This page provides information and resources for institutions interested in seeking WSCUC accreditation.

This guide is for institutions considering entering into agreements with unaccredited providers and is designed to be referenced in conjunction with the Agreements with Unaccredited Entities Policy.

This guide provides screenshots and instructions on how to submit the annual report in the Accreditation Management Portal (AMP). The guide outlines each report section, describes the data items collected, and provides links to relevant IPEDS definitions and resources.

This guide describes the responsibilities of an institution accreditation team’s assistant chair in providing support for the team and chair throughout the accreditation process.

This guide describes what to expect when participating in a commission meeting, including the commission panel process. For use by both commissioners and institutional representatives.

Statement of the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC) on the Framework for Competency-Based Education.

2023 Handbook: This guide provides definitions of non-degree programs, undergraduate degree programs, and graduate degree programs.

2023 Handbook: Under federal regulations, WSCUC is required to demonstrate that distance education programs are reviewed during the comprehensive accreditation/reaffirmation process. This guide details specific elements to be included in upcoming reviews, to ensure that each team is reviewing distance education programs in a consistent manner.

This guide provides suggestions for team members when drafting the preliminary team report prior to the visit.

The Eligibility Criteria to the Standards Comparison guide speaks to the alignment between the Eligibility Criteria and the Criteria for Review described in the 2013 Standards of Accreditation established by WSCUC. It shows that the Criteria anticipate the Standards; it does not suggest that meeting the Criteria (result of a paper review) constitutes assurance that the institution will meet the Standards (result of a self-study and on-site review).

This document provides guidance on implementing the Governing Board Policy and addresses institutional governing board structures, characteristics, and practices that promote effective decision and policy making in the best interests of the educational institution.

The purpose of these guidelines is to complement and inform the WSCUC Standards of Accreditation, providing more specific guidance about the planning, development, and evaluation of graduate programs. These guidelines are minimal baseline standards for quality and do not necessarily reflect robust or ideal characteristics of graduate programs.

The How to Become Accredited Manual describes the level of readiness expected of the institution at each step as it moves through Eligibility.

This guide provides instructions for institutions submitting the institutional report, including how to set up a Box.com account and uploading the report and other supporting materials.

This guide describes best practices in institution-system relations, both in terms of how boards govern in this environment and how systems and individual institutions interact.

The International Education Resource Guide describes the ‘Principles of Good Practice in Overseas International Education Programs for non-US Nationals.’

This guide is intended to help team members prepare for meetings with institutional representatives and ask questions that will result in useful information.

2023 Handbook: This guide provides the definition of off-campus locations, the responsibility of institutions in reporting these locations to WSCUC, and how these locations will be incorporated as part of the review or visit process.

This form is to be completed by the team at the conclusion of its daylong Offsite Review of the institutional report and supporting materials. The form will be sent to the institution within one week by the WSCUC liaison, and a response to section IV will be sent back from the institution eight weeks in advance of the Accreditation Visit

This guide describes the Offsite Review Videoconference with institutional representatives, including the purpose, participants, format and content of the call.

This Guide describes the visit logistics for Accreditation Visit, Seeking Accreditation Visit & Special Visit team members, including the team roster, travel and hotel arrangements, and reimbursement.

Guide to peers & benchmarking in WSCUC's Key Indicators Dashboard (KID).

This guide explains the rationale for the various periods of accreditation granted by the Commission after an Accreditation or TPR visit.

The purposes of this guide are to support institutions in the use of economic post-graduation outcome data to 1) better understand and measure economic returns to higher education, 2) identify areas for improvement, and 3) to demonstrate compliance with WSCUC Standards. This guide is a companion to information provided in WSCUC’s Key Indicators Dashboard (KID).

Certain WSCUC standards and policies, along with federal regulations, call for specific information to be made available publicly. This guide is intended to assist institutions in knowing what is required to be easily accessible and posted on their websites.

This guide describes the responsibilities of Commission members who are engaged in panel reviews of institutions following reaffirmation visits, seeking accreditation visits and special visits

2023 Handbook: The Seeking Accreditation Compliance guide is not a formula or analog by which a team will arrive at a mathematically precise determination. It is a tool to narrow the ambiguity inherent in making a complex, holistic judgment. Evaluators should complete the Guide individually then share their appraisal in a consensus-building session at the conclusion of the site visit.

This document helps users understand the Student Outcomes Overview (SOO) by providing tips for reviewing the SOO, general questions to ask when considering the data, and an overview of the metrics included. The SOO is a one page summary of student outcomes data compared to peers and national values for WSCUC accredited institutions that serve undergraduates.

This document provides instructions for institutions to prepare the SOO narrative. SOO narratives demonstrate an understanding of student outcomes performance and demonstrate a proactive approach to improvement.

This guide describes the Substantive Change follow-up visit and provides the report template for teams to submit to WSCUC after the visit.

A substantive change at an accredited or candidate institution is a change that may significantly affect an institution's quality, objectives, scope, or control. Under both Commission policy and federal law, certain substantive changes are required to have prior approval. The procedures defined in the Substantive Change Manual provide guidelines for institutions to demonstrate compliance with these regulations and other WSCUC requirements.

This guide describes the Substantive Change pre-approval site visit and the template for the visit report

This guide serves to accompany the Teach-out Plans and Agreements policy and provides a more detailed set of guidelines and expectations for institutional activities and planning elements. It also includes sample templates for teach-out plans, teach-out agreements, individual student graduation plans, and teach-out plan updates to WSCUC at the end of the guide

This guide describes the role and responsibilities of an institution review team’s chair as part of the institutional review process.

This guide describes the role and responsibilities of an institution review team’s members as part of the institutional review process.

This memo concerns the transparency of information and reports following the review of an institution, describing the type of information that will be publicly available versus the information that will remain confidential.

The Thematic Pathway for Reaffirmation (TPR) Guide includes information about the TPR Review Process, Eligibility Criteria, Guidelines for Submission of Themes, the TPR Institutional Report, Interactions with the Evaluation Team, WSCUC Staff, and Commission

This guide contains descriptions of the various documents that may apply to an upcoming review and links to these documents on the WSCUC website.

The Understanding the 2023 WSCUC Standards provides material to help facilitate an institution’s self-evaluation under the Standards; this document complements and expands the instructions in the 2023 Handbook of Accreditation and should be used in conjunction with the Handbook.

This guide primarily describes the interactions between WSCUC and institutions during site visits that take place on the institutional campus. It does not detail what happens during Offsite Reviews, which are conducted remotely. However, some of the pre-visit preparations are related to both the Offsite Review and Accreditation Visit, so there are necessarily some references to those reviews in this guide.

In early 2022, WSCUC teamed up with Sova in a one-year learning project with a small subset of WSCUC-accredited institutions to explore the barriers and opportunities facing baccalaureate-granting institutions as they seek to improve outcomes for transfer students. This case study summarizes the key takeaways from a series of learning sessions conducted with the participating institutions.

A summary of and guide to help deepen understanding of the learnings from a project with a small subset of WSCUC-accredited institutions that explored the barriers and opportunities facing baccalaureate-granting institutions as they seek to improve outcomes for transfer students.

From Numbers to Real-World Impact: Understanding the Economic Value of a College Degree

The purpose of this guide is to help institutions, team members, and staff members write reports following the WSCUC editorial style and usage conventions.