Middle States Accreditation
10-Year Review
Lehigh University is undergoing a 10-year review by its accrediting agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The commission's full evaluation team conducted its final campus visit in
March. The team will send a preliminary version of its report for Lehigh to fact-check in April; the final version will then go to the Middle States Commission, which will consult with the evaluators and is
expected to issue its accreditation decision this summer.
Accreditation is about institutional advancement -- determining and demonstrating that our programs, policies, and priorities are aligned with our institutional mission and goals. It is about making a better Lehigh. While the University regularly engages in strategic planning and assessment, the nature of the Middle States review process -- especially the self-study report -- offers the unique opportunity to submit our efforts to impartial observers for validation and to demonstrate our accountability, both internally and externally. The recommendations are also critical input to the ongoing strategic thinking process initiated by President Alice P. Gast in 2007.
Accreditation is important to all members of the Lehigh University community. In addition to serving as a prerequisite for such important things as grant support, financial aid, and transfer of academic credit, it keeps us focused on our mission, lending significance and meaning to a Lehigh education.
This website is a community resource for the exchange of information related to accreditation. Feel free to contact the chair of the Accreditation Steering Committee, Carl Moses, with any questions or comments about the process or the substance of the institutional self-study.
Please visit the links below for more information about Lehigh's 2008 Middle States Decennial Review:
2007-08 Decennial Self-Study Report
Prior documents
