University earns high marks for undergraduate education, student engagement
President's letter to the Rutgers communityNEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers University’s comprehensive efforts to transform undergraduate education have earned an enthusiastic endorsement from the organization that accredits colleges and universities throughout the region.
In recent years, Rutgers has undertaken a dramatic transformation of academics and student life, including the creation of a single School of Arts and Sciences on the New Brunswick Campus, the enhancement of core curriculum standards and the establishment of the Byrne Family First-Year Seminars.
“The excitement related to significant change is clearly evident in all conversations the evaluating team has been privileged to hear. Through the mindful, openly shared, and well-documented TUE [Transforming Undergraduate Education] process, the university has been transformed as a whole,” the evaluation team stated in its report.
The 23-page report also praised Rutgers for the quality of student engagement across the university and credited the Camden and Newark campuses with fulfilling their distinctive urban missions. The evaluation team offered only a handful of suggestions for the university to pursue in the coming years to maintain and enhance the quality of Rutgers’ programs and facilities.
“This is an extraordinary result, particularly in today’s national environment of deep scrutiny of higher education,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. “The report’s suggestions, which relate to such areas as financial aid, investment in infrastructure and undergraduate research, match the priorities we have identified for ourselves in the universitywide self-study process.”
A Special Report on the reaccreditation process and results can be found online at ur.rutgers.edu/specialreport.
Among the evaluation team’s other comments and findings:
- The team commended the implementation of learning communities and first-year seminars that connect faculty and students.
- The report praised efforts to enhance student engagement with faculty research mentors through such initiatives as the Aresty Research Center for Undergraduates.
- Student services won high marks for the depth and breadth of undergraduate student support services, including residential life and academic advising. “There is a sense of service-specific focus … that yields to the conclusion that students [at Rutgers] are not just well served, but nurtured more generally throughout their experience.”
- “An enviable share of Rutgers students have great pride in their institution, hold high expectations for it and possess a deserved belief that they play a vital role in the institution’s current and anticipated successes,” the team wrote.
- The report noted the special characteristics of Camden and Newark as major urban campuses intricately linked to their cities – specifically, the role played by the Camden Campus in economic development, opportunity and access in the city, and Rutgers–Newark’s efforts to link its programs to needs and resources of the state’s largest municipality.
The reaccreditation process began at Rutgers in 2006 with the formation of an executive working group of administrators and faculty led by Robert Goodman, executive dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The group chose undergraduate education as the focus of a far-reaching, comprehensive institutional self-study to be presented to the Middle States Commission.
At the time, Rutgers was in the midst of transforming the structure of undergraduate education on the New Brunswick Campus and enhancing undergraduate education on the Camden and Newark campuses. Under a Middle States option, a qualified institution may give special emphasis to an area of particular, timely importance in its self-examination. The self-study aimed to examine comprehensively such areas as admissions, educational offerings, undergraduate research, learning assessment, student life and engagement, and student services.
Nearly 200 faculty, staff and students ultimately participated in seven working groups, with hundreds more contributing to the self-study’s contents. The Office of Institutional Research and Planning collected data that assessed Rutgers’ place among its peers in the Association of American Universities in a number of strategic categories. During the past two academic years, the administration invited the entire university community to participate in the process through e-mails, public forums and meetings on each campus.
Ultimately, a self-study report totaling more than 500 pages, along with 800 supporting documents, was produced for the evaluation team, which is composed of peer educators from other institutions.
The final Middle States report was a result of the evaluation team’s four-day visit to Rutgers in March, a standard practice that occurs every 10 years as a way of ensuring that degree-granting institutions are meeting the expectations outlined by the accrediting agency. The accreditation process ensures that the university delivers on its stated mission and provides a quality education to its students. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education accredits schools in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Media Contact: Sandra Lanman
732-932-7084 ext. 621
E-mail: slanman@ur.rutgers.edu