The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is the regional body responsible for accrediting colleges and universities in the 11 southern states (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, and VA). Although individual schools and programs of the Health Sciences Center are accredited by other bodies, the Health Sciences Center must be accredited by SACS for a number of reasons, including eligibility for federal student loans. Furthermore, accreditation by SACS or one of the five other regional accrediting bodies is a condition of eligibility for most of the individual school and program accreditations, such as LCME accreditation of medical schools.

The Health Sciences Center last received a 10-year reaffirmation in 1994 and received one additional year when SACS reorganized its reaffirmation schedule. The next accreditation reaffirmation process should therefore end with a site visit in early 2005. SACS has completely redesigned the process in hopes of making it less of a burden to colleges and universities.

The new accreditation procedures include a Compliance Certification Document, which is due on September 10th, 2004 and will be reviewed by an Off-site Peer Review Committee. This Committee will review the Compliance Certification Documents of several institutions and make recommendations to the respective On-site Peer Review Committees. The On-site Peer Review Committee will visit the Health Sciences Center on March 7 - March 9, 2005. The Health Sciences Center must also submit a Quality Enhancement Plan for improving student learning of no more than 100 pages (75 pages of text and 25 pages of appendices) six weeks in advance of the site visit. The On-site Committee will submit a written report, along with our response to their findings, to the Commission on Colleges, which will make the final decision on reaffirmation in early December, 2005.