“I always want to make sure that people know that Barber-Scotia is authorized by the state of North Carolina to confer degrees to individuals,” the school’s President Chris Rey told The Charlotte Post. “As we reposition ourselves to be in a position to receive federal financial aid, I will tell you that Barber-Scotia is on track for reaccreditation. Our plan, if everything goes right, is to submit our application for re-accreditation in October of this year.”

Rey said the HBCU plans to apply for accreditation through the Transnational Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities, which has accredited nearly 90 institutions so far.

The university lost its accreditation in 2004 after it was found to have inaccurately reported information about its finances and academics during a period of change in leadership, The Charlotte Post reported. This led to students being denied access to federal financial aid and having to pay tuition out of pocket. As of now, tuition costs $2,500 a semester. According to Black Enterprise, BSC lost its football program and six out of 15 campus buildings.

Rey, hired in July 2023, said he took several steps toward restoring BSC’s accreditation status.

“We have been working very hard over the last year with the team that I have assembled to address the 17 standards by the TRACS organization that we are going to be working with to get reaccredited so that our future students will get access to federal financial aid,” he said.

This plan also included the launch of an online learning program on artificial intelligence via a partnership with the eLearning platform Skilldora. Over 200 students signed up for the free certification program, according to Rey.

“When I took over, we had no potential students that were interested in Barber-Scotia,” Rey told The Charlotte Post. “As of today, we had over 60 applications for potential students for the college for this fall that we’re working through right now.”

“We are slowly but surely engaging individuals, putting out information and encouraging folks to know that we are open number one, and that we are focused on bringing in students and making sure that their access to education is at an affordable cost,” Rey said.

BSC is one of 11 HBCUs in North Carolina. It was founded in 1867 as Scotia Seminary by the Rev. Luke Dorland and commissioned by the Presbyterian Church. It was originally opened to educate Black women in education and social work. It launched its first four-year degree program in 1942; by 1945, the first bachelor’s degrees were awarded.