Northwestern earns reaccreditation from HLC

Northwestern College has received formal notification of its reaccreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. The decision follows a campus visit Nov. 9 and 10 in which a three-member evaluation team met with faculty, staff, students, board members, alumni and community leaders in response to a self-study developed over a year-and-a-half.

“We are so grateful for this positive affirmation of our good work,” says Greg Christy, Northwestern’s president. “Northwestern successfully met all of the criteria for continuing accreditation, for which our entire community—faculty, staff and students—should be proud. Among the many strengths cited by the evaluators were the college’s commitment to its mission, our strong faculty, the importance we place on diversity, our well-maintained campus, financial stability and an effective Board of Trustees.”

In its report, the accreditation team said Northwestern is firmly driven by its mission and has “thought carefully about how its mission applies to all of its constituents, whether onsite or online.” The report said Northwestern’s programs offer a consistent, quality education in which “instruction is strong and is facilitated by a well-qualified and credentialed faculty with a passionate commitment” to their work.

“Numerous interviews with faculty during the visit also reinforced the idea that Northwestern has a strong identity as a Christian school, and it not only encourages but demands that students examine their beliefs and worldview,” wrote the evaluators.

The report praised the college’s resources: “Northwestern has an exceptional physical plant with essentially no deferred maintenance. Their classrooms and laboratories are well-equipped, and the buildings and grounds are well-maintained … Their overall financial stability is illustrated in [a] Composite Financial Index …well above the average … a modest $5 million debt, a $40 million endowment, and the successful completion of a recent $54 million capital campaign.”

A committee of faculty and staff, the HLC Accreditation Work Group, collected information and compiled Northwestern’s self-study addressing the commission’s requirements and criteria for accreditation. Dr. Jeff VanDerWerff, professor of political science, and Mike Wallinga, director of institutional research, served as the group’s co-chairs.

The Higher Learning Commission requires institutions to undergo a comprehensive evaluation every 10 years. Northwestern has been accredited by the agency since 1953 and as a liberal arts college since 1970. The commission, one of six accrediting bodies in the United States that provide institutional accreditation on a regional basis, accredits more than 1,000 institutions of higher education in a 19-state region and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.