever-improving education, recognized and endorsed by our higher education peers.
2. To continue to assess and analyze areas that need improvement and commit to strategies to strengthen those areas. We aim to enhance the work of our regular assessment processes by using the Self-Study to evaluate institutional effectiveness more comprehensively, particularly with regard to the institutional priorities identified above.
3. Align and strengthen the vision among stakeholders of what mission attainment looks like. Because the Self-Study process is rooted in institutional mission, and because determining how Bryn Athyn can best meet its mission is a current conversation on campus and among alumni, we will use the process to clarify and highlight what is effective with regard to mission-focused education, and to explore and address what is not.
4. Engage the College community in an inclusive and transparent self-appraisal process that actively and deliberately seeks to involve members from all areas of our community. For any Self-Study to be meaningful, the process needs to effectively engage all members of the campus community. In addition, improving communication is a priority on campus at the present time, in response to a recent employee engagement survey (May 2019) that highlighted a need for it.

 

Self-Study 2022: Organization