 |
‘We are now on an equal status with them,’ John Agresto
AUI-S passed one of the most significant moments in its history after it was accredited by the American Academy for Liberal Education, a national accrediting body certified by the U.S. Department of Education.
“For a university to become accredited, it has to meet certain high standards of teaching and learning,” said AUI-S Provost John Agresto. “In the United States, being accredited means that the university’s students can receive financial aid from the government. Here it means that an independent body of educators, certified by the U.S. Department of Education, has found that our degrees should be recognized and accepted by all colleges and universities in the U.S. that we are an institution of educational excellence and should be so regarded by others.”
Jeffrey A. Martineau, president of AALE, said AUI-S is the only university in the country accredited by theacademy.
“The academy awarded accreditation because AUI-S has bought together a rigorous liberal arts core curriculum with specialties such as business and public affairs,” he said.
“That allows students to explore the most important questions of life and democratic citizenship, as well as preparing them for gainful employment, where they can demonstrate the abilities to write and speak at a high level, as well as think critically to solve problems.”
Roger Geyer, assistant professor at the AUI-S, said the high standard of teaching and learning caused this accreditation.
“It has always been part of the plan to seek and acquire accreditation as soon as practicable.” he said. “The big surprise was to be unconditionally accepted and granted full accreditation status. This does not often occur for new universities.”
Geyer added that everyone could be proud of achieving this milestone so early in the development as learning institution.
“In the ebb and flow of experiencing growing pains, frustrations and events that may erode our confidence in each other at times, it’s a very nice thing when an independent, unbiased and reputable, third-party entity comes into our house and closely looks at what we do and then concludes, ‘Hey, you are doing okay!” Geyer said.
Agresto said officials wanted AUI-S to be accredited by an organization that is most concerned with liberal education.
“Because we have, as all of you know, so extensive a core program of university requirements,” he said “Because we are a ‘liberal arts’ and not a specialized or technical university, we wanted to be accredited by an organization that is most concerned with liberal education and which would understand fully all we are trying to do here.”
From now on after AUI-S has been accredited, the ways for the students to be transfer students are easier for those who want to study in abroad, officials said.
“Having accreditation not only means that we are respected in the U.S. as an equal intuition of higher education, it should also make it easier for our students to transfer our credits to American undergraduate universities if they want to study in America,” Agresto said. “It also makes it easier for students to apply and be accepted for post-graduate study in the U.S.” Students said they were pleased that AUI-S had been accredited.
“From now on, I really trust in AUI-S and will work harder,” said Muhammed Ali, 22, from Ranya. “I know that I am studying in a legitimate learning organization and will have very good future after all.”
Geyer said the accreditation should give more confidence to the students because they are attending a legitimate and reputable American style of education.
“The U.S. has some of the best universities in the world and on the whole, U.S. higher education institutions tend to be highly regarded,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment