Mayfield’s Mid-Continent University will find out in the coming weeks whether or not it will receive reaccreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and School after being placed on warning status last year.
If an institution loses its accreditation it will no longer qualify for federal student aid.
Mid-Continent spokesperson Bill Bartleman says some of SACS’ concerns included the university’s procedures and its financial standing.
“We had our audit done for the 2012-2013 year and we got a clean audit. It’s called an unqualified audit. That means they didn’t find any financial problems and that was a big step,” he says. “Because of the review bay SACS and others there was a qualified audit a year ago. But now we have an unqualified audit and that’s a big plus with SACS, and it shows you don’t have any financial problems and you’re financially stable.”
Bartleman adds the university fixed the procedural problems SACS took issue with. But he says a discussion larger than Mid-Continent about the definition of a credit hour for colleges with accelerated programs could hold them back.
“Because of the credit hour issue and maybe one or two other things we might be on the watch list for another year,” he says. “We’re hopeful. We’ve provided documentation for everything but we just don’t know how they’ll respond to that.”
SACS still accredits the university, but the longest it can remain on warning status without being removed from membership is two years. Bartleman says SACS will review Mid-Continent’s report in early December, then decide if it will affirm reaccreditation, keep the university on warning status or deny accreditation.
Last year’s report can be found here.