An institution on the AQIP Pathway is required to submit a Systems Portfolio in Years 3 and 7. The Systems Portfolio covers the six AQIP Categories, describing processes, results and improvement in each of the institution’s systems, and shows evidence that the institution continues to meet HLC's five Criteria for Accreditation. The portfolio is appraised by a team of HLC peer reviewers, who provide feedback on the institution’s strengths and opportunities for improvement.

In combination with the AQIP Pathway Strategy Forum and Action Projects, which drive concrete improvement activities within the institution, the Systems Portfolio and Systems Appraisal are a means of taking stock of the institution’s continuous improvement.

Systems Portfolio and Appraisal Overview

Systems Portfolio

The Systems Portfolio will explicate each of the major systems the institution currently employs to accomplish its mission and objectives. It consists of an Introduction and sections on each of the AQIP Categories. The Introduction presents a picture that helps readers understand the institution's key strengths, ambitions, distinctions, and advantages, and explains the challenges, competitors, contests, and conflicts. To present its systems, the institution will answer specific questions for each of the AQIP Categories. For each system, the questions deal with processes, results and improvement.

Peer Review: Systems Appraisal

The Systems Appraisal process is designed to provide an institution with feedback from a team of peer reviewers experienced in continuous quality improvement and systems thinking. The process begins when an institution submits its Systems Portfolio for review in the Assurance System, and ends 12 weeks later with the delivery of a Systems Appraisal Feedback Report, which shows the institution how the team understood its distinctive mission, context and goals, and provides feedback on each of the AQIP Pathway Categories, identifying what the team sees as the institution’s strengths and opportunities for improvement. The report also includes a Strategic and Accreditation Issues Analysis, in which the team identifies what it views as the highest strategic priorities for the institution’s future, and an Appraisal Summary that captures the institution’s developmental maturity on each of the AQIP Pathway Categories.

Decision Making

The peer review team makes a recommendation to the Institutional Actions Council on whether the institution should continue on the pathway if monitoring is required.