Save the Dates: March 3 & 4, 2025

Two years from now, on March 3 and 4, 2025, the University of Kansas will welcome a group of important visitors to our campuses. They are peers from other universities who will conduct a thorough evaluation of KU’s processes, operations, and activities to ensure they meet the high academic standards outlined by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) in its Criteria for Accreditation.

Like KU, HLC is committed to continuous quality improvement. The institutional accreditor, founded in 1895, is one of six regional accreditors recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The HLC conducts its own periodic reviews of both its requirements and processes to help member institutions deliver the best-quality education possible for their students. Since KU’s last comprehensive evaluation to reaffirm accreditation in 2015, HLC changed its 10-year reporting cycle to include a mid-cycle review in year four and the addition of a quality improvement project between years five and nine. KU’s assessment process was noted as an area needing improvement by the peer reviewers in the mid-cycle review, so that topic is the focus for KU’s quality initiative. This enables the university to improve our assessment processes to make them more clear and effective.

HLC made another change that was aimed at continuous quality improvement, both for its own work and for the academic excellence of institutions. This involved shifting to an evidence-based process of reporting by institutions —meaning we are expected to provide less narrative about what we do and significantly more documentation showing what we do. Several of the core components of the five criteria also have been updated, even since KU’s mid-cycle review in 2019. Noting these changes, KU’s criterion subcommittees for the reaffirmation of accreditation process are documenting evidence that demonstrates the institution meets or exceeds those requirements. HLC provides suggestion (pdf) to help institutions think about possible sources of evidence.

Why should you save the date?

What does this have to do with you since the criterion subcommittees are doing the work? As a member of the KU community, you have both an opportunity and a responsibility to help deliver our best effort in demonstrating KU’s superior educational quality and the highest standards for scholarly discovery and innovation. It’s a job we all share. The committees can’t do this work without your involvement. When the HLC peer review team arrives, members will conduct open meetings on various topics related to accreditation. They will want to visit with members of the KU community representing every level and purpose. It’s incumbent on all of us to understand and exhibit our shared vision as an exceptional learning community.

The two years between now and our visit on March 3 & 4, 2025, will go quickly. The process of gathering evidence and writing the 35,000-word (70-page) narrative will need to be completed in the next 14 months to allow time for editing and vetting across the university before submitting the narrative and evidence to HLC by the December 2024 deadline. The HLC Planning Group will keep you updated as the process moves along. Please tune in and to be aware and also to reach out with examples of achievement of the criteria’s core components.

If you have questions or examples to pass along, please email hlc2025@ku.edu. Together, we can demonstrate all the ways we are proud Jayhawks working to achieve our mission to educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world.