On Thursday, October 1, 2015, the committee met with President Burse, the University's SACSCOC committee and the Leadership team to share their unofficial findings and recommendations. They began by making it clear that the University had been changed from a Level III to a Level V university when the DNP Prospectus, initially submitted to SACSCOC, was approved. The primary purpose of their visit was to review the DNP program and to ensure that the university remained in compliance with the SACSCOC Principles of Accreditation, specifically relevant Core Requirements, Comprehensive Standards and Federal Requirements. Failure to comply with any of the aforementioned could result in placing the institution on sanction or removing it from membership.

The review team concluded that their official recommendations to the SACSCOC Board would include additional information about three Comprehensive Standards as noted below:

The institution has a defined and published policy for evaluating, awarding, and accepting credit for transfer, experiential learning, advanced placement, and professional certificates that is consistent with its mission and ensures that course work and learning outcomes are at the collegiate level and comparable to the institution's own degree programs. The institution assumes responsibility for the academic quality of any course work or credit recorded on the institution's transcript.

It was the finding of the committee that the University's undergraduate transfer of credit policy and practice was unclear. According to the committee, the transfer policy varied, and often conflicted, depending on the University document. There is a need to more clearly state the transfer policy so that students who transfer or who are interested in transferring will be clearly informed about transfer credits.

The majority of credits (at least one third) toward a graduate or a post-baccalaureate professional degree are earned through the institution awarding the degree. In the case of graduate and post-baccalaureate professional degree programs offered through joint, cooperative, or consortia arrangements, the student earns a majority of credits through instruction offered by the participating institutions.

It was the finding of the committee that the institutional credit for graduate degrees was not clear regarding transferable credit hours at the graduate level. The SACSCOC committee would like the policy to state emphatically that 1/3 of the credits must be earned at Kentucky State University. They requested that the University rewrite the policy to make it clear at all levels.

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