The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) requires institutions seeking reaffirmation of accreditation to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which ". . . describes a carefully designed course of action that addresses a well-defined and focused topic or issue related to enhancing student learning and/or the environment supporting student learning and accomplishing the mission of the institution" (SACSCOC Handbook for Reaffirmation of Accreditation, August 2011, p. 39). Developing a Quality Enhancement Plan provides UWF with the opportunity to enhance overall institutional quality and effectiveness by focusing on a topic that is creative and that UWF considers vital to the long-term improvement of student learning.

The Quality Enhancement Plan must:

• Enhance student learning and/or the environment supporting student learning and accomplishing the mission of the institution.
• Represent a perceived need with supporting institutional data to demonstrate that need actually exists.
• Generate broad-based campus support as an essential issue.
• Be grounded by both institutional data and external literature (either research-based or promising/best practice).
• Have a clear relationship to the University’s mission and strategic plan.
• Be suitable for meaningful assessment both in terms of the student learning impact (direct or indirect) and the progress of the plan itself.
• Include a clear path to assess the impact on student learning.
• Include a plan to assess the implementation of the plan using both formative and summative evaluation methods.
• Be viable within the resources available.
• Show results in three - six years. A Five-Year Impact Report is expected.

Broad-based involvement and consensus of University constituencies in the identification of a QEP topic are important and expected components of the development and implementation of a Quality Enhancement Plan. To accomplish this goal, the UWF QEP Topic Selection Team invites individuals or groups to submit white papers identifying and summarizing potential QEP topics. A subset of proposals will be selected for further development during Fall 2013, with the goal of presenting two or three reasonably comprehensive proposals to the University community for discussion late in the Fall 2013 semester. The final QEP topic will be identified by the end of the Fall 2013 semester. Writing the Quality Enhancement Plan will take place in 2014. Please visit the QEP2015 Web site for more information on QEP topic selection.

The QEP must be submitted to the SACS Commission six weeks prior to UWF’s on-site review. The On-Site Reaffirmation Committee will provide consultation regarding the issues addressed in the QEP and will evaluate the acceptability of the QEP.