MBTS step closer to bachelor degree program
By Staff
May 31, 2005
KANSAS CITY – Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and College, SBC, is one step closer to earning accreditation for a proposed Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree program.
A site evaluation team from the seminary’s accrediting association – the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC-NCA) – visited the Kansas City campus on May 2-3, 2005.
In an exit meeting, the team gave Midwestern President R. Philip Roberts a positive report that the team would be recommending that HLC-NCA include the B.A. program in the seminary’s accreditation status.
The site team will now submit a formal report to the accrediting association’s Institutional Actions Council, which is expected to then vote on including the degree program in the accreditation of the institution in its June or August 2005 meeting.
“Midwestern was excited to host the site evaluation team on our campus and look forward with anticipation to hearing the results of the council’s decision,” Roberts said. “The proposed bachelor of arts degree program is one more way Midwestern is seeking to train the next generation of pastors, missionaries and Christian leaders who will take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.”
Midwestern submitted a revised petition to HLC-NCA for the program on March 11. Plans are already in place, including professors, syllabi and locations, to begin the program, pending the decision of the accrediting council.
Midwestern currently offers accredited degree programs from associates to masters to doctorates. Its mission is to “biblically educate God-called men and women to be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world.”
The college already offers an associate of divinity degree and an associate of arts degree program with emphases in biblical studies, Christian education, music and church planting.
The college has just completed its second semester of existence with 104 students enrolled. The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) on March 15 gave $100,000 to Midwestern for the new college.