University Preps for Review

In accordance with an accreditation process that occurs every ten years, the University has crafted its most refined draft of a self-study report required for the institution’s review for reaccreditation in October.

The committee involved in the revising process currently has a “reasonably-completed draft report,” said Computer Science Professor Margo I. Seltzer, who presented the most recent version yesterday to the Faculty Council—the 18-member governing body of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—in order to incorporate the professors’ feedback.

Seltzer said the committee will present a refined draft to the Harvard community in about a month to draw further commentary. The University, which began initial drafting of the approximately 100-page report last summer, has spent the past few months further editing the report, which addresses how the institution is working to meet the eleven standards of accreditation, ranging from academics to university finances.

After the University finishes this process, a committee of faculty and administrators from similar institutions will visit the campus in the fall to draw up recommendations for submission to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ (NEASC) Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, which will make its final decision on Harvard’s accreditation next spring.

“The structure of the reaccreditation is such that it provides the University with an opportunity and a framework in which to step back and examine what we do,” Seltzer said. “It’s a useful exercise.”

The University—which had its last comprehensive review in the fall of 1997, then submitted an interim report in 2003—undergoes the voluntary, peer-review process of accreditation every decade by NEASC, one of six regional accrediting organizations in the U.S.

In addition to the University’s overall accreditation, most of the professional and graduate schools undergo individual accreditation procedures by their respective review bodies.

—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu