University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has made great strides since its last decennial review in accomplishing its mission to become an “open university” dedicated to providing quality education to non-traditional and adult learners. Since the last decennial review, the university has made significant improvements in serving our students and faculty, facilitating attainment of degrees, revising and enhancing the curriculum, and achieving its goal of becoming “One UMUC” worldwide.

In fall 2004, UMUC President Dr. Gerald Heeger unveiled UMUC’s revised Mission and Goals statement and a comprehensive Strategic Plan to focus the university’s efforts to achieve its stated mission. As a result of the development and implementation of these two important documents, UMUC is uniquely situated to meet the needs of its growing student population and provide a quality education simultaneously.

In this process, Dr. Heeger has identified the university’s three strategic priorities:

• Quality
• Accessibility
• Affordability

The Mission and Goals, and Strategic Plan play pivotal roles in helping UMUC become an institution dedicated to quality, measured through outcomes assessment, and accessibility to accommodate the State of Maryland’s need to alleviate a capacity crisis within the State.

UMUC’s decennial, institution-wide self-study offers the university a unique opportunity to explore the extent to which its strategic priorities are being realized. In order to ensure through examination of how well the university is fulfilling the president’s strategic view and meeting the needs of its constituents, we have selected a comprehensive self-study model. The goal of the self-study process is to examine the extent to which UMUC is meeting the accreditation standards.