Thirty-nine Criteria for Review (CFR) are distributed across the four Standards. The
CFRs under each Standard provide more specific statements about the meaning of the
Standard. The CFRs are grouped under headings that identify major aspects of institutional
functioning. The CFRs are cited by institutions in their institutional report, by
peer reviewers in evaluating institutions, and by the Commission in making decisions
about institutions. Many of the CFRs are cross-referenced to allow for ease in identifying
related and connected CFRs.
Institutional Purposes
Criteria for Review
1.1 The institution’s formally approved statements of purpose are appropriate for
an institution of higher education and clearly define its essential values and character
and ways in which it contributes to the public good.
1.2 Educational objectives are widely recognized throughout the institution, are consistent
with stated purposes, and are demonstrably achieved. The institution regularly generates,
evaluates, and makes public data about student achievement, including measures of
retention and graduation, and evidence of student learning outcomes.
Integrity and Transparency
Criteria for Review
1.3 The institution publicly states its commitment to academic freedom for faculty,
staff, and students, and acts accordingly. This commitment affirms that those in the
academy are free to share their convictions and responsible conclusions with their
colleagues and students in their teaching and writing.
1.4 Consistent with its purposes and character, the institution demonstrates an appropriate
response to the increasing diversity in society through its policies, its educational
and co-curricular programs, its hiring and admissions criteria, and its administrative
and organizational practices.
Integrity and Transparency
Criteria for Review
1.5 Even when supported by or affiliated with governmental, corporate, or religious
organizations, the institution has education as its primary purpose and operates as
an academic institution with appropriate autonomy.
1.6 The institution truthfully represents its academic goals, programs, services,
and costs to students and to the larger public. The institution demonstrates that
its academic programs can be completed in a timely fashion. The institution treats
students fairly and equitably through established policies and procedures addressing
student conduct, grievances, human subjects in research, disability, and financial
matters, including refunds and financial aid.
1.7 The institution exhibits integrity and transparency in its operations, as demonstrated
by the adoption and implementation of appropriate policies and procedures, sound business
practices, timely and fair responses to complaints and grievances, and regular evaluation
of its performance in these areas. The institution’s finances are regularly audited
by qualified independent auditors.
1.8 The institution is committed to honest and open communication with the Accrediting
Commission; to undertaking the accreditation review process with seriousness and candor;
to informing the Commission promptly of any matter that could materially affect the
accreditation status of the institution; and to abiding by Commission policies and
procedures, including all substantive change policies.
Teaching and Learning
Criteria for Review
2.1 The institution’s educational programs are appropriate in content, standards of
performance, rigor, and nomenclature for the degree level awarded, regardless of mode
of delivery. They are staffed by sufficient numbers of faculty qualified for the type
and level of curriculum offered.
2.2 All degrees—undergraduate and graduate—awarded by the institution are clearly
defined in terms of entry-level requirements and levels of student achievement necessary
for graduation that represent more than simply an accumulation of courses or credits.
The institution has both a coherent philosophy, expressive of its mission, which guides
the meaning of its degrees and processes that ensure the quality and integrity of
its degrees.
2.2a Baccalaureate programs engage students in an integrated course of study of sufficient
breadth and depth to prepare them for work, citizenship, and life-long learning. These
programs ensure the development of core competencies including, but not limited to,
written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, and
critical thinking. In addition, baccalaureate programs actively foster creativity,
innovation, an appreciation for diversity, ethical and civic responsibility, civic
engagement, and the ability to work with others. Baccalaureate programs also ensure
breadth for all students in cultural and aesthetic, social and political, and scientific
and technical knowledge expected of educated persons. Undergraduate degrees include
significant in-depth study in a given area of knowledge (typically described in terms
of a program or major).
2.2b The institution’s graduate programs establish clearly stated objectives differentiated
from and more advanced than undergraduate programs in terms of admissions, curricula,
standards of performance, and student learning outcomes. Graduate programs foster
students’ active engagement with the literature of the field and create a culture
that promotes the importance of scholarship and/or professional practice. Ordinarily,
a baccalaureate degree is required for admission to a graduate program.
2.3 The institution’s student learning outcomes and standards of performance are clearly
stated at the course, program, and, as appropriate, institutional level. These outcomes
and standards are reflected in academic programs, policies, and curricula, and are
aligned with advisement, library, and information and technology resources, and the
wider learning environment.
2.4 The institution’s student learning outcomes and standards of performance are developed
by faculty and widely shared among faculty, students, staff, and (where appropriate)
external stakeholders. The institution’s faculty take collective responsibility for
establishing appropriate standards of performance and demonstrating through assessment
the achievement of these standards.
2.5 The institution’s academic programs actively involve students in learning, take
into account students’ prior knowledge of the subject matter, challenge students to
meet high standards of performance, offer opportunities for them to practice, generalize,
and apply what they have learned, and provide them with appropriate and ongoing feedback
about their performance and how it can be improved.
2.6 The institution demonstrates that its graduates consistently achieve its stated
learning outcomes and established standards of performance. The institution ensures
that its expectations for student learning are embedded in the standards that faculty
use to evaluate student work.
2.7 All programs offered by the institution are subject to systematic program review.
The program review process includes, but is not limited to, analyses of student achievement
of the program’s learning outcomes; retention and graduation rates; and, where appropriate,
results of licensing examination and placement, and evidence from external constituencies
such as employers and professional organizations.
Scholarship and Creative Activity
Criteria for Review
2.8 The institution clearly defines expectations for research, scholarship, and creative
activity for its students and all categories of faculty. The institution actively
values and promotes scholarship, creative activity, and curricular and instructional
innovation, and their dissemination appropriate to the institution’s purposes and
character.
2.9 The institution recognizes and promotes appropriate linkages among scholarship,
teaching, assessment, student learning, and service.
Student Learning and Success
Criteria for Review
2.10 The institution demonstrates that students make timely progress toward the completion
of their degrees and that an acceptable proportion of students complete their degrees
in a timely fashion, given the institution’s mission, the nature of the students it
serves, and the kinds of programs it offers. The institution collects and analyzes
student data, disaggregated by appropriate demographic categories and areas of study.
It tracks achievement, satisfaction, and the extent to which the campus climate supports
student success. The institution regularly identifies the characteristics of its students;
assesses their preparation, needs, and experiences; and uses these data to improve
student achievement.
2.11 Consistent with its purposes, the institution offers co-curricular programs that
are aligned with its academic goals, integrated with academic programs, and designed
to support all students’ personal and professional development. The institution assesses
the effectiveness of its co-curricular programs and uses the results for improvement.
2.12 The institution ensures that all students understand the requirements of their
academic programs and receive timely, useful, and complete information and advising
about relevant academic requirements.
Student Learning and Success
Criteria for Review
2.13 The institution provides academic and other student support services such as
tutoring, services for students with disabilities, financial aid counseling, career
counseling and placement, residential life, athletics, and other services and programs
as appropriate, which meet the needs of the specific types of students that the institution
serves and the programs it offers.
2.14 Institutions that serve transfer students provide clear, accurate, and timely
information, ensure equitable treatment under academic policies, provide such students
access to student services, and ensure that they are not unduly disadvantaged by the
transfer process.
Faculty and Staff
Criteria for Review
3.1 The institution employs faculty and staff with substantial and continuing commitment
to the institution. The faculty and staff are sufficient in number, professional qualification,
and diversity and to achieve the institution’s educational objectives, establish and
oversee academic policies, and ensure the integrity and continuity of its academic
and co-curricular programs wherever and however delivered.
3.2 Faculty and staff recruitment, hiring, orientation, workload, incentives, and
evaluation practices are aligned with institutional purposes and educational objectives.
Evaluation is consistent with best practices in performance appraisal, including multisource
feedback and appropriate peer review. Faculty evaluation processes are systematic
and are used to improve teaching and learning.
3.3 The institution maintains appropriate and sufficiently supported faculty and staff
development activities designed to improve teaching, learning, and assessment of learning
outcomes.
Fiscal, Physical, and Information Resources
Criteria for Review
3.4 The institution is financially stable and has unqualified independent financial
audits and resources sufficient to ensure long-term viability. Resource planning and
development include realistic budgeting, enrollment management, and diversification
of revenue sources. Resource planning is integrated with all other institutional planning.
Resources are aligned with educational purposes and objectives.
3.5 The institution provides access to information and technology resources sufficient
in scope, quality, currency, and kind at physical sites and online, as appropriate,
to support its academic offerings and the research and scholarship of its faculty,
staff, and students. These information resources, services, and facilities are consistent
with the institution’s educational objectives and are aligned with student learning
outcomes.
Organizational Structures and Decision-Making Processes
Criteria for Review
3.6 The institution’s leadership, at all levels, is characterized by integrity, high
performance, appropriate responsibility, and accountability.
3.7 The institution’s organizational structures and decision-making processes are
clear and consistent with its purposes, support effective decision making, and place
priority on sustaining institutional capacity and educational effectiveness.
3.8 The institution has a full-time chief executive officer and a chief financial
officer whose primary or full-time responsibilities are to the institution. In addition,
the institution has a sufficient number of other qualified administrators to provide
effective educational leadership and management.
3.9 The institution has an independent governing board or similar authority that,
consistent with its legal and fiduciary authority, exercises appropriate oversight
over institutional integrity, policies, and ongoing operations, including hiring and
evaluating the chief executive officer.
3.10 The institution’s faculty exercises effective academic leadership and acts consistently
to ensure that both academic quality and the institution’s educational purposes and
character are sustained.
Quality Assurance Processes
Criteria for Review
4.1 The institution employs a deliberate set of quality-assurance processes in both
academic and non-academic areas, including new curriculum and program approval processes,
periodic program review, assessment of student learning, and other forms of ongoing
evaluation. These processes include: collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data;
tracking learning results over time; using comparative data from external sources;
and improving structures, services, processes, curricula, pedagogy, and learning results.
4.2 The institution has institutional research capacity consistent with its purposes
and characteristics. Data are disseminated internally and externally in a timely manner,
and analyzed, interpreted, and incorporated in institutional review, planning, and
decision-making. Periodic reviews are conducted to ensure the effectiveness of the
institutional research function and the suitability and usefulness of the data generated.
Institutional Learning and Improvement
Criteria for Review
4.3 Leadership at all levels, including faculty, staff, and administration, is committed
to improvement based on the results of inquiry, evidence, and evaluation. Assessment
of teaching, learning, and the campus environment—in support of academic and co-curricular
objectives—is undertaken, used for improvement, and incorporated into institutional
planning processes.
4.4 The institution, with significant faculty involvement, engages in ongoing inquiry
into the processes of teaching and learning, and the conditions and practices that
ensure that the standards of performance established by the institution are being
achieved. The faculty and other educators take responsibility for evaluating the effectiveness
of teaching and learning processes and uses the results for improvement of student
learning and success. The findings from such inquiries are applied to the design and
improvement of curricula, pedagogy, and assessment methodology.
4.5 Appropriate stakeholders, including alumni, employers, practitioners, students,
and others designated by the institution, are regularly involved in the assessment
and alignment of educational programs.
4.6 The institution periodically engages its multiple constituencies, including the
governing board, faculty, staff, and others, in institutional reflection and planning
processes that are based on the examination of data and evidence. These processes
assess the institution’s strategic position, articulate priorities, examine the alignment
of its purposes, core functions, and resources, and define the future direction of
the institution.
4.7 Within the context of its mission and structural and financial realities, the
institution considers changes that are currently taking place and are anticipated
to take place within the institution and higher education environment as part of its
planning, new program development, and resource allocation.
