Release Date: Monday, September 17, 2012
Charleston, WV – The University of Charleston has received official notice that its new Physician Assistant program has been granted provisional accreditation by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. (ARC-PA). This is the highest possible level of accreditation available to the program at this stage.
The program will admit its first cohort of 30 students in January. The ARC-PA noted zero areas of noncompliance with the applicable standards for accreditation.
The announcement is important to students applying to the program because only graduates of programs accredited by the ARC-PA or its predecessors are eligible to take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE). Certification is required to be eligible for licensure to practice as a Physician Assistant.
According to Program Director David Payne, “This is exciting news! All of the challenging preparatory work we have accomplished for this new program has paid off. We now have the green light to train outstanding physician assistants who will ultimately serve thousands of patients in West Virginia and beyond.”
More information about the Physician Assistant Program at the University of Charleston is available at http://www.ucwv.edu/PA.