Frequently Asked Questions

Accreditation

Why is accreditation important?

Institutional accreditation validates the quality of an institution as a whole and evaluates multiple aspects of an institution, including its academic offerings, governance and administration, mission, finances, and resources. Also, only accredited institutions are allowed by the U.S. Department of Education to disperse federal financial aid to students.

What is the accreditation process?

Primary accrediting activities include:

  • Standards: The Higher Learning Commission establishes and periodically refines its standards and policies to be followed by all successful candidates for accreditation or re-accreditation.
  • Self-Study: NIU prepares an in-depth self-evaluation report that measures performances with the standards set by HLC.
  • Site Visit: A peer review team selected by HLC does an on-site program inspection and reviews the self-study report.
  • Decision and Publication: Upon favorable recommendation by the peer review team, HLC grants reaccreditation and lists NIU in their official publication of accredited institutions. 
  • Monitoring: HLC continues to monitor NIU throughout the accreditation period.
  • Reevaluation: HLC sets a date to reevaluate NIU to ascertain whether continuation of NIU accredited status is warranted.
What is the significance of the accreditation process?
  • Accreditation is required for NIU to be able to receive federal funds
  • HLC accreditation, together with specialized accreditations, assures the public of our legitimacy
  • Accreditation is an opportunity to take stock of, and celebrate, our accomplishments
What is the accreditation process NOT?
  • It is not a ranking process
  • It is not a unit-by-unit evaluation (it looks “big picture” at the academic enterprise)
  • It is not an opportunity to ask for more staff or resources for your program
What does HLC's accreditation include?

HLC’s accreditation includes all degree levels as well as onsite and online course delivery. Institutions of higher education in the United States may also seek accreditation through specialized or programmatic accreditation agencies, which accredit programs, departments or schools within a college or university.

Quality Initiative

What was the purpose of NIU's quality initiative?

The principal purpose of the quality initiative was to support all of our students to achieve their academic goals by assessing, improving and modifying approaches in gateway courses to support higher levels of student success. Of particular importance was ensuring success for students from underrepresented populations.

What were the goals of the quality initiative?
  1. Identify and redesign gateway courses with low success rates or high equity gaps.
  2. Assess and deploy support for course transformation or other improvements in the identified courses to enhance student success.
  3. Monitor data from and engage in continuous quality improvement of identified courses to enhance student success in courses and beyond (e.g., retention and graduation).
How is a gateway course defined?

A gateway course is defined at NIU as a course that a student needs to take to advance within a major or is a course required to complete general studies requirements.

How is an equity gap defined?

An equity gap exists when the success rates for students from under-served communities are statistically significantly less than the average success rate in the course.

What criteria were used to identify targeted gateway courses?

Targeted gateway courses were based on following criteria:

  • Gateway courses with DFUW rates of 20% or greater and at least 25 enrolled students in the 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 academic years, and/or
  • Courses with at least a 10% equity gap that impacted at least 10 students in the 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 academic years *NOTE: 2019-2020 omitted due to pandemic anomaly of that academic year
What were the outcomes of the quality initiative?
Of the 80 courses that were identified and prioritized for student success enhancement, the collective efforts of the QI resulted in improved DFUW rates in 40 courses and reduced equity gaps in 19 courses. Even more importantly, NIU has made significant strides to intentionally monitor student success data and use these data to inform faculty supports and student success efforts. NIU implemented several new faculty development and student support initiatives. We significantly increased the number of faculty who have been trained and are now implementing active, inclusive, and equitable pedagogy in their teaching. Institutional Research has created a dataset analogous to the baseline data set to measure future progress in reducing the number of courses with low success rates or high equity gaps.

Comprehensive Evaluation

What are my opportunities for involvement in the accreditation process?
We definitely want you to be involved in the accreditation process! Be on the lookout for the assurance argument draft document to be shared this fall and provide feedback. Additionally, save the date and attend an HLC review team open forum when the HLC team is visiting campus, March 25-26, 2024. More details will be shared as we approach the spring site visit.

Contact Us

Accreditation, Assessment and Evaluation
Swen Parson 316
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-3545
aae@niu.edu

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