New HLC Criteria
Higher Learning Commission Accreditation Criteria
Criterion One: Mission and IntegrityThe organization operates with integrity
to ensure the fulfillment of its mission
through structures and processes that
involve the board, administration, faculty, staff, and students.
Criterion Two: Preparing for the Future
The organization?s allocation of resources
and its processes for evaluation and planning
demonstrate its capacity to fulfill its mission,
improve the quality of its education
and respond to future challenges and opportunities.
Criterion Three: Student Learning and Effective Teaching
The organization provides evidence
of student learning and teaching effectiveness
that demonstrates it is fulfilling its educational mission.
Criterion Four: Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge
The organization promotes a life of learning
for its faculty, administration, staff, and students
by fostering and supporting inquiry, creativity, practice, and
social responsibility in ways consistent with its mission.
Criterion Five: Engagement and Service
As called for by its mission,
the organization identifies its constituencies
and serves them in ways both value.
To meet the criteria an institution must meet the core components of each criterion statement. Read the core components for each of the criterion statements. Examples of the type of evidence that an institution might use to indicate that a core component has been met are also provided with the core components.
Consider the following ideas about the criteria.
- All other criteria relate back to criterion one, mission and integrity.
- Criterion one is "who we are," criteria two-five is "how we live who we are."
- Criteria are not separate, but are a mosaic
Does the Self-Study Report show the HLC that the students are learning what we say they are learning? - Criterion One: vision, goals, and strategies of the institution
- Criterion Two: enough $$ to meet your goals now and in the future
- Criterion Three: are students learning what they are supposed to learn
- Criterion Four: life of learning for students, faculty, administrators, and staff
- Criterion Five: engagement of the institution with constituents