ACCREDITATION

The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

The following business programs at Northwestern Oklahoma State University are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs:

Accounting (B.S./B.B.A.)
Business Administration (B.S./B.B.A.)
Organizational Leadership (B.S.)
Technical Management (B.A.A.S.)

As part of the initial accreditation process, NWOSU was cited by the ACBSP Board of Commissioners for two best practices and by the site visit team for two additional best practices.  The Board of Commissioners found the following best practices:

• The NWOSU faculty and its leadership prepared a comprehensive Self-Study documenting an overall well-developed, learning outcomes focus program and is clearly a best practices document.

• The institution's response to the feedback report was thorough and clearly reflects their commitment and dedication to the continuous improvement process. Both the visiting team and the Board of Commissioners concur that NWOSU has done an exemplary job and is to be highly commended. In short this is a best practices institution when it comes to modeling the initial accreditation process.

The site visit team noted the following in their visit report:

• The Division of Business has adopted codes of ethics for both faculty and students that cover both academic integrity and social/societal ethical conduct.  These codes are referenced in course syllabi.  The DOB’s set of ethical communications may constitute an “ACBSP Best Practice.”

• External benchmarking both with respect to the MFT percentile rankings and with respect to 21 identified peer institutions is included in the DOB assessment plan, which also may constitute an “ACBSP Best Practice.”  

 In addition, on July 16, 2012 Steve Parscale, ACBSP Accreditation Director, sent an email to all ACBSP institutions regarding reporting results of assessment activities.  Mr. Parscale used NWOSU's website as the good example.  The email is attached. 

As part of the ACBSP accreditation process a team of three evaluators were on campus March 12-14, 2012.  The purpose of their visit was to verify the contents of the self-study and our program's compliance with ACBSP standards.  The visit is fact-finding in nature.  The team does not make a recommendation regarding accreditation but simply reports its findings to the ACBSP Board of Commissioners.  The board makes the decision regarding accreditation.

The site evaluators report their findings in the form of strengths and opportunities for improvement (OFI). ACBSP follows the Baldrige Award criteria model of continuous improvement.  Therefore OFIs are intended to help the institution improve the quality of its programs and/or processes.  An OFI may, but not necessarily does, mean that the program does not meet ACBSP standards.  Only the Board of Commissioners decide if the program meets standards or not.

For more information regarding the ACBSP accreditation process, please read the Process for Obtaining Accreditation booklet below.

Obtaining_Accreditation_Manual_B-G_Hyperlinked.pdf

In late March 2010, the Division of Business submitted the ACBSP preliminary questionnaire. 

Preliminary_Questionnaire_Responses_-_Final.pdf

In January 2012 the Division of Business submitted its self-study.  The self-study is attached later on this page.

On March 26, 2012 the site evaluation team's report (Evaluation Feedback Report) was received by NWOSU.  Below is this report.

FINAL_-_NWOSU_Feedback_Report_2012.doc

On April 6, 2012, NWOSU sent its response to  the the Evaluation Feedback Report to ACBSP. Below is the response:

NWOSU_Response_to_ACBSP_Feedback_Report.pdf

On May 14, 2012, NWOSU received the official notice of accreditation.

Letter of Accreditation