The Higher Learning Commission Board of Trustees adopted a clarification to HLC's Assumed Practice B.2. regarding faculty roles and qualifications in June 2015, with an effective date of September 1, 2017. This revision clarified HLC’s longstanding expectations regarding the qualifications of faculty and the importance of faculty members having appropriate expertise in the subjects they teach.

Guidelines on Faculty Qualifications

In November 2017, HLC became aware of member institutions assigning the title of “teaching assistant” to high school faculty teaching dual credit. These teachers may not be enrolled in a graduate program or, if enrolled, may not be working as a teaching assistant for the institution in which they are enrolled and under direct supervision of the institution’s faculty, a practice long valued in higher education to sustain and advance the professoriate. Designating such faculty as teaching assistants is an inappropriate model and does not align with the spirit of HLC’s guidelines on determining qualified faculty. In most cases, HLC’s faculty qualification exception for teaching assistants should not to be construed as an acceptable arrangement for dual credit high school teachers.

Implementation Extensions for Dual Credit Programs

In November 2015, HLC's Board of Trustees allowed institutions with dual credit programs to apply for a five-year extension to bring faculty for those programs into compliance with Assumed Practice B.2. In June 2020, the Board extended the deadline for those institutions by one year, to September 1, 2023, due to the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extension includes faculty who might be assigned to teach dual credit during the extension period, but who were not assigned to teach dual credit at the time the institution submitted its application for the extension. At the institution’s first regularly scheduled accreditation review that occurs after September 2023, HLC will instruct the peer review team to verify that the institution is in compliance with the Assumed Practice.