What does the Higher Learning Commission look at during the reaccreditation process?
HLC/NCA examines the institution thoroughly--from food service to physics. Every department and unit on campus is examined for its ability to facilitate learning--either directly or indirectly. The focus is on the student and how the college, in all its parts, helps foster learning. Reaccreditation verifies that the institution has the wherewithal to offer whatever programs it proposes. To this end it not only looks at academic programming, but also at all other aspects of campus life—financial, administrative and interpersonal. Since colleges and universities differ so much among themselves, NCA does not impose a single vision of what should occur. Instead, it measures the individual university against general criteria that apply to higher education as a whole and against our own mission statement.