Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) is the body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states. It serves as the common denominator of shared values and practices primarily among the diverse institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Latin America and certain other international sites approved by the SACSCOC Board of Trustees that award associate, baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degrees.

SACSCOC requires the University of Kentucky to participate in a reaffirmation process. It is one of the highest, if not the highest, priorities for the university.

Learn more about SACSCOC

About Reaffirmation

Dr. Katherine McCormick, acting associate provost for planning and assessment, led the reaffirmation team and that work.

As an example, SACSCOC standard 5.4 deals with qualified administrative/academic officers and requires clear standards, aligned qualifications and regular well-documented reviews including feedback such as formative and summative reviews.

As just one of 73 standards or sub-standards, we need to be sure it is done as perfectly as possible per guidelines, as would be expected when we get our formal review.

Organization

The SACSCOC Executive Leadership consists of 10 members.

The SACSCOC Workgroup consists of 12 members.

The Compliance Certification Team consists of nine members.

There are 20 college liaisons.

Each of these groups is vital to our reaffirmation efforts. Communication and collaboration will move in all directions between and across these groups.

Timeline

The Compliance Certification Report was presented to SACSCOC on September 8, 2022.

The off-site peer review took place on November 1-4, 2022.

The Focused Report was presented on February 6, 2023.

The Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP, was presented on February 6, 2023.

The on-site review took place March 20-23, 2023.

Finally, we received news of UK’s reaffirmation in December 2023.