Middle States Commission on Higher Education
Brooklyn College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, our regional accreditor. The college recently secured its decennial reaccreditation from MSCHE. Successfully completing this process enables our students to receive federal financial aid, and provided us an opportunity as an institution to examine our current status and determine if we are satisfied with our current performance. A number of our colleagues were directly involved in the reaccreditation process, whether serving on MSCHE Working Groups, collecting and presenting information about the institution, handling the logistics of the self-study and MSCHE site visit, or otherwise supporting college leadership in their efforts. The ongoing support of faculty and staff are crucial for maintaining our status as accredited and in good standing.
Reports
Self-study Information
- Self-study Design (pdf), March 2017
- Approval of Self-study Design (pdf), April 8, 2017
- Self-study Draft (pdf), November 28, 2018
- Self-study Report Final Submission (pdf)
Mini Timeline
- December 6, 2018: Team Chair, Dr. Darlene Smith, visited our campus.
- March 24–27, 2019: Middle States Team Visit
Links/More Information
- Middle States Commission on Higher Education
- Previous MSCHE Self-Studies and Commission Reports
- Annual MSCHE Institutional Profiles
Steering Committee and Working Groups Membership (pdf)
Brooklyn College Mission Statement
Brooklyn College provides a transformative, distinctive, and affordable education to students from all backgrounds. We are proud of our history of intellectual freedom and academic excellence, as well as our location in a borough known for innovation, culture, and the arts. We have a special commitment to educate immigrants and first-generation college students from the diverse communities that make up our city and state. Our striving spirit reflects our motto: "Nothing without great effort." Through outstanding research and academic programs in the arts, business, education, humanities, and sciences, we graduate well-rounded individuals who think critically and creatively to solve problems. They become leaders who transform their fields and professions and serve our increasingly global community.
MSCHE Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation
Standard I: Mission and Goals
The institution's mission defines its purpose within the context of higher education, the students it serves, and what it intends to accomplish. The institution's stated goals are clearly linked to its mission and specify how the institution fulfills its mission.
Standard II: Ethics and Integrity
Ethics and integrity are central, indispensable, and defining hallmarks of effective higher education institutions. In all activities, whether internal or external, an institution must be faithful to its mission, honor its contracts and commitments, adhere to its policies, and represent itself truthfully.
Standard III: Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience
An institution provides students with learning experiences that are characterized by rigor and coherence at all program, certificate, and degree levels, regardless of instructional modality. All learning experiences, regardless of modality, program pace/schedule, level, and setting are consistent with higher education expectations.
Standard IV: Support of the Student Experience
Across all educational experiences, settings, levels, and instructional modalities, the institution recruits and admits students whose interests, abilities, experiences, and goals are congruent with its mission and educational offerings. The institution commits to student retention, persistence, completion, and success through a coherent and effective support system sustained by qualified professionals, which enhances the quality of the learning environment, contributes to the educational experience, and fosters student success.
Standard V: Educational Effectiveness Assessment
Assessment of student learning demonstrates that the institution's students have accomplished educational goals consistent with their programs of study, degree level, the institution's mission, and appropriate expectations for institutions of higher education.
Standard VI: Planning, Resources, and Institutional Improvement
The institution's planning processes, resources, and structures are aligned with each other and are sufficient to fulfill its mission and goals, to continuously assess and improve its programs and services, and to respond effectively to opportunities and challenges.
Standard VII: Governance, Leadership, and Administration
The institution is governed and administered in a manner that allows it to realize its stated mission and goals in a way that effectively benefits the institution, its students, and the other constituencies it serves. Even when supported by or affiliated with governmental, corporate, religious, educational system, or other unaccredited organizations, the institution has education as its primary purpose, and it operates as an academic institution with appropriate autonomy.
Requirements of Affiliation
To be eligible for, to achieve, and to maintain accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an institution must demonstrate that it fully meets the following Requirements of Affiliation. Compliance is expected to be continuous and will be validated periodically, typically at the time of institutional self-study and during any other evaluation of the institution's compliance. Once eligibility is verified, an institution then must demonstrate that it meets the standards for accreditation.
