Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane - Accreditation at AUI

Accreditation at AUI

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Institutional Accreditation

AUI received initial accreditation from NECHE in November 2017. Since then, a mid-period progress report was submitted to the Commission in 2019. In fall 2020, the process of re-accreditation started with the appointment of two co-Chairs and a steering committee to pilot the re-accreditation project and the forming of six committees involving faculty, students, and staff to draft the self-study. An initial draft of the self-study was completed in June 2021. The draft was further polished and fine-tuned throughout fall 2021 and shared with the community for further input. As part of this effort to solicit community feedback, a series of “road shows” were organized, in which the two co-Chairs presented the self-study to the faculty of each school of the University as well as the Language Center.  At the end of each roadshow, the President and the VPAA participated in a Q&A session with the audience.  The narrative was also shared electronically with all faculty, who were invited to provide feedback. Two additional open meetings were held targeting the faculty of two academic units at a time to solicit their final feedback. During these open forums, the co-Chairs presented the main results of the self-study, standard by standard, and opened the floor for comments and suggestions. Useful feedback was gleaned from these meetings and the document further improved.

The final draft of the self-study was uploaded to NECHE’s portal on Feb 6, 2022. The visit by the NECHE peer-evaluation team is scheduled in the period March 20-23, 2022. 

School and Programmatic Accreditations and External Reviews

School of Business Administration (SBA) – The BBA program has been accredited by EFMD since 2011, with the latest re-accreditation granted in 2017 for five years (the highest possible).

A midterm progress report was sent to the EFMD in 2019 with an account of the progress made along these three key areas. The progress made was deemed “meeting expectations” by EFMD. The latest re-accreditation peer review team visit took place in Fall 2021. In February 2022 the BBA Program was re-accredited by EFMD for five years.

School of Science and Engineering (SSE) – The most recent ABET accreditation of SSE’s Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCSC), Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Management Science (BSEMS), and Bachelor of Science in General Engineering (BSGE) programs was in 2017. In response to improvement requests from ABET, SSE implemented a new 3-year Assessment of Student Outcomes (SOs) cycle to measure student attainment of soft skill- and technical skill-based SOs. Although the ABET assessment was made for the BSCSC in particular, the new 3-year assessment cycle was implemented across all Bachelor degrees offered at the time (i.e. BSCSC, BSGE and BSEMS). A review of SOs was completed for all three programs in 2020. The next ABET peer evaluation visit is scheduled in October 2022.

SSE has also started preparing the templates and the material for ABET accreditations of its other Bachelor programs in a way to be ready to apply as soon as possible according to ABET rules and policies.

School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) – As there is no accrediting agency or body that reviews humanities and social sciences, SHSS conducts regular program reviews with the help of internationally recognized experts from peer and partner US institutions, specifically:

  • Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Development (BSHRD) by colleagues (Dr. Maria Cseh and Dr. Shaista E. Khilji) from the Department of Human and Organizational Learning (HOL) at the George Washington University (GW).
  • Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies (BACS) by colleagues (Dr. Mark Neumann and Dr. Richard Rogers) from Northern Arizona University.
  • Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (BAIS) by colleagues from the International Studies Association representing the University of Arizona and Indiana University.

 

Language Center (LC) – The LC’s annual program reviews (APRs), conducted at the end of each spring semester, are among the most thorough and comprehensive at the University, dating back to 1996. Since 2009, the LC’s English programs have also been accredited by the CEA. The latest CEA accreditation was in 2014, and the LC’s next re-accreditation is due in 2024. In spring 2022, the LC launched the re-accreditation process by preparing the mandatory application form to be addressed to CEA.