The University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center will get an external review, U President Eric Kaler announced Monday.
The AHC -- an amalgam of six schools, including the Medical School, formed in 1970 -- was the subject of an internal report completed in November. Many comments on the report found it to be lacking.
"I have heard repeatedly ... that because the report was produced internally principally by 'insiders' with potentially strong interest in maintaining the status quo, an outside peer-review team would be necessary to give the report credibility," wrote Prof. John Finnegan, dean of the School of Public Health.
Kaler announced in December the possibility of an external review. In an email to AHC faculty and staff on Monday, he made it official. "The primary question for the external review committee to consider is whether the AHC is structured to ensure excellence in all of our health science schools," he wrote.
He announced that the review committee will be headed by Dr. Ken Kaushansky, a senior VP at Stony Brook University, where Kaler was provost before taking the Minnesota gig. The review will start following the Medical School's accreditation team's visit in March. Kaler's email contains more details:
