The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has been taken off probationary status by its accreditor, the university’s president announced today. “The decision by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education to reaffirm accreditation for our institution is a tremendous vote of confidence for the great work done each day by the faculty and staff of UMDNJ,” the president, William F. Owen Jr., said in a written statement.

The commission had placed the scandal-plagued institution on probation in June 2006, six months after the university had agreed to oversight by a federal monitor, pending investigations of financial mismanagement and ethical lapses. The agreement protected the university from criminal prosecution on charges of Medicaid fraud.

The federal oversight ended late last year, and early this year, the monitor issued a final report that gave the university a much-improved bill of health, but also faulted its research-compliance capability. The university disputed that finding.

The Middle States commission’s vice chairman, Michael F. Middaugh, wrote in a letter to the university that the agency was restoring the institution’s accreditation “because of progress to date” and evidence that the university could make appropriate improvements in a reasonable time, the Associated Press reported. Still, the commission is requiring the university to make additional reports on its progress in some areas. —Charles Huckabee