For all institutions, a comprehensive evaluation includes the following components:
- Submission and review of institutional materials demonstrating compliance with HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation (An Assurance Review for institutions on the Standard and Open Pathways, and a Comprehensive Quality Review for institutions on the AQIP Pathway.)
- Federal Compliance Review
- Student Opinion Survey
- On-site peer review visit
- Multi-campus visit (for institutions with one or more branch campuses)
Criteria for Accreditation: The Criteria for Accreditation are the standards of quality by which the Commission determines whether an institution merits accreditation or reaffirmation of accreditation.
HLC Assurance System: The Higher Learning Commission’s Assurance System is available to member institutions. Within the Assurance System, designated individuals from each institution have access to their institution’s site, including the Evidence File and the Assurance Argument.
UMKC is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and the university encourages including this accreditation on websites, brochures, and other materials. HLC does have policies and guidelines for how they would like their brand represented by affiliated institutions. The full HLC policy is available on their website.
HLC logos and images may only be used by HLC for HLC-produced materials.
- This means UMKC cannot add the logo next to a statement about our accreditation on anything – website, brochures, social media, magazine articles.
Colleges and universities that are accredited by HLC are encouraged to share this by incorporating the following sentence into their publications.
- The University of Missouri-Kansas City is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (www.hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
- The HLC website address must be included.
UMKC is required to display HLC’s Mark of Affiliation at minimum of one place on the university’s website.
- The Mark of Affiliation is a verification process that reflects UMKC’s current accreditation status. When visitors click on the Mark of Affiliation, they are redirected to HLC’s Statement of Accreditation Status for UMKC.
- UMKC is limited to one domain name in HLC’s approved database, which means we can only display the official Mark of Affiliation on this domain name: https://info.umkc.edu/accreditation/ in the footer.
- That doesn’t prohibit linking directly to UMKC’s Statement of Accreditation Status on HLC’s website from other UMKC websites. Use this link: https://www.hlcommission.org/component/directory/?Action=ShowBasic&Itemid=&instid=1470
