The New School is on track to renew the university’s accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), according to a university update.
Despite interruptions to classroom learning during the recent three-day SENS-UAW Local 7902 strike and the month-long ACT-UAW Local 7902 strike in fall of 2022, MSCHE has found TNS to be in compliance with their standards and will finalize the university’s accreditation status in May after review by a peer evaluation team.
The accreditation process is vital to ensure institutions of higher education are meeting certain standards of quality. If a university were not to be accredited, it could cause major challenges such as preventing the allocation of federal financial aid.
In a university email announcement, Assistant Provost Prisca Wood said TNS has submitted its finalized Self-Study report to MSCHE. The report details the university’s self-assessment of its ability to meet MSCHE’s criteria for accreditation which include providing a concrete mission, centering student experience, offering sufficient learning opportunities, and complying with federal and state regulatory programs such as Title IX and Federal Student Aid.
To comply with Federal Student Aid requirements, an academic year must include at least 30 weeks of consecutive instructional time. During the part-time faculty strike, the university’s fulfillment of this requirement, as well as some of MSCHE’s other standards, was called into question — in particular, the requirement to offer “student learning experiences that are designed, delivered, and assessed by appropriately credentialed professionals, sufficient in number, who are effective and rigorous in their teaching.”
However, after a supplemental information report request by MSCHE on December 2, 2022, the university was ultimately found to be in compliance with MSCHE’s standards.
In a statement to The New School Free Press, Assistant Provost Wood said, “The university was informed by Middle States during the part-time faculty strike in December 2022 that the university was under scrutiny. The New School provided MSCHE with the requested evidence demonstrating our compliance with their standards surrounding assessment. Follow-up conversations with MSHCE affirmed that we continue to be compliant with their standards.”
Wood also stated that the recent SENS-UAW academic student workers strike “did not prompt any outreach” from MSCHE.
Beyond describing recent challenges, the Self-Study report also cited a partnership between Roblox and Parsons and new educational offerings such as a new minor, Law and Social Change, as examples of the university’s commitment to “academic excellence and creative engagement.”
In the final weeks of April, MSCHE’s peer-evaluation team will visit campus before a public reading of their final assessment of the university’s accreditation and findings.