HLC’s Partners for Transformation, created in 2017, was a blue-ribbon panel tasked with offering innovative ideas on accreditation of colleges and universities. This group of higher education thought leaders conceptualized 21st-century accrediting practices that assure quality in higher education and ultimately better benefit students in today’s world.

The group was tasked with looking at three areas of higher education. To that end, the group published a series of thought papers in 2019:

Innovation: Beyond the Horizon and the Future of Higher Education

The three areas of focus and respective subcommittee members are listed below.

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What Does the Future Hold?

HLC asked some of the members of the Partners to share some thoughts on accreditation and innovation in the 21st century. Watch the full set of their responses here, or click individual members’ names below to watch their videos on HLC’s YouTube channel.

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Student-Focused Accrediting Agencies

What does accreditation look like when it is enabling, empowering and visionary, but also deeply, brutally practical? HLC needs to rethink from the ground up what quality control and accreditation look like from a student-centric focus. HLC could be the first voice in crafting policy statements that recognize students as the primary constituent.

Subcommittee Members

• Chair: Sylvia Jenkins, President, Moraine Valley Community College
• Chris Bustamante, retired President, Rio Salado College
• Terry Hartle, Senior Vice President, Division of Government and Public Affairs, American Council on Education
• Lynda Milne, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Inver Hills Community College
• Maggi Murdock, Professor Emerita, Political Science, University of Wyoming; Former HLC Trustee
• Larry Skogen, President, Bismarck State College
• Jeanie Webb, President, Rose State College
• David Wendler, Vice President for Academics Emeritus, Martin Luther College

Revolution of Post-secondary Education: The Unbundling

This is the beginning of a revolution for higher education. What is the role of accreditation in a vastly changing environment? What does an accreditation infrastructure look like with a focus on shared services and exclusion of strict models (workloads for faculty, credentialing, online, process-dominated accreditation— i.e., seat time).

Subcommittee Members

• Chair: Rufus Glasper, President and CEO, League for Innovation in the Community College
• Don Betz, President, University of Central Oklahoma
• Cheryl Johnson-Odim, Provost Emerita and Professor of History, Dominican University; Former HLC Trustee
• Arthur Levine, President, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
• Mark Milliron, Co-founder and Chief Learning Officer, Civitas Learning
• Timothy Slottow, Executive Vice President and CFO, Kamehameha Schools
• Burck Smith, Founder and CEO, StraighterLine

Relationship to the Triad and Beyond

HLC needs to clarify the roles of the Triad of federal and state bodies and accrediting agencies. Can HLC integrate other accrediting and compliance activities that institutions are required to participate in? Can HLC advocate for coordinated processes and data reporting in an effort to focus institutions’ diminishing resources on student learning instead of regulatory activities?

Subcommittee Members

• Chair: William Tammone, Provost, Macomb Community College
• Stephanie Davidson, Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Ohio Department of Higher Education
• Robert McMahan, President, Kettering University
• Elizabeth Sibolski, President, Middle States Commission on Higher Education
• Robert Stein, former Commissioner of Higher Education, State of Missouri
• David Wissmann, Professor Emeritus and Assistant to the Provost, Avila University