Accreditation provides assurance that an institution has been found to meet, and will continue to meet, stated requirements and criteria. Accreditation also allows the institution to self-reflect towards continuous improvement. Accreditation is the process whereby an outside organization certifies a college or university as meeting certain requirements of excellence. Accreditation is an important “stamp of approval.” Accredited colleges and universities have proven to their peers that they are deeply committed to educational quality and improvement.
Only accredited institutions are eligible to receive federal funds for higher education, including student financial aid and research funds. Accreditation also ensures students the ability to transfer credits between accredited schools, and some graduate schools only accept students with degrees from accredited schools.
There are many good reasons to attend an accredited institution. Here are just a few of them:
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an independent corporation that was founded in 1895 as one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States. HLC accredits degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions in mostly Midwestern and South Central states, including, but not limited to Missouri, Illinois, West Virginia, Arizona and Colorado.
The university first earned accreditation from the HLC of the North Central Association in 1968. Since that time, the university has maintained a history of accreditation and engagement with the HLC. Most recently, the university received continued accreditation with the HLC in 2008.
The site visit will occur November 5 & 6, 2018.
The on-campus agenda will include meeting with the institution’s leadership; meeting with those involved in preparing the Assurance Argument and the Evidence File; and holding forums with faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders on various topics. Information about those forums will be provided as appropriate.
Two comprehensive evaluations take place in the ten-year accreditation cycle. Both quality assurance and quality improvement are integrated into these evaluations. The purposes of the campus visit are to validate claims made in the institution’s Assurance Filing (Assurance Argument and Evidence File), to evaluate the required improvements made by the institution, and to compare those materials with what the team finds during planned activities while on site. All comprehensive evaluations include a review of whether the institution meets the Federal Compliance Requirements. In addition, comprehensive evaluations include visits to branch campuses as applicable.
Members from our faculty and staff, as well as a graduate student are collecting evidence and writing assurance arguments. You can find the complete list of members by clicking here.
While we often refer to it as a self-study, we will actually write our assurance arguments and upload our evidentiary documents in what is called the Assurance System. It will be locked on October 8, 2018. After that date, we cannot make any changes.