The University of Michigan is one of the great public research universities of the United States. Guided by the commitment and vision of its Regents and Executive Officers, since the nineteenth century the University has provided a national model of a complex, diverse, and comprehensive public institution of higher learning that supports excellence in research; provides outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and professional education; and demonstrates commitment to service through partnerships and collaborations that extend to the community, region, state, nation, and around the world.

Michigan’s position of leading excellence in higher education rests on the outstanding quality of its full panoply of schools, colleges, and divisions, that today number nineteen, as well as on the national recognition of the excellence of individual departments and programs (http://www.umich.edu/~oapainfo/TABLES/Pro_Rank.html) and on the many major scholarly and creative contributions of its faculty. No less, Michigan’s eminence rests on the intellectual quality, vitality, and passion of its students–undergraduate, graduate, and professional–who animate a pluralist and vibrant University. Each year Michigan enrolls over 36,000 students from every state and from over a hundred countries who seek to participate in a tradition of leading excellence. Today, the University has over 400,000 living alumni/ae around the globe.

The University of Michigan is a diverse center of academic vitality. The campus covers 2,860 acres in and near Ann Arbor; other holdings include about 21,500 additional acres in remote campuses, summer field sites, and other properties for research and teaching. In addition to classrooms, laboratories, and specialized research facilities, the University community makes use of a vast array of resources, including libraries, concert halls, art galleries, and athletic facilities. The University calendar is prodigious in the diversity of offerings and activities, as many hundreds of speakers, conferences, symposia, workshops, concerts, performances, recitals, films and readings take place each year. The campus is linked not only through the constant motion of people, but through a remarkable infrastructure of digital and video communication. As well, around 700 clubs and organizations provide innumerable opportunities for faculty, staff and students to take part in the University community.

As a public university, Michigan is dedicated to service in the larger world. Faculty conducting "action oriented" research address a large range of critical issues–health care, the environment, social interventions, education reform and improvement, and many others. Through extending fundamental understandings and by advancing innovations in technologies, University scientists and engineers contribute to remarkable advances that are transforming life and contributing to building the economy of the state, region, and nation. Students take part in community-based service and learning projects. The University collaborates with other universities, colleges, and K-12 schools, as well as provides research and other services for a variety of state and private agencies. A central website (http://www.state.outreach.umich.edu/) provides links to many of these instances of outreach and border-crossing connections that tie the University with the communities and citizens of Michigan.

Institutional compliance with the criteria of and requirements for accreditation

The President has charged the Provost with the responsibility for organizing and conducting the institutional self-study and preparing the University for reaccreditation. This effort consists of two parts. First, the University has prepared an institutional self-study report that addresses an area of key concern. This self-study report, New Openings for the Research University: Advancing Collaborative, Integrative, and Interdisciplinary Research and Learning, also provides much important information that demonstrates the University’s compliance with the criteria for accreditation. Second, through a review of organization, programs, resources, and policies, this document organizes the evidence that establishes the University of Michigan's compliance with the criteria and general institutional requirements for accreditation set by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges/Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.

The University of Michigan was a founding member of NCA in 1895, and has been continuously accredited by it since 1913. The University was last reaccredited in August 1990. This document and the self-study report are largely concerned with the Ann Arbor campus of the University. Its audience consists of the members of the University community–Regents, administrators, faculty, staff, students–as well as alumni and citizens of the State of Michigan.

The campuses at Dearborn and Flint, while integral parts of the University of Michigan, have their own unique roles and missions, and are accredited separately by the North Central Association.