Any institutional approach to improving graduation rates must include faculty. Faculty, more than anyone else, deliver an institution's "promise," one course at a time. They also evaluate whether or not students have demonstrated sufficient mastery of the subject at hand to make "progress" toward their degrees. This article considers how…

Accreditation has a rich history that has shaped its purposes and processes. Each year on hundreds of campuses around the United States, thousands of faculty, administrators, and staff are preparing for an accreditation review. It is a process now accepted as part of the higher education landscape, and the basics are well known: a set of…

Accreditation may be the sole opportunity for all parts of an institution to inquire together and in depth about the totality of their mission. In this chapter, the author seeks to frame the accreditation process well and defend the process with vigor and confidence. Before moving on to discuss a quite different perspective on accreditation, the…

Because there is more doubt than ever before about the accomplishments of today's college graduates, the public, employers, often the graduates themselves, and others seek assurance that a program's graduates are competent and qualified. There is now the expectation that accreditation will give them that assurance. Moreover, nearly everyone seeks…

For nearly two centuries, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have provided educational opportunities to millions of students who were disenfranchised from traditional higher education institutions. HBCUs have provided African Americans and international students of color with a sense of self-worth and accomplishment. However,…

The United States is not the only country that has been shocked by "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," the report released in September 2006 by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, also known as the Spellings Commission. What the report emphasizes is accountability: the outcomes of higher…

Participation in accreditation processes, on visiting teams as well as through institutional self-study, is an excellent opportunity for individual academics to augment their professional expertise in a range of higher education issues: strategic planning and assessment, resource management and capital investments, curriculum planning and program…

Accreditation is a process of external quality review created and used by higher education to scrutinize colleges, universities, and programs for quality assurance and quality improvement. Accreditation in the United States is more than a hundred years old, emerging from concerns to protect public health and safety and to serve the public…

In this chapter, the author contemplates the future of accreditation in the changing landscape of higher education in the United States. He presents a set of proposals for how accreditation can regain the confidence of college leaders and public policymakers. He begins with the assumption that changes in accreditation--some significant in their…

The Baldrige quality criteria generate a number of questions that can make accreditation self-studies more productive. (Contains 4 figures and 8 notes.)

There is a growing body of literature about assessment in higher education. Much of it is devoted to advocating the benefits of assessment, describing how assessment initiatives and programs might be organized within an institution, identifying key attributes of successful assessment projects (leadership, resources, faculty engagement), and…

This article discusses the demographic profile, employment motivations, and changing roles of virtual faculty who hold part-time appointments. These insights are drawn from a 2006-2007 survey of forty-two part-time faculty working for virtual universities under the purview of the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities for the…

In the current environment, presidents and chancellors can expect to have their institutions under nearly continuous scrutiny from regional accrediting bodies. The number of reports, the expected details of outcomes measures, and the level of ongoing interaction between the institution and the regional association will continue to increase. In…

American regional accreditation serves two basic functions: quality assurance and quality improvement. Through its public function of quality assurance, accreditation signals to prospective students, parents, employers, and others that the institution meets fundamental standards of quality. Through its private function of quality improvement,…

A number of for-profit institutions of higher education have established themselves successfully within the traditional framework of regionally accredited institutions.