NDSU has begun preparing for its re-affirmation of accreditation visit on Oct. 19-20, 2015, from the Higher Learning Commission, the body that accredits all degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions in the North Central region. NDSU had its last re-affirmation of accreditation visit in February 2006 and was subsequently re-accredited for 10 years.
Accreditation in 2015 will be quite different than it was 10 years ago.
First, continuous improvement of all operations of the university is now a central theme of the commission’s five new criteria for accreditation. The criteria place greater emphasis on an institutionwide culture of assessment. NDSU must demonstrate how all operations are improving student learning and how assessment is embedded in the key decision-making processes on campus.
Second, instead of a 200-plus page self-study, NDSU now will prepare a highly focused Assurance Argument, with a 35,000 word limit, in which NDSU explains and provides evidence for how it meets each of the Core Components of each of the five criteria. Instead of the “evidence room” of previous accreditation visits, NDSU will link its Assurance Argument to a digital Evidence File. In addition, because of changes in the Higher Education Authorization Act, NDSU is now required to complete a federal compliance worksheet reporting such details as how the campus tracks and responds to student complaints and how the credit hours and contact hours for classes match.
Third, this is no longer just an every-10-years process. In the middle of the cycle, campuses are now required to complete a Quality Initiative. In 2011, NDSU was invited by the commission to become one of 23 institutions in Cohort Three of the Pioneer Institutions of the Pathways Demonstration Project investigating aspects of the new accreditation model. NDSU’s Quality Initiative, successfully completed last academic year, compared student learning in all capstone experiences with the benchmarks for “applied learning” from the Degree Qualifications Profile.
Fourth, because the assurance argument is shorter and more focused, NDSU will not have an accreditation team of more than 60 people as it did in 2006. Gathering the evidence and writing the Assurance Argument will be the work of a nine-member Accreditation Report Writing Team:
- Michael Christoffers, plant sciences
- Karin Hegstad, customer account services
- Larry Peterson, accreditation, assessment and academic advising
- Mark Sheridan, biological sciences and the Graduate School
- Kay Sizer, research and creative activity
- Bill Slanger, institutional research and analysis
- Annie Tangpong, mechanical engineering
- Sarah Wagner, animal sciences
- Kristi Wold-McCormick, registrar
Erika Beseler Thompson, Orientation and Student Success and education doctoral student, and Jeremy Penn, assessment in the Division of Student Affairs, are sitting on the committee in an auxiliary role.
Members of the Accreditation Report Writing Team attended the Higher Learning Commission annual conference in April, and are beginning their work this fall by completing an inventory of the available evidence the campus needs to meet the criteria for accreditation.
Coordinating the overall preparation for re-accreditation will be the Accreditation Steering Team; Provost Bruce Rafert; Prakash Mathew, vice president for student affairs; and Bruce Bollinger, vice president for finance and administration.
For more information about the re-affirmation of accreditation process, contact Peterson at larry.r.peterson@ndsu.edu or 701-231-8824.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.