GREENVILLE, S.C. (June 16, 2016) – The Board of Trustees of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) today granted Bob Jones University regional accreditation candidacy status.
The Commission on Colleges made its decision based on the findings of a candidacy committee that was authorized July 2015 and visited the campus in January 2016 to evaluate BJU’s qualification for accreditation candidacy status. During that visit, BJU worked with peers from other institutions to ensure compliance with best practices in higher education.
“We are pleased to have achieved another key milestone in the multi-step, multi-year process of seeking regional accreditation,” says BJU President Steve Pettit. “Regional accreditation will allow us to serve our students and alumni more effectively while enhancing the value of a BJU education.”
The awarding of candidacy status indicates that BJU has demonstrated compliance with the requirements and standards required in the application for accreditation and that its compliance has been verified by a candidacy committee visit.
“Achieving accreditation candidacy is an indicator of the quality of education a student receives at BJU. It also indicates processes are in place to sustain academic program quality and achieve our institutional goals while fulfilling our mission of helping students develop Christ-like character,” says Dr. Gary Weier, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
Concurrent with accreditation efforts, BJU has made a number of enhancements to the quality of its total educational experience such as renovating the dining common which has facilitated faculty-to-student and peer-to-peer discipleship, adding 10 academic programs which rounded out our health- and sports management-related offerings, restructuring chapel and the discipleship program to further enhance student spiritual growth, instituting a new strategic plan to identify and prioritize initiatives to achieve the mission and vision, and constructing a Center for Global Opportunities to help foster a campus-wide focus on ministry and missions and facilitate local, national and international student and faculty outreach.
BJU’s next steps in the accreditation process include submitting compliance certification documentation to SACSCOC in August followed by another accreditation committee visit to the campus.
“Achieving candidacy status has required the combined efforts of the University’s faculty and staff,” says Pettit. “I greatly appreciate their diligent efforts over several years to get us to the milestone we celebrate today.”
For many years, BJU has been nationally accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) based in Forest, Virginia, which is approved by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). BJU is certified to operate and grant advanced and baccalaureate degrees by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. BJU’s engineering program is accredited by ABET, its teacher preparation programs hold state accreditation and its nursing program has full approval from the State Board of Nursing for South Carolina.
BJU is a member of the American Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries, the Association of Business Administrators of Christian Colleges, the Education Advisory Board and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
