New and Improved Resources for Institutions 

With the start of the 2025 Institutional Update and recently adopted policy changes, this is a busy time at HLC. Here is the latest news about our procedures and requirements: 

2025 Institutional Update 

This year’s Institutional Update opened on March 3, and submissions are due by April 4. See Institutional Update for more information about this annual requirement, as well as what’s new for 2025. 

Revised Criteria for Accreditation 

HLC recently updated our videos on the revised Criteria for Accreditation to address feedback from institutions and peer reviewers. The videos describe the Criteria and provide guidance on identifying evidence to demonstrate how an institution meets each Core Component.  

Federal Compliance Materials for 2025–26 

The institutional filing form and procedure overview are now available for Federal Compliance Reviews taking place September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2026. The materials provide new cross-references to the revised Criteria for Accreditation and Assumed Practices, reflect policy changes related to student success that HLC’s Board of Trustees adopted in February, and clarify certain aspects of HLC’s Federal Compliance Requirements. 

Risk Indicators 

Student Success Indicators 

Following policy changes adopted by the Board in February, HLC is expanding the risk indicator process to include student success indicators for institutions that enroll undergraduate students. We will evaluate institutional performance based on three educational outcome measures: first-year retention rate; graduation rate within 150% of normal time, and completion and transfer rate at eight years after entry. See Student Success Indicators for details.  

Later this month, HLC will begin assigning institutions into peer groups and setting benchmarks for the three educational outcome measures. We will reach out to Accreditation Liaison Officers and Chief Executive Officers with additional information.  

Financial and Non-financial Indicators 

HLC has also published new, separate procedure documents for the other aspects of HLC’s risk indicator process: financial indicators and non-financial indicators. The process for evaluating these indicators has not changed, but the new documents are meant to help institutions understand the distinct requirements for each aspect of the risk indicator process. 

Teach-Out Arrangements 

In conjunction with policy changes adopted by the Board in February, HLC published new and updated resources to more clearly explain our requirements related to teach-out arrangements and make it easier for institutions to submit complete provisional plans and/or teach-out agreements when required. These resources include: 

• Updated Teach-Out Arrangements webpage, which details HLC’s teach-out requirements and processes 
• Updated procedure document, Provisional Plans and Teach-Out Agreements: Overview of HLC’s Teach-Out Requirements 
• Updated definitions of terms related to teach-out arrangements 
• New forms for institutions required to submit a provisional plan and/or teach-agreement to HLC for approval: 
  • Provisional Plan Substantive Change Application 
  • Teach-Out Agreement Cover Sheet 
• Updated Teach-Out Toolkit

Coming Soon 

Assurance Filings Launching in Canopy Next Week 

Institutions with evaluations that involve an Assurance Filing in academic years 2025–26 and 2026–27 will receive access to their Assurance Filing in Canopy during the week of March 17. HLC will notify the institution’s Primary Filing Coordinator, Accreditation Liaison and Chief Executive Officer the day before their filing is activated in the system. 

For more information about HLC’s work to move Assurance Filings and Reviews to Canopy and sunset the stand-alone Assurance System, see Assurance Filings Moving to Canopy. 

Open Pathway Updates for Fall 2025 

In February, HLC’s Board adopted policy changes to establish an option for eligible institutions on the Open Pathway to choose to complete a Quality Initiative focused on student success during Years 1–4 of the accreditation cycle in lieu of the mid-cycle Assurance Review in Year 4. These policy changes will go into effect on September 1, 2025. See Open Pathway for additional information. Full details about the Student Success Quality Initiative option will be published this summer.