Accreditation Update: November 15, 2012

As has been noted previously, the Criteria for Accreditation of the Higher Learning Commission have five separate categories. Under each criterion are a series of core components and subcomponents, in all totaling 21 core components and an additional 58 subcomponents. As part of our reaccreditation process, Concordia College needs to provide evidence that it meets all of these. During the next few campus updates, we will be providing a little more detail about each of the Criteria for Accreditation.  Previous updates about criteria can be found here.

Criterion five of the Criteria for Accreditation is centered on resources, planning, and institutional effectiveness.  "The institution's resources, structures, and processes are sufficient to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its educational offerings, and respond to future challenges and opportunities."  The Commission expects that any college or university that it accredits is continuously working to improve its operations throughout its campus.  The College is expected to plan systematically for its future and to do so in a way that links assessment of student learning with its evaluation of operations and budgeting.

This criterion also asks institutions to provide evidence that their campus governance is collaborative and inclusive, that the College involves all relevant stakeholders in its decision-makings processes, and that it has a governing board that is knowledgeable and accepts responsibility for institutional oversight.  This criterion asks that we provide documentation that we have the resources -- fiscal, human, physical, and technological -- to carry out our programs, both now and in the future. We need to provide evidence that our staff members are qualified and trained and that we have a process in place for developing a budget and for monitoring our expenses.

A booklet describing all of the requirements of the Higher Learning Commission can be found here. If you have questions about the Higher Learning Commission or Concordia’s approach to the self-study, please direct them to either of the coordinators - Kristi Loberg or Michael Wohlfeil - or to any of the members of the Self-Study Steering Committee.

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