Middle States Accreditation Success

The University of Pittsburgh is accredited through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In the spring of 2010 the University began preparations for its decennial accreditation review, a standard element of the accreditation process designed to ensure that degree-granting institutions are well managed, true to their missions, and deliver quality educational programs that meet the needs of the students enrolled in the institution. 

Pitt’s decennial review engaged hundreds of faculty, staff, students, and trustees, and included two separate visits by members of the evaluation team led by John Sexton, president of NYU, and reviewers from other leading research universities. The two-day visit in November 2011 included the review of hundreds of documents assembled to demonstrate University compliance with the 14 standards of accreditation established by the Middle States Commission. This was followed by a three-day visit in April that focused on the University’s self-study: “Using a University-wide Culture of Assessment for Continuous Improvement.”  Under a Middle States option, qualified institutions may give special emphasis to an area of particular and timely importance in its self-examination. 

The review resulted in the University's reaccreditation for an additional ten years, with no qualifications.  Its report praised Pitt’s unusually robust and integrated “culture of assessment,” and affirmed that the University of Pittsburgh is, indeed, “a world-class research university.”