UWM Accreditation: Acquisition, Discovery and Application of Knowledge

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Acquisition, Discovery and Application of Knowledge

Fostering Breadth of Knowledge and the Skills of Intellectual Inquiry

Criterion 4b: The organization demonstrates that acquistion of a breadth of knowledge and skills and the excercise of intellectual inquiry are integral to its educational programs.

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UWM�s vision for student learning is expressed in the preamble to Investing in UWM�s Future (summarized in the bolded text).

UWM is at its core a community of faculty, staff and students engaged in learning, discovery, and creative expression. For the sake of generations of students to come, for our immediate neighbors in metropolitan Milwaukee, for the state of Wisconsin, and for our world as it ventures into the twenty-first century, UWM aspires to become a premier doctoral research university. Our capacity to serve our constituents is grounded in our identification as a research university, engaged in scholarship across the campus. This foundation provides UWM with the capability to meet students at the frontiers of knowledge and to engage the surrounding communities (city, state, world) with a robust base of scholarly expertise.

The University has designed its academic and support programs with the goal of helping students to reach their intellectual potential. UWM�s model for the education of its undergraduate students broadly includes two elements: general liberal arts education and focused education in a major field of study.

The first addresses the need by all educated adults to have a foundation of knowledge and understanding about the world in which they live. Our society has become more complex, in some sense more self-aware, and increasingly intertwined with other societies and the underlying biosphere. It is absolutely necessary that students establish an objective knowledge base that can help them comprehend their surroundings and provide a starting point for effective decision making.

For the same reasons, students need to commit a substantial portion of their undergraduate education to gaining a foothold of more developed knowledge and expertise in particular areas of study. Commonly, this concentration provides them with the tools to launch a career. More generally, it can provide an organizing center for lifelong learning about the world in which we live.

At the graduate level, the learning process continues as students proceed from undergraduate majors to advanced study in even more defined subjects. Society�s intellectual leaders emerge from the intense discipline of graduate work.

	Appendix 5. Co-Curricular Experience
	Appendix 8. Graduate Student Accomplishments
	Appendix 9. Capstone Experiences
	Appendix 10. Preparation for Independent Learning
	Appendix 11. Alumni Accomplishments
	Appendix 12. External Reviewer Comments about Graduate Programs

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