View source for Organization:Higher Learning Commission

{{Short description|U.S. university accreditation organization}}

{{Infobox organization
| name                = Higher Learning Commission
| logo                = Higher Learning Commission logo.png
| map                 = 
| msize               = 
| mcaption            = 
| abbreviation        = 
| formation           = 1895
| predecessor         = [[Organization:North Central Association of Colleges and Schools|North Central Association of Colleges and Schools]]
| purpose             = Higher education accreditation
| headquarters        = {{wipe|Chicago}}
| region_served       = United States
| main_organ          = Board of Directors
| affiliations        = [[Organization:Council for Higher Education Accreditation|CHEA]]
| website             = {{url|https://www.hlcommission.org|hlcommission.org}}
}}

The '''Higher Learning Commission''' ('''HLC''') is an institutional accreditor in the United States.  It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, {{wipe|Indiana}}, Iowa, {{wipe|Kansas}}, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The headquarters of the organization is in {{wipe|Chicago}}, Illinois.

The United States Department of Education and the [[Organization:Council for Higher Education Accreditation|Council for Higher Education Accreditation]] recognize the commission as an institutional accreditor; it was previously a regional accreditor.{{r|DOE-accrediting-agencies}}{{r|CHEA-regional-accreditors-2009-2010}} HLC grew out of the higher education division of the [[Organization:North Central Association of Colleges and Schools|North Central Association of Colleges and Schools]] (NCA), which dissolved in 2014.{{r|HLC-about}}

== Criteria for accreditation ==

The Higher Learning Commission has five major criteria for accreditation.{{r|HLC-2018-03-Criteria-for-accreditation}} They are:
(1) Mission,
(2) Ethics,
(3) Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support,
(4) Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Improvement,
and (5) Resources, Planning, and Institutional Effectiveness.

== Criticism ==

In 2009, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education (OIG-ED) criticized the Higher Learning Commission's oversight of for-profit colleges and recommended that the agency consider "limiting, suspending, or terminating the organization's status."{{r|Kelderman-2009-12-17}} Although the OIG reaffirmed their recommendation that the department consider sanctions for the HLC the following year, adding critical reviews of HLC's accreditation of [[Organization:American InterContinental University|American InterContinental University]] and [[Organization:The Art Institute of Colorado|The Art Institute of Colorado]]{{r|Kelderman-2010-05-27}}, the Department of Education did not withdraw or limit HLC's accreditation authority.  Six years later in 2015, the OIG-ED again criticized HLC this time with an audit on the review process the HLC used while considering colleges' proposals for competency-based credentials.{{r|Fain-2015-10-05}}

==Academic Quality Improvement Program==
The '''Academic Quality Improvement Program''' is a set of policies and procedures that institutions can follow in order to maintain accreditation by the HLC.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hlcommission.org/Accreditation/aqip-overview.html |access-date=26 September 2017 |title=AQIP Pathway Overview |publisher=Higher Learning Commission |archive-date=September 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919223035/http://www.hlcommission.org/Accreditation/aqip-overview.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===History===
[[File:NCA map.png|thumb|Former regional accreditation territory]]
The Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) was developed as the "Academic Quality Improvement Project" beginning in 1999 by Stephen Spangehl at the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) (then the [[Organization:North Central Association of Colleges and Schools|North Central Association of Colleges and Schools]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hlcommission.org/About-the-Commission/about-hlc.html|title=About the Higher Learning Commission|publisher=Higher Learning Commission |access-date=26 September 2017}}</ref> The project was funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/AQIP+and+accreditation%3a+improving+quality+and+performance%3a+merely...-a0298504018|title=AQIP and Accreditation: Improving Quality and Performance|journal=Planning for Higher Education|first=Stephen D.|last=Spangehl |date=1 April 2012|volume=40|issue=3 |url-status=  |via=The Free Library}}</ref> The project was inspired by Spangehl's experience as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and sought to apply the principles of [[Total quality management]] to higher education.

AQIP originally focused on 9 categories of activity that lent themselves to self-assessment and continuous improvement,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aqip.pbworks.com/f/The+AQIP+Principles+and+Categories+(2000).pdf |date=2005 |title=Principles and Categories for Improving Academic Quality |publisher=Higher Learning Commission}}</ref> improved and refined in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=AQIP Categories and Items - 2008 Revision |url=http://aqip.pbworks.com/f/AQIP+Categories+(2008).pdf |access-date=26 September 2017 |publisher=Higher Learning Commission}}</ref> The guidelines identified ten core principles—Focus, Involvement, Leadership, Learning, People, Collaboration, Agility, Foresight, Information, and Integrity—that high performing organizations use to guide their operations, and required institutions to develop their own projects to apply those principles tho their own activity and measure their success.

The program took a collaborative approach with "Strategy Forums" where groups of institutions shared their insights about the "Action Projects" they undertook to address various challenges. The records of Action Projects were stored in an online network that other participants could access and use as guidance for future improvements. At the end of the review cycle institutions were responsible for preparing a "Systems Portfolio" that required them to answer specific question about processes, results, and improvements for each of the 9 AQIP categories.

===Modern Form===
Known as the "AQIP Pathway", AQIP was one of three options (including Standard and Open Pathways) that institutions accredited by the Higher Learning Commission were able to pursue for reaccreditation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hlcommission.org/Pathways/aqip-overview.html|title=AQIP Pathway - Pathways - Accreditation Processes|access-date=April 19, 2022|archive-date=July 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711091547/http://www.hlcommission.org/Pathways/aqip-overview.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Linnea Stenson served as director of the program from 2015 to 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hlcommission.org/About-HLC/staff-liaisons.html|title=Staff Liaisons &#124; About HLC|website=www.hlcommission.org}}</ref>

In order to elect participation in AQIP,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hlcommission.org/Accreditation/choosing-a-pathway.html|title=Choosing a Pathway &#124; Accreditation|website=www.hlcommission.org}}</ref> institutions were required to be accredited for ten years and to have demonstrated established foundations in "expected practice" under traditional pathways. Numerous factors might have made an institution ineligible for the optional pathway, including recent change in control, substantive change,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hlcommission.org/Monitoring/institutional-change.html|title=Institutional Change - Monitoring - Accreditation Processes|access-date=April 19, 2022|archive-date=July 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711205012/http://www.hlcommission.org/Monitoring/institutional-change.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> sanction, monitoring, or if the accreditor had serious concerns about the institution's conduct or commitment to required accreditation activities.

At the end of academic year 2019–2020, HLC officially phased out AQIP as an accreditation pathway,<ref>https://download.hlcommission.org/HLCResourceGuide_INF.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> leaving only Standard and Open Pathways as re-accreditation options.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Choosing a Pathway {{!}} Accreditation|url=https://www.hlcommission.org/Accreditation/choosing-a-pathway.html|access-date=2021-06-04|website=www.hlcommission.org}}</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Organization:AdvancED|AdvancED]] (accrediting agency for primary and secondary schools that evolved from the NCA).

== References ==

{{reflist | 30em | refs =

<ref name = CHEA-regional-accreditors-2009-2010>
{{cite web
 | url              = http://www.chea.org/Directories/regional.asp
 | title            = Regional accrediting organizations 2009-2010
 | website          = [[Organization:Council for Higher Education Accreditation|Council for Higher Education Accreditation]]
 | access-date      = 2009-11-01
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20090831092348/http://www.chea.org/Directories/regional.asp
 | url-status         = dead
 | archive-date     = 2009-08-31
}}</ref>

<ref name = DOE-accrediting-agencies>
{{cite web
 | url              = https://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg6.html
 | title            = Accreditation in the United States: regional and national institutional accrediting agencies
 | website          = United States Department of Education
 | access-date      = 2019-02-04
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20190204100253/https://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg6.html
 | url-status         = live
 | archive-date     = 2019-02-04
}}</ref>

<ref name = Fain-2015-10-05>
{{cite news
 | url              = https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/05/us-inspector-general-criticizes-accreditor-over-competency-based-education
 | author-last      = Fain
 | author-first     = Paul
 | date             = 5 October 2015
 | title            = Caution on competency
 | website          = Inside Higher Ed
 | department       = Assessment and Accountability
 | access-date      = 2019-02-04
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20190204104310/https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/05/us-inspector-general-criticizes-accreditor-over-competency-based-education
 | url-status         = live
 | archive-date     = 2019-02-04
}}</ref>

<ref name = HLC-2018-03-Criteria-for-accreditation>
{{cite web
 | url              = http://download.hlcommission.org/CriteriaRevision_2018_INF.pdf
 | date             = March 2018
 | title            = Criteria for accreditation
 | edition          = Alpha revision
 | website          = Higher Learning Commission
 | access-date      = 2019-02-04
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20190204102711/http://download.hlcommission.org/CriteriaRevision_2018_INF.pdf
 | url-status         = live
 | archive-date     = 2019-02-04
}}</ref>

<ref name = HLC-about>
{{cite web
 | url              = https://www.hlcommission.org/About-the-Commission/about-hlc.html
 | title            = About the Higher Learning Commission
 | website          = Higher Learning Commission
 | access-date      = 2019-02-04
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20190204101732/https://www.hlcommission.org/About-HLC/about-hlc.html
 | url-status         = live
 | archive-date     = 2019-02-04
}}</ref>

<ref name = Kelderman-2009-12-17>
{{cite news
 | url              = https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inspector-Generals-Warning-to/63206
 | author-last      = Kelderman
 | author-first     = Eric
 | date             = 17 December 2009
 | title            = Inspector General warns accreditor over online college, raising fears among for-profit institutions
 | website          = Chronicle of Higher Education
 | department       = Government
 | access-date      = 2019-02-04
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20181008022812/https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inspector-Generals-Warning-to/63206
 | url-status         = live
 | archive-date     = 2018-10-08
}}</ref>

<ref name = Kelderman-2010-05-27>
{{cite news
 | url              = https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691
 | author-last      = Kelderman
 | author-first     = Eric
 | date             = 27 May 2010
 | title            = Inspector General keeps the pressure on a regional accreditor
 | website          = Chronicle of Higher Education
 | department       = Government
 | access-date      = 2019-02-04
 | archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20181008022803/https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691
 | url-status         = live
 | archive-date     = 2018-10-08
}}</ref>

}}

==External links==


{{DEFAULTSORT:Higher Learning Commission}}
[[Category:School accreditors]]

{{Sourceattribution|Higher Learning Commission}}