Posted: Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) has reaffirmed the accreditation of the University of Evansville (UE), with the next scheduled comprehensive evaluation in the 2025-2026 academic year. No interim reports or monitoring are required during the 10-year cycle. The HLC is one of the six federally recognized regional accrediting agencies designated by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit degree granting colleges and universities. The HLC serves the common good by assuring and advancing the quality of higher learning.

After an intense four-year period of self-study and comprehensive internal evaluation, which culminated in documents describing the scope of UE’s mission and showing evidence of its quality, UE hosted a site visit with a HLC peer review team in February 2016. The site visit team reviewed UE’s reports and interviewed a cross-section of students, faculty, staff, administrators, members of the Board, and Evansville community leaders to evaluate and verify the institution’s ongoing ability to meet the commission’s Criteria for Accreditation.

The Criteria for Accreditation are as follows:

• Clarity of mission in guiding the institution
• The integrity and responsible conduct of the university
• Quality, resources, and support for teaching and learning
• Evaluation of and improvement in teaching and learning
• Evidence of the resources and planning needed to carry out the institution’s mission into the future

“For the committees working on the reports to demonstrate that UE meets the criteria, we wanted to honestly tell UE’s story,” said Mark Valenzuela, associate professor of civil engineering and chair of the HLC steering committee at UE. “Our reports detailed our strengths and areas that need attention, the value of UE for our students and for our community today, what we have learned from our past, and how we plan for the future and act to ensure that our graduates will continue to know how to live and work and serve in the world around them.  It was an easy story to tell because of the fundamental strengths that we could point to in faculty-student connections, in leadership in global education, and in the good that UE brings to the Evansville community.”

“Institutions of higher learning are challenged to document to an increasingly wary public and government – not to mention prospective students and parents – that student’s lives will be transformed by the time they spend in college,” said UE president, Tom Kazee. “HLC’s reaffirmation of accreditation is external validation of the quality of the University and our students, faculty, staff, and administrators.  In the end, accreditation affirms what we already know -- that a UE degree matters in the lives of its students and alumni, now and into the future.” 

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