Institutional Accreditation

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) administers OHSU's institutional accreditation. 

As a regulatory agency, the NWCCU requires OHSU to submit institutional reports and facilitate onsite evaluations of the university on a continuing basis.  Every ten years NWCCU asks OHSU to submit a full-scale "Self-Study" report detailing university policies, programs, and practices.

The development of a Self-Study involves the faculty, staff, administrators and students from the entire campus community. It is the culmination of focused inquiry and analysis guided by the nine standards, guidelines and policies set forth in the NWCCU Accreditation Handbook available on the NWCCU Website.  

For the 2005 Self-Study, OHSU reflected on the strengths and challenges of the institution as well as significant impacts that accompanied OHSU's transformation from a state agency to a public corporation in 1995. The thirteen member Self-Study Steering Committee was co-chaired by Dr. Robert Vieira, Vice Provost for Academic and Student Affairs and Dr. Phyllis Beemsterboer, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, School of Dentistry. Each member facilitated a standard committee made up of representatives of the OHSU community.   Self-Study Committees and Members

Following the completion and submission of the Self-Study report to NWCCU in March 2005, external evaluators from peer institutions and NWCCU officials visited OHSU on April 27 and 28, 2005. The evaluation report commended OHSU on numerous fronts but identified areas of needed improvement. Each of the ten recommendations required OHSU to complete follow-up work to meet the criteria for accreditation.  In compliance with these requirements, OHSU prepared a series of progress and interim reports, the last of which was submitted to the NWCCU in April 2008.

In July 2008, the NWCCU reaffirmed OHSU's status as an accredited academic institution.

 

NWCCU Institutional Reports and Evaluations: