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On this page, you can learn about the recently revised terminology of AUPHA membership, find out how this relates to accreditation and what it means for you. You can also learn what steps were involved in the process of joining AUPHA, how long the approval process took, and learn about student involvement in the process. You may also wish to visit the AUPHA's own home page.
No, what's changed is the way AUPHA labels member categories.
What used to be called an "Associate" member (the term under which Auburn originally joined AUPHA) is now called a "Candidate" member."
What used to be called a "Full" member" is now called a "Certified" program. This is the next and highest level of AUPHA membership, for which Auburn will be applying in the near future. We expect to attain "Certified" status by some time in 2000.
Until the Auburn HA Program has attained "Certified" status, we will use the term "Associate/Candidate" member on our Website to indicate that the two terms represent the same type of membership.
The language of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) talks of "program membership" rather than "accreditation." Our program was and still is accredited under the blanket accreditation of Auburn University through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
The reason an AUPHA affiliation is called a "membership" is probably because an "accreditation" process implies that programs not participating lack legitimacy, whereas "membership" implies that participation is a prestigious "extra," like being a board-certified surgeon. Only about one-third of the undergraduate HA programs in the U.S. are AUPHA members (We are the first in Alabama). One possible source of further confusion is that graduate HA programs are actually accredited, under a different body, ACEHSA.
First, and foremost, it adds to the prestige of your degree. Auburn's program had already been acknowledged as one of the strongest of its kind in the Southeast. Achieving AUHPA membership places it among the strongest in the nation. This should definitely be of interest to employers and graduate schools.
Second, it opens up new opportunities for scholarships. Some scholarship programs are either limited to students at AUPHA member programs or give students from such programs an "edge." Similar standards sometimes also are used for post-doctoral study scholarships for faculty.
Third, it opens up new opportunities for teaching resources. AUPHA hosts "VIP" workshops and orientations for its member schools, bringing in top experts and federal officials in key policy areas, but these are limited only to representatives from AUPHA member institutions. Similarly, AUPHA member schools share syllabi, so that an Auburn faculty member considering teaching a new course or wishing to update materials in an existing course could see what resources other universities were using.
The HA faculty, with suggestions and assistance from the current and incoming Heads of the Political Science Department and the Chair of the HA Program Advisory Council, prepared and sent to AUPHA a formal application for membership, a lengthy document evaluating every aspect of our program. It included such areas as faculty credentials, course syllabi, and specific administrative skills taught in each course. A copy is available for inspection in the office of the Program Director.
Our application was mailed to AUPHA on May 9, 1995. It was be under review throughout the summer by a panel of three reviewers, and approval for our associate membership came in late October of 1995. After such approval, programs serve a period of Associate (now called "Candidate") membership before applying to become full members. The standards are basically not much different for Full members (now called "Certified" members) than for Associate/Candidate" members, so the main reason for the delay is so that the AUPHA can be sure a program is going to maintain the same level of quality it had at the time it first applied.
Yes! Both the HHAO and our HA Alumni organization made efforts to voice student/alumni views on the importance of this issue to the Political Science Department Head and the Dean of Liberal Arts. Shortly thereafter, the availability of funding for a membership application was announced.
Despite funding shortages in Alabama higher education there is so far no indication that this will affect our AUPHA membership. In past cutback situations, quality-related affiliations for programs were one area that was never threatened. The best student strategy for those interested in our membership would probably be to stay informed by checking the our "Newsline" on our Web pages, and, when you have any routine interactions with higher administrators at AU, let them know how you feel about the importance of AUPHA membership as a goal worth attaining and maintaining.