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ATIENTION

FROM

Sem

it

e

DATE

Febr

uar

y

1

7, 20

1'1

RE:

J

o

n Driv

er, V

ice

-

Pr

es

id

ent,

Academic and

Provost

Acc

reditati

o

n

U

pdate

For

information:

PAGES

1/1

Atta

c

hed i

s

the updat

e of

progr

ess

b

e

in

g

mad

e

in foll

ow

in

g

the

pro

cess

of

a

cc

r

e

ditation by th

e

No

rth

wes

t

Co

mmi

ss

i

o

n

o

n

Co

ll

eges

and Universities_

Attach

c: G

.

Ni

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h

o

lls

S

IM

ON

r-IlASEIl

UNIV

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Il

S

ITY

THINKING

OF THE W

O

RLD

---

Accreditation Update

Update

to

the SFU

Board

of

Governors

A

high level report of SFU's progress being mode in following

the process of accreditation by the Northwest Commission

on

Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).

Glynn Nicholls

116

1

2011

/

---

Update to Board of Governors

January 2011

1.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this Update is to provide a high level report of progress being made in following

the process of accreditation by the

Northwest Commission on Col/eges and

Universities

(NWCCU). The NWCCU approved SFU's request for 'Applicant' status in 2009 and, in

order

to pursue the process to full accreditation, a project under the sponsorship of the Vice

President Academic was developed

to undertake the work involved. The Accreditation Project

Charter was approved by the Steering Committee (President, Vice Presidents and Deans) in

November

2009.

The Project has three deliverables:

•

The delivery of a comprehensive and professionally presented Self Study Report,

including all necessary supporting documentation.

• The coordination of all aspects relating to the successful site visit to SFU by the NWCCU

evaluators.

• The production of SFU's formal response to the NWCCU Evaluation Report subsequent

to their site visit to SFU.

2.

PROJECT RESOURCES

&

STRUCTURE

The Project has been resourced through the Vice President Academic using revenues derived

from the Fraser International College (FIC).

The Project is structured as follows:

• Project Steering Committee (President, Vice Presidents and Deans)

• Project Sponsor (Jon Driver)

• Project Team

- Project Manager (Glynn

Nicholls)

Primary Author (KC Bell)

- Authors (Lynda Erickson,

Michelle Hunt)

Project Assistant (Louise Paquette)

Three project team members have attended a workshop in

Seattle run by the NWCCU.

The Project Team meets bi-weekly and agenda and minutes are kept.

Quarterly reports covering activities have been provided to the Project Sponsor.

2

---

3. PROGRESS TO DATE

3.1 Communication

Early in the process the Vice President of NWCCU visited SFU and explained the

accreditation process requirements and elaborated on

the accreditation standards to

the Steering Committee, the Project Team and SFU's Chairs and Directors. More

recently the President of NWCCU had a telephone conversation with Andrew Petter and

Jon Driver as her visit to SFU was cancelled due to bad weather.

An accreditation web page has been established and a number of presentations made

to faculty and staff explaining the process being followed. Press releases on SFU's

accreditation aspirations and the benefits that will accrue have been released and these

have been

followed by interviews with local newspapers, Maclean's and the student

paper. The first issue

of the VPA newsletter ViewPointAcademic (insert in SFU News)

issued in November

2010 was devoted to the accreditation process.

The Provincial government has been advised of our plans to seek accreditation.

3.2 Self Study - progress and process

Chapter

1 -

Mission

J

Core Themes and Expectations

SFU's Values and Commitments statement has been adapted to include a SFU Mission,

from which four core themes have been derived on which the self study is being based.

These Themes correlate

well with the themes identified in the Three Year Academic

Plan.

These

Core Themes are:

• Teaching

&

Learning

•

Research

• Student Experience

• Community & Citizenship

The framing of each of the core themes has been drafted and is currently being

reviewed by

four Theme Teams who are undertaking the assessment of SFU's

performance with regard to each of these themes.

The expectations required in the NWCCU Standards refer to planned institutional goals

and objectives. For this purpose

the goals have been derived from the Planning

Framework

(2011), the Three Year Academic Plan (2010 - 2013) and the SFU Strategic

Research

Plan (2010 - 2015). This chapter will continue to be redrafted as the theme

assessments in Chapter 4 and the evaluation of Mission Fulfillment in Chapter 5 are

drafted.

Chapter

2 -

Resources

&

Capacity

This chapter forms more than 50% of the self study report and includes the following:

Governance, Human Resources, Education Resources, Student Support, Library and

Information Resources, Finance and

the Physical and Technological Infrastructure.

3

---

Draft 1 of this chapter is complete.

Chapter

3 -

Institutional Planning

Parts of the various SFU planning processes, including Academic Planning, Enrollment

Planning, Research Planning and Budgeting, have been described and documented.

These documents are being

woven into a single draft for consideration by the Steering

Committee.

Chapter

4 -

Core Theme Planning Assessment

&

Implementation

The intention in Chapter 4 is to describe the SFU performance in achieving the goals of

each of the Core Themes.

In order to do this, four of the Theme Teams that were initially established to assist in the

implementation

of the Academic Plan were asked to assess SFU's performance in their particular

theme.

Each Theme Team has between 4 and 7 people with appropriate knowledge, direct

experience and skill in

the particular theme area.

These teams are currently undertaking this assessment task using the goals, objectives

and indicators

identified in the Planning Framework, the Academic Plan and the

Research Plan. The Teams may also use any other qualitative or quantitative measure or

indicator to assist in their assessment. This process, together with the process described

for Chapter 5, is shown in the attached flow chart. To ensure consistency, the Office of

Institutional Research & Planning (lRP) is tasked to provide the data required.

This assessment

must be completed by mid-March 2011. The documents produced by

the Theme Teams will constitute much of the text to be used in Chapter 4.

Chapter 5

-

Mission Fulfillment, Adaptation

&

Sustain ability

In this Chapter a broad assessment of how well SFU is achieving its Mission will be

made.

The process of determining this assessment will be done by consolidating the

assessments of the Core Themes and then determining an overall evaluation of

institutional performance

1

•

As with the Core Theme assessments, performance at the institutional level will be

categorized

into one of three classes, namely:

• OUTSTANDING - Progress has been greater than expected.

• SATISFACTORY - Progress has been as expected.

•

IMPROVEMENT NEEDED -

Progress has been less than expected.

This assessment

will be reviewed and approved by the Steering Committee (President,

Vice Presidents and Deans).

1 See Mission Fulfillment flow chart attached.

4

---

A number of recommended improvements will follow from the assessments of the Core

Themes and the mission fulfillment evaluation and these will be included in Chapter 5

under 'adaptation and sustainability'. These recommendations where appropriate will

be

built into the next cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation of all of SFU's

activities.

3.3 Document Management

&

Design

A file classification plan has been developed by the University Archivist and all

documentation is being managed by using DocuShare (Xerox) content management

software.

The Communication Services Division

of Student Services has suggested a document

design which has been agreed

with the Project Team. They will produce and print the

final document and have committed to the required time line.

4. KEY DATES

The following key dates apply .

I

....

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Complete Assessment of Core Themes by Theme Teams

Mid March 2011

Complete Self

Study Draft 2 (Reviewed by Vice Presidents)

End April 2011

Approval

of Draft 3 (Reviewed by Steering Committee &

May to July 2011

Board of Governors)

Submission

of Self Study to NWCCU

August 2011

Host the NWCCU Site Visit

12 -14 October

2011

NWCCU Board Meeting

&

decision re 'candidate' status

January

2012

Respond to the Evaluators Report

November/December

2011

NWCCU Board meeting - decision re 'Candidate' status

January

2012

5

---

'Mission Fulfillment'

p

rocess

f

low cha

rt

Plans

Theme

.....-

~

......

Teams

(Teachi~&

learning)

I

lIItitutiooal

Strength

(Researchl

(

I

n

s

titut

i

onal Strength)

Consolidated

Assessment

(Studen

t

Experiencel

R

ecommendat

i

ons &

Im

prove

m

e

n

ts

(Community

&

Accreditation

Self Study

Chap

t

er 4

&

Chap

te

r

5

6