The institution’s mission is clear and articulated publicly; it guides the institution’s operations.

Core Components

1.A. The institution’s mission is articulated publicly and operationalized throughout the institution.

1.A. Mission Alignment
The institution’s educational programs, enrollment profile and scope of operations align with its publicly articulated mission.

1.B. Mission and Public Good
The institution’s operation of the academic enterprise demonstrates its commitment to serving the public good.

1.C. Mission and Diversity of Society
The institution provides opportunities for civic engagement in a diverse, multicultural society and globally connected world, as appropriate within its mission and for the constituencies it serves.

The institution acts with integrity; its conduct is ethical and responsible.

Core Components

2.A. Integrity
Actions taken by the institution’s governing board, administration, faculty and staff demonstrate adherence to established policies and procedures.

2.B. Transparency
The institution presents itself accurately and completely to students and the public with respect to its educational programs and any claims it makes related to the educational experience.

2.C. Board Governance
In discharging its fiduciary duties, the institution’s governing board is free from undue external influence and empowered to act in the best interests of the institution, including the students it serves.

2.D. Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression
The institution supports academic freedom and freedom of expression in the pursuit of knowledge as integral to high-quality teaching, learning and research.

2.E. Knowledge Acquisition, Discovery and Application
The institution adheres to policies and procedures that ensure responsible acquisition, discovery and application of knowledge.

The institution demonstrates responsibility for the quality of its educational programs, learning environments and support services, and it evaluates their effectiveness in fulfilling its mission. The rigor and quality of each educational program is consistent regardless of modality, location or other differentiating factors.

Core Components

3.A. Educational Programs
The institution maintains learning goals and outcomes that reflect a level of rigor commensurate with college-level work, including by program level and the content of each of its educational programs.

3.B. Exercise of Intellectual Inquiry
The institution’s educational programs engage students in collecting, analyzing and communicating information; in practicing modes of intellectual inquiry or creative work; and in developing skills adaptable to changing environments.

3.C. Sufficiency of Faculty and Staff
The institution has the faculty and staff needed for effective, high-quality programs and student services.

3.D. Support for Student Learning and Resources for Teaching
The institution provides student support services that address the needs of its student populations, as well as the teaching resources and infrastructure necessary for student success.

3.E. Assessment of Student Learning
The institution improves the quality of educational programs based on its assessment of student learning.

3.F. Program Review
The institution improves its curriculum based on periodic program review.

3.G. Student Success Outcomes
The institution’s student success outcomes demonstrate continuous improvement, taking into account the student populations it serves and benchmarks that reference peer institutions.

The institution’s resources, structures, policies, procedures and planning enable it to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its educational programs, and respond to future challenges and opportunities.

Core Components

4.A. Effective Administrative Structures
The institution’s administrative structures are effective and facilitate collaborative processes such as shared governance; data-informed decision making; and engagement with internal and external constituencies as appropriate.

4.B. Resource Base and Sustainability
The institution’s financial and personnel resources effectively support its current operations. The institution’s financial management balances short-term needs with long-term commitments and ensures its ongoing sustainability.

4.C. Planning for Quality Improvement
The institution engages in systematic strategic planning for quality improvement. It relies on data, integrating its insights from enrollment forecasts, financial capacity, student learning assessment, institutional operations and the external environment.

1. The institution has a conflict of interest policy that ensures that the governing board and the senior administrative personnel act in the best interest of the institution.
2. The institution has ethics policies for faculty and staff regarding conflict of interest, nepotism, recruitment and admissions, financial aid, privacy of personal information, and contracting.
3. The institution provides its students, administrators, faculty, and staff with policies and procedures informing them of their rights and responsibilities within the institution.
4. The institution establishes and publicizes clear policies and procedures for receiving complaints from students and other constituencies, responding to complaints in a timely manner, and analyzing complaints to improve its processes. The institution does not retaliate against those who raise complaints.
5. The institution makes readily available to students and to the public clear and complete information including:
1. Statements of mission, vision, and values.
2. Requirements for admission both to the institution and to individual educational programs.
3. Its policies on acceptance of transfer credit and prior learning, including how credit is applied to educational program requirements. (Except for courses articulated through transfer policies or institutional agreements, the institution makes no promises to prospective students regarding the acceptance of credit awarded by examination, credit for prior learning, or credit for transfer until the institution has conducted an evaluation of such students’ credits in accordance with its transfer policies.)
4. All student costs, including tuition, fees, training, and incidentals.
5. Its financial aid policies, including its policy on refunds.
6. Policies regarding academic good standing, probation, and dismissal.
7. Residency or enrollment requirements (if any).
8. Information about its relationship with any parent organization and any external providers of instruction.
6. The institution assures that all data it makes public are accurate and complete, including those reporting on student success outcomes.
7. The institution portrays clearly and accurately to the public its legal authorization to award degrees, offer educational programs or conduct activities as an institution of higher education within any jurisdictions in which it so operates; and its current status with HLC and with any other recognized accreditors. As applicable, the institution makes clear to students the distinction between the various types of accreditation and the relationship between licensure and the various types of accreditation.
8. An institution offering programs that require accreditation by a recognized accreditor or recognition by a state licensing board or other entity in order for its students to be certified or to sit for licensing examinations in states where its students reside either has the appropriate accreditation and recognition, is in the process of seeking such accreditation, or discloses publicly and clearly the consequences to the students of the lack thereof.
1. An institution offering programs eligible for specialized accreditation at multiple locations discloses the accreditation status and recognition of the program by state licensing boards at each location.
2. An institution that provides a program that prepares students for a licensure, certification, or other qualifying examination publicly discloses its pass rate on that examination, unless such information is not available to the institution.
9. The governing board includes some “public” members. Public members have no significant administrative position or any ownership interest in any of the following: the institution itself; a company that does substantial business with the institution; a company or organization with which the institution has a substantial partnership; a parent, ultimate parent, affiliate, or subsidiary corporation; an investment group or firm substantially involved with one of the above organizations. All publicly elected members or members appointed by publicly elected individuals or bodies (governors, elected legislative bodies) are considered public members.*
10. The governing board has the authority to approve the annual budget and to hire, evaluate and dismiss the chief executive officer.1
11. The governing board is trained and knowledgeable on all subject matter necessary to discharge its legal and fiduciary responsibilities, and to otherwise make informed decisions with respect to the institution’s financial and academic policies and procedures.
12. The governing board delegates day-to-day management of the institution to the institution’s administration and expects the institution’s faculty to oversee academic matters.
13. The institution remains in compliance at all times with all applicable laws, including laws related to research, authorization of educational activities, and consumer protection wherever it does business.
14. The institution documents outsourcing of all services in written agreements, including agreements with parent or affiliated organizations.
15. The institution takes responsibility for the ethical and responsible behavior of its contractual partners in relation to actions taken on its behalf.

^* Institutions operating under federal control and authorized by Congress are exempt from these requirements. These institutions must have a public board that includes representation by individuals who do not have a current or previous employment or other relationship with the federal government or any military entity. This public board has a significant role in setting policy, reviewing the institution’s finances, reviewing and approving major institutional priorities, and overseeing the academic programs of the institution.

1. Programs, Courses, and Credits
1. The institution conforms to commonly accepted minimum program length: 60 semester credits for associate’s degrees, 120 semester credits for bachelor’s degrees, and 30 semester credits beyond the bachelor’s for master’s degrees. Any variation is explained and justified.
2. The institution maintains structures or practices that ensure the coherence and quality of the programs for which it awards an academic credential. Typically institutions will require that at minimum 30 of the 120 credits earned for the bachelor’s degree and 15 of the 60 credits for the associate’s degree be credits earned at the institution itself, through arrangements with other accredited institutions, or through contractual relationships approved by HLC. Any variation is explained and justified.
3. The institution’s policy and practice assure that at least 50% of courses applied to a graduate program are courses designed for graduate work, rather than undergraduate courses credited toward a graduate degree. (Cf. Criterion 3.A.)
   (An institution may allow well-prepared advanced students to substitute its graduate courses for required or elective courses in an undergraduate degree program and then subsequently count those same courses as fulfilling graduate requirements in a related graduate program that the institution offers. In “4+1” or “2+3” programs, at least 50% of the credits allocated for the master’s degree – usually 15 of 30 – must be for courses designed for graduate work.)
4. The institution adheres to policies on student academic load per term that reflect reasonable expectations for successful learning and course completion.
5. The institution has policies and procedures for ensuring that all courses transferred and applied toward educational program requirements demonstrate equivalence with its own courses required for that educational program or are of equivalent rigor.
6. The institution has a clear policy on the maximum allowable credit for prior learning as a reasonable proportion of the credits required to complete the student’s program. Credit awarded for prior learning is documented, evaluated, and appropriate for the level of academic credential awarded. (Note that this requirement does not apply to courses transferred from other institutions.)
7. The institution maintains a minimum requirement for general education for all of its undergraduate programs whether through a traditional practice of distributed curricula (15 semester credits for AAS degrees, 24 for AS or AA degrees, and 30 for bachelor’s degrees) or through other accepted equivalent models. Any variation is explained and justified.
8. If the institution makes any claims for student learning related to its cocurricular programs, it assesses such student learning and makes improvements.
2. Faculty Roles and Qualifications
1. The institution establishes and maintains reasonable policies and procedures to determine that faculty are qualified. The factors that an institution considers as part of these policies and procedures could include, but are not limited to: the achievement of academic credentials, progress toward academic credentials, equivalent experience, or some combination thereof. The institution’s obligations in this regard extend to all instructors and all other entities to which it assigns the responsibility of instruction. HLC will maintain “Institutional Policies and Procedures for Determining Faculty Qualifications Guidelines” to further explain requirements for reasonable policies and procedures in accordance with this Assumed Practice.
2. Faculty participate substantially in:
1. oversight of the curriculum offered — its development, vetting and implementation; academic substance; currency; and relevance for internal and external constituencies;
2. assurance of consistency in the level and quality of instruction and in the expectations of student performance;
3. establishment of the qualifications for instructors, including instructors provided by third parties;
4. analysis of data and appropriate action on assessment of student learning and program completion.
3. Support Services
1. Financial aid advising clearly and comprehensively reviews students’ eligibility for financial assistance and assists students in a full understanding of their debt and its consequences.
2. The institution maintains timely and accurate transcript and records services.
4. The institution strives to ensure that the overall composition of its faculty and staff reflects diversity as appropriate within its mission and for the constituencies it serves.

1. Instructors (excluding for this requirement teaching assistants enrolled in a graduate program and supervised by faculty) have the authority for the assignment of any measures of student success outcomes. (This requirement allows for collective responsibility, as, for example, when a faculty committee has the authority to override a grade on appeal.)
2. The institution evaluates all academic credit that it transcripts, including what it awards for experiential learning or other forms of prior learning. The institution has clear policies for evaluating and accepting credits awarded by other education providers and may rely on credit evaluation undertaken by responsible third parties. The institution refrains from the transcription of credit from other institutions or providers that it will not apply to its own programs.
3. The institution has formal and current written agreements for managing any internships and clinical placements included in its programs.
4. Instructors communicate course requirements to students in writing and in a timely manner.
5. Institutional data on assessment of student learning are accurate and address the full range of students who enroll.
6. Institutional data on student success outcomes are accurate and address the full range of students who enroll.

1. The institution is able to meet its current financial obligations.
2. The institution has a well-developed procedure for budgeting and monitoring its finances. It has a prepared budget for the current year and the capacity to compare it with budgets and actual results of previous years.
3. The institution has future financial projections addressing its long-term financial sustainability.
4. The institution maintains effective systems for collecting, analyzing, and using institutional information.
5. The institution undergoes an external audit by a certified public accountant or a public audit agency that reports financial statements on the institution separately from any other related entity or parent corporation. For private institutions the audit is annual; for public institutions it is at least every two years.*
6. The institution’s administrative structure includes a chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and chief academic officer (titles may vary) with appropriate credentials and experience and sufficient focus on the institution to ensure appropriate leadership and oversight. (An institution may outsource its financial functions but must have the capacity to assure the effectiveness of that arrangement.)
7. The institution’s planning activities demonstrate careful and detailed consideration of student needs (including but not limited to the preservation of student records) and protocols to be followed in the event an orderly institutional closure becomes necessary.

*Institutions under federal control are exempted provided that they have other reliable information to document the institution’s fiscal resources and management.