Get ready for ‘Learning that Matters’
Over the next three days, I have the pleasure, along with my colleagues in the Office of the Provost, to host members of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
Their onsite visit marks an important milestone in Virginia Commonwealth University’s reaffirmation of accreditation, a process that occurs every 10 years in the life of our university. Beginning tomorrow, Feb. 11, a SACSCOC vice president and 10 SACSCOC-appointed reviewers will assess the health of the university and the plans we have set forth to improve the student experience. The discussions will focus on our Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP, titled Learning that Matters: Building a culture of generalizable education, and how we envision qualitative changes in the following four areas: Tier II of the VCU Core Curriculum, Digital Engagement, Academic Advising, and Career Planning and Professional Development.
We hit a home run 10 years ago with our first QEP, and transformed the way undergraduate students, particularly first-year students, engage at VCU. Among the most dramatic changes was the establishment of the University College, including the Focused Inquiry Program and the Summer Reading Program. Those changes have had a resounding impact for the university, improving first-year student engagement and success. First-year overall academic performance improved, as did first-year retention, which increased from 83 percent to 87 percent in the five years after the establishment of the University College.
We are ready to do it again — and this time we are aiming to have an even greater impact.
I encourage you to read our feature on Learning that Matters, posted Friday on the VCU News website. It provides context to the QEP as it relates to Quest for Distinction and goes in-depth to explain why “Learning that Matters” matters so much to the future of VCU.
Categories Uncategorized