HLC Bulletin: January 2023
JANUARY 2023
In this issue:
• The Intersection of HLC and Jayhawks Rising
• Countdown Clock on hlc2025.ku.edu
The Intersection of HLC and Jayhawks Rising
KU’s institutional accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission is a requirement to receive federal funding and is the basis for programmatic accreditation in specific disciplines. Therefore, HLC accreditation is one of five core foundations of Jayhawks Rising, the strategic plan for KU’s Lawrence and Edwards campuses. The HLC criteria and core components are included in many of the strategic plan objectives and strategies that address our institutional priorities of Research & Discovery, Student Success, and Healthy & Vibrant Communities.
Why does it matter? Weaving the HLC requirements into Jayhawks Rising strategies ensures hallmarks of HLC accreditation—continuous quality improvement and accountability—are institutionalized in our academic, research, and service missions at KU, ultimately addressing needs of our stakeholders, most notably, our students.
Some examples of the way HLC and Jayhawks Rising intersect:
HLC Core Component 1.A: “The institution’s mission is articulated publicly and operationalized throughout the institution.”
Jayhawks Rising: KU’s mission to “educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world” forms the basis for Jayhawks Rising’s three institutional priorities of Student Success, Healthy & Vibrant Communities, and Research & Discovery.
HLC Core Component 2.C: “The governing board of the institution is autonomous to make decisions in the best interest of the institution in compliance with board policies and to ensure the institution’s integrity.”
Jayhawks Rising: The Kansas Board of Regents, KU’s governing authority, adopted a strategic plan in June 2020 called "Building a Future", which is another of the five core foundations of Jayhawks Rising. The priorities outlined in the KBOR plan seek to better serve Kansas families, Kansas businesses, and the state’s economic prosperity — priorities that overlap with several Jayhawks Rising objectives, including Objective 3 of the Jayhawks Rising Research & Discovery priority, “Promote Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”
HLC Core Component 3.B.3: “The education offered by the institution recognizes human and cultural diversity and provides students with growth opportunities and lifelong skills to live and work in a multicultural world.”
Jayhawks Rising:Objective 2b of the Healthy & Vibrant Communities institutional priority, “Improve Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging,” states that we will “Curate a campus resource portal to improve critical competencies on topics of intersectionality, diversity, equity, and inclusion for KU students, staff, and faculty.”
HLC Core Component 4.B: “The institution engages in ongoing assessment of student learning as part of its commitment to the educational outcomes of its students.
- The institution has effective processes for assessment of student learning and for achievement of learning goals in academic and cocurricular offerings.
- The institution uses the information gained from assessment to improve student learning.
- The institution’s processes and methodologies to assess student learning reflect good practice, including the substantial participation of faculty, instructional and other relevant staff members.”
Jayhawks Rising:The strategies for Objective 4 of the Student Success institutional priority, “Assure Quality of Academic Programs,” are to (a) develop and implement degree maps for all undergraduate programs, and (b) to develop articulated learning outcomes and evidence of student mastery for all undergraduate degree programs.
HLC Core Component 4.C: “The institution pursues educational improvement through goals and strategies that improve retention, persistence and completion rates in its degree and certificate programs.”
Jayhawks Rising: Objective 2 of the Jayhawks Rising Student Success priority states that we will “Assure Persistence and Completion through Student Engagement and Satisfaction Strategies.”
HLC Criterion 5, Institutional Effectiveness, Resources, and Planning: “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.”
Jayhawks Rising: KU’s adherence to this criterion is evident in Objective 4 of the Healthy & Vibrant Communities priority, “Ensure Stewardship of the Institution” which involves aligning our planning efforts (in areas such as strategic enrollment, research, information technology, human resources, and academic units) between our academic and administrative units.
These are just a few examples of the many areas where HLC criteria and Jayhawks Rising intersect. The HLC reaffirmation of accreditation process requires evidence of compliance in key areas, and our HLC self-study reveals areas of needed improvement to be addressed. Jayhawks Rising articulates objectives and strategies that will help us improve our performance in meeting HLC requirements and provides a set of metrics to measure our progress.
Countdown Clock
On our homepage, we’re counting down to March 3, 2025, when the HLC Peer Review Team will arrive to conduct its on-site evaluation for KU’s reaffirmation of accreditation.