Notice of 10-year Accreditation Reevaluation

The University of Montana – Helena College of Technology is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), the highest level of accreditation achievable. All colleges and universities accredited by the NWCCU undergo comprehensive review of that accreditation every 10 years. The most recent reaffirmation of accredited status was in 2000.

UM-Helena is currently undergoing the required comprehensive review process for continued accreditation. An institutional self-study is being prepared and will be posted on the UM-Helena website by March 1, 2010. An NWCCU evaluation committee will review the self-study and will conduct an on-site visit of the UM-Helena campus April 12-14, 2010.

Members of the public are invited to participate in the reaccreditation of UM-Helena. Send comments no later than March 11, 2010, directly to:

All signed comments are forwarded, as received, to UM-Helena, the evaluation committee and the Commission. Comments will be considered with regard to UM-Helena’s qualification for accreditation.

Regional accreditation of postsecondary institutions is a voluntary, non-governmental, self-regulatory process of quality assurance and institutional improvement, and serves to recognize higher education institutions for performance, integrity and quality to merit the confidence of the educational community and public. The NWCCU is an independent, non-profit membership organization and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as the regional authority on educational quality and institutional effectiveness of higher education institutions in the seven-state Northwest region of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. It establishes accreditation criteria and evaluation procedures by which institutions are reviewed.

More information about public notification and third-party comments is available on the Commission’s Web site (www.nwccu.org under Operational Policy A-5) or by calling the Commission at (425) 558-4224.

UM-Helena is engaged in an intensive self study as preparation for continuation of accreditation through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). NWCCU reviews colleges and universities every ten years for continuation of accreditation, and its next review of UM-Helena will be in 2010. As part of the process, UM-Helena undergoes a comprehensive self study to provide information to NWCCU regarding its standards and to use as a self-assessment tool.

Accreditation is part of the process of self governance of American higher education, and NWCCU is one of six regional nonprofit accrediting organizations in the country. The Federal government requires a college or university to be accredited for its students to receive certain Federal grants, including Pell grants to students, and to receive some institutional grants. Many state aid programs have a similar requirement.

The process of the self study is as important as the final written product. It is not just a requirement, it is also a wonderful opportunity. We are aiming for very widespread participation in the college community, with lots of discussion of our achievements and remaining challenges. The self-study process began in February 2008 and will end in April 2010 with the evaluation visit from NWCCU. Please see the link to NWCCU to learn more about the Standards and the Accreditation Process.

The self study is one of three components of the review based on the NWCCU process:

It must be comprehensive, rigorous, and candid. It usually lasts a year to 18 months and includes participation by the entire college community in identifying and evaluating its achievements and identifying possibilities and plans for improvement, using the published Standards as a guide. The self study cannot be limited to describing an institution’s achievements—it must identify areas that need improvement and ways in which it plans to improve. We will complete the report by December 2009.

The self study serves as a basis for an evaluation by a team of peer evaluators—administrators and faculty from colleges and universities of the same quality and with a student body similar to ours. In our case the visiting team will be on campus April 12, 13 & 14, 2010. The site visitors will assess UM Helena in light of our self study and the standards for accreditation. It will submit a written report to NWCCU, and to us, that addresses our success in fulfilling our purposes and also speaks to ways in which we can do better. We will be able to make a response to the visiting team report.

NWCCU will review our self study, the visiting team report, and our response in the summer or fall of 2010; it will also consider third party comment (we will be required to publicize the fact that we are being evaluated and to indicate how members of the public may submit comments directly to NWCCU). Then the Commission will decide whether we are continued in accreditation.