UDTS ATS Accreditation 2024

Standard 3: Student Learning and Formation

• Standard 3: Student Learning and Formation

  • 3. Student Learning and Formation: Theological schools are communities of faith and learning centered on student learning and formation. Consistent with their missions and religious identities, theological schools give appropriate attention to the intellectual, human, spiritual, and vocational dimensions of student learning and formation. Schools pursue those dimensions with attention to academic rigor, intercultural competency, global awareness and engagement, and lifelong learning. Schools support student learning and formation through appropriate educational modalities and policies.
    

  • Components of Student Learning and Formation

  • 3.1 The school gives attention to the intellectual, human, spiritual, and vocational dimensions of student learning and formation in its institutional goals and its curricular and co-curricular offerings in ways that are consistent with the school’s mission and religious identity.
    

  • 3.2 The school demonstrates academic rigor in student learning and formation, with qualified instructors, scholarly research and resources, and graduate-level expectations appropriate to each degree it offers.
    

  • 3.3 The school demonstrates intercultural competency in student learning and formation by helping students understand, respect, engage, and learn from diverse communities and multicultural perspectives, inside and outside the classroom.
    

  • 3.4 The school demonstrates global awareness and engagement in student learning and formation by helping students respect, engage, and learn from global perspectives and sources, understand the global connectedness and mutuality of theological education, and increase their capacities for service and learning in globally interconnected contexts.
    

  • 3.5 The school demonstrates an understanding of learning and formation as lifetime pursuits by helping students develop motivations, skills, and practices for lifelong learning.
    

  • Educational Modalities Supporting Student Learning and Formation

  • 3.6 The school demonstrates sound pedagogy in student learning and formation, utilizing effective instructional designs and employing educational modalities that (a) are appropriate to its mission and capacities, (b) meet all applicable Standards and Policies and Procedures, and (c) help students achieve the learning outcomes for a given degree.
    

  • 3.7 The school demonstrates an intentionally collaborative approach to student learning and formation by developing a cohesive and holistic curriculum, regardless of modality, that involves faculty and, as appropriate to the school’s context and degree programs, librarians, student services personnel, field educators, and others—both in designing and in evaluating the curriculum.
    

  • 3.8 The school demonstrates that instructors and students have appropriate training and resources to engage well in each modality that it utilizes and that all necessary physical or technological resources are readily accessible, equitably available, adequately staffed, and appropriately maintained.
    

  • 3.9 The school demonstrates, in all courses leading to a degree, regular and substantive interaction between qualified instructors and students and among students, regardless of modality. Such interaction includes the following components: (a) instructors are appropriately qualified; (b) instructors initiate substantive, course-related interactions with students, including evaluating student work; and (c) those interactions occur on a regular basis between instructors and students, as well as among students, in a sufficiently viable community of learning. The school may offer individualized instruction, such as independent studies or individualized field education, provided it meets the first two components and is limited to meeting appropriate student needs or particular degree program requirements, but not an entire degree (Policies and Procedures, IV.F, prohibits correspondence education).
    

    Note: (a) HLC standards have the rest of the institution using Qualified Determination Forms for all instructors of all classes (fulltime faculty and adjuncts alike) to determine appropriate qualifications. - LW

  • 3.10 Any school considering any other educational modality that does not address all three components described in Standard 3.9, including any modality not based on courses, is required to petition for approval of an experiment (see Policies and Procedures, IV.G).
    

  • Educational Policies Supporting Student Learning and Formation

  • 3.11 The school states publicly, follows consistently, and reviews regularly various policies for its degree programs, including tuition and fee charges, refund and withdrawal policies, grading policies, grade appeal policies, degree program requirements, graduation requirements, and whether any of the requirements for a degree program are to be completed within a specified number of years.
    

    Note: All of these items are met within our Sem catalog/handbook. - LW

  • 3.12 The school has and follows a public transfer of credit policy that clearly identifies the criteria by which it evaluates transfer credits from other graduate schools and the maximum amount of transfer credits it accepts for its degree programs, which may not exceed two-thirds of the program’s total credits.
    

    Note: Transfer credit policies are clear in Sem catalog/handbook on page 25. - LW

  • 3.13 Any school with reduced-credit options for master’s degrees (through some form of advanced standing, shared credits, or combined undergraduate/graduate degrees) has clearly stated policies with appropriate criteria for doing so in ways that ensure the integrity and learning outcomes of the degree program. Advanced standing may not exceed one-third of the degree being sought; shared credits between degrees may not exceed two-thirds of the degree receiving those credits; and combined undergraduate/graduate degrees may generally not count undergraduate credits as graduate credits. A school utilizing any combination of these reduced-credit options requires that at least one-third of any degree it grants be from credits earned at that school in that degree (see Guidelines for Reduced-Credit Master’s Degrees; this standard does not prohibit schools from offering a one-year academic MA degree for students with extensive undergraduate studies in religion or related areas, per pre-2020 Standards).
    

    Shared Credit Policy (Catalog, p.26)

  • 3.14 The school has and follows clearly stated policies regarding the ethical and appropriate use of technology and research resources, including appropriate guidelines for research with human participants that meet all applicable laws and regulations.
    

    Institutional Review Board (website)

    Note: This is not clearly reiterated in the Sem catalog/handbook. I will add a statement there. - LW

  • Educational Policies for Non-Degree Programs

  • 3.15 The school may offer non-degree programs (e.g., certificates) without credit for personal enrichment or with graduate credit for potential use in a graduate degree program, though the Commission approves and records only graduate degrees. If non-degree programs are offered for graduate credit, the school admits students with an accredited baccalaureate degree or its educational equivalent. The school may admit other students if it documents through rigorous means that those students are prepared to do graduate-level work.
    

    Note: Statement on non-degree seeking students is found here: https://udts.dbq.edu/admissions/non-degreestudents/. CLP program information is found here: https://moodle.dbq.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=301860 - LW

  • Additional Evidence

  • 

    Overall approach for learing and formation Forum

    Mark as done
  • 

    Intercultural Competence - 3/28 Forum

    Mark as done
  • 

    Global Awareness and Engagement - 3/28 Forum

    Mark as done
  • 

    Developing life-long formation and learning 4/2 Forum

    Mark as done