Opening Doors to Global Learning

n early December, Baylor received official affirmation of its 10-year institutional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the recognized regional accrediting body in 11 southern states and Latin America for higher education institutions that award associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees. Baylor has been SACSCOC-accredited since 1913 and with the successful completion of this year’s review is accredited through 2027.

 The rigorous reaccreditation process touches all programs, facilities and services throughout the University. A part of the process calls for universities to develop and implement a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The plan must focus on learning outcomes or support student learning in an area that accomplishes the mission of the institution, include broad-based institutional constituencies and identify goals and a plan to assess achievement of those goals.

Global Baylor: Addressing Challenges to Human Flourishing seeks to prepare students to live in an increasingly global community where challenges to human flourishing—in health, economic opportunity, political and religious freedom, and all areas of human existence—are of paramount concern. 

Launched in August, Global Baylor is the University’s QEP. As such, it is guiding campus-wide awareness of critical human concerns and nurturing a commitment to seeking solutions to them. 

The 10-year plan features four interrelated initiatives designed to foster student learning by deepening global engagement: 

Global Challenges will introduce students to the concept of global equity and human flourishing within the context of a particular global issue, beginning with global health, a challenge that cuts across all academic disciplines and invites participation from the Baylor community.

Enhanced International Travel Experiences will provide new and expanded opportunities for student travel with more intentional focus on student learning outcomes and experiential learning through existing strategic partnerships and the addition of new global destinations and partners across all disciplines.

Diversity Abroad will make international opportunities more readily available to students from diverse or underrepresented backgrounds and first-generation students through new scholarship opportunities and innovative models for international experiences.

Global Baylor will seek to coordinate the many international events and activities across campus and beyond in order to maintain our community focus on global challenges and also to celebrate our responses to these issues through student, staff, and faculty research and engagement.

 To learn more about the QEP, visit baylor.edu/globalbaylor.