University of Wisconsin officials are preparing for a visit from a reaccreditation team, who will visit at the end of April to evaluate the university’s performance as an institution of higher education.

“Being accredited by a regional accrediting body is crucial for getting federal financial aid,” said Eden Inoway-Ronnie, special assistant to the provost. “It’s important in terms of getting recognition of the quality of our programs.”

The reaccreditation team, which visits the university every 10 years on behalf of the Higher Learning Commission, marks the end of a two-year process of self-study by the university, according to Nancy Mathews, director of UW’s reaccreditation project.

Mathews said the study assessed where the university stands and where UW community members want it to go in the future.

The results led to the creation of six teams to assess different aspects of the university and the drafting of a new campus-wide strategic plan to focus UW’s goals, which was released at the Feb. 2 faculty senate meeting.

A new draft, which went to Chancellor Biddy Martin on Wednesday for final review, will be released this week with revisions made to address faculty concerns with the document, according to Mathews.

Before the reaccreditation team arrives, UW students and faculty are invited to submit written comments to the Higher Learning Commission. Letters must be addressed to the commission and signed by their author.

The reaccreditation team will evaluate the comments before arriving in April and take them into account when reviewing the university’s operations.

Mathews said it is very unlikely the university will not receive reaccreditation, but the team will still be able to offer insightful comments on how to improve the university.

“We’re really hoping that this talented group of people coming in will have some things for us to think about,” Mathews said. “We look forward to them taking a critical eye because we all have different experiences to share.”

Inoway-Ronnie said overall, the university is seeking to allow people to be involved as possible.

“We really made an effort to be as inclusive and create opportunities for participation and so it was slightly different (from past reaccreditations) in this sense,” Inoway-Ronnie said.