Inaugural Annual Institutional Update Open Until Sept. 28

As part of the new eight-year accreditation cycle, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education has launched its inaugural Annual Institutional Update (AIU). The AIU, which closes on Sept. 28, 2018, is to be completed by all member institutions each year, including Self-Study and Mid-Point Peer Review years.

The AIU provides the Commission information on which to assess the institution’s current health and sustainability, including student achievement and financial sustainability. While the AIU is normally completed in April, member institutions are being asked to complete the submission off schedule this year due to the launch of the new database powered by Salesforce before getting on cycle in April 2019.

“This is an exciting new feature for our member institutions,” said W. Allen Richman, Senior Director for Research. “For the vast majority of our members, the AIU will pull in data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) which is compiled by the U.S. Department of Education. Institutions are also able to provide supplementary data should they feel that the IPEDS data do not fully describe their institutional health.”

Although data in the AIU is captured annually, it will be reviewed by the Commission as trends rather than single-year snapshots. Member institutions can access their AIU through the Institution Portal at https://go.msche.org/institution-portal.