Higher Learning Commission

Higher Learning Commission
HLC operating area
Abbreviation HLC
Predecessor North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Formation 2001
Purpose Higher education accreditation
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois
Region served
Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Main organ
 Board of Directors
Affiliations CHEA
Website hlcommission.org

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an organization tasked with the regional accreditation responsibilities for post-secondary education institutions in the central United States. The Higher Learning Commission oversees the accreditation of degree-granting colleges and universities in nineteen mostly Midwestern and South-Central states, namely Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The headquarters of the organization is based in Chicago, Illinois.

The United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation recognize the Commission as the assigned regional accrediting organization.[1][2] HLC grew out of the higher education division of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). The NCA dissolved in 2014.[3]


Criteria for Accreditation

The Higher Learning Commission has five major criteria for accreditation.[4] 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 US 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."[5]

In 2010, the OIG reaffirmed their recommendation that the department consider sanctions for the HLC. It also critically reviewed the accreditation status of American InterContinental University and the Art Institute of Colorado, two for-profit colleges.[6]

In 2015, the OIG-ED issued a critical audit on the review process the HLC used while considering colleges’ proposals for competency-based credentials.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "College Accreditation in the United States: Regional and National Institutional Accrediting Agencies". United States Department of Education. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  2. ↑ "Regional Accrediting Organizations 2009-2010". Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Archived from the original on 2009-08-31. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  3. ↑ "About the Higher Learning Commission". Higher Learning Commission. 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  4. ↑ http://download.hlcommission.org/CriteriaRevision_2018_INF.pdf
  5. ↑ https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inspector-Generals-Warning-to/63206
  6. ↑ https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691
  7. ↑ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/05/us-inspector-general-criticizes-accreditor-over-competency-based-education


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