RE-ACCREDITATION UNDERWAY
PAASCU completes first leg of site visit
In addition to the Australia-New Zealand Student Conference and the graduation festivities, a team of reviewers from OUM’s accreditor, the Philippine Accrediting Association for Schools, Colleges and Universities, traveled from Manila to Melbourne and then to Auckland to meet with students, faculty, and administrators.
PAASCU site visitors relaxing before the OUM Graduation Ceremony in Melbourne, March 2020.
“This site visit represents a lot of work coming to a crescendo,” says Chris Dudley, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administration & Student Affairs, who led the accreditation effort. “Our students, faculty, and administration came together for the self-study and carried it through the interviews with the PAASCU team.”
The self-study began in April 2019 as groups of faculty, students, and administrators formed to focus on nine areas evaluated by PAASCU: Faculty, Curriculum & Instruction, Clinical Service & Teaching Facilities, Research, Students, Library, Administration, and Facilities & Other Resources.
During a period of several months, the teams rated OUM’s performance against a set of standards developed by PAASCU, noting best features and recommendations for improvement. The written area reports totaled 953 pages, and 30 exhibits were provided as supporting documentation.
Deputy Vice Chancellor Randell Brown and Dudley traveled to the Philippines in January to deliver the documents to the PAASCU team and to orient the reviewers to OUM. The reviewers are senior faculty and deans of Philippine medical schools and experienced accreditors.
Looking good at midpoint
During the student conference in Melbourne, the team interviewed six of the area chairs, groups of students, faculty, and graduates. They observed a clinical teaching session in Brisbane via video, and Chief Information Officer Greg Beber gave them a tour of OUM’s teaching platform along with eOUM, the student information system.
“They seemed to be impressed with what they saw,” says Dudley. “But we’re only about halfway through the process. Stay tuned.”
The team also visited New Zealand, touring clinical facilities and meeting with students.
Due to flight cancellations related to COVID-19, the team was not able to make it to Samoa. The team plans to visit Samoa on the way to the North American site visit in July.
