Comprehensive Evaluation

HLC conducts comprehensive evaluations of member institutions to confirm that the institution continues to meet the Criteria for Accreditation, is pursuing institutional improvement and complies with requirements set by the U.S. Department of Education. Evaluations are conducted by teams of peer reviewers from HLC. Comprehensive evaluations consist of the following components:

• An Assurance and Improvement Review: HLC Peer Reviewers determine whether the institution continues to meet the Criteria for Accreditation by analyzing the institution’s Assurance Argument and Evidence File. This review is evidence-based: “The responsibility for assuring the quality of an institution rests first with the institution itself. Institutional accreditation assesses the capacity of an institution to assure its own quality and expects it to produce evidence that it does so.”
• A review of Federal Compliance
• An On-site Visit in which the HLC Visiting Team validates the claims and evidence presented in the Institution’s Assurance Argument.  

Rockhurst was first accredited by HLC in 1934, and its most recent re-affirmation of our Accreditation was in 2023. After re-affirmation in 2023, Rockhurst was placed in HLC’s Open Pathway for Accreditation, which includes an assurance review (year 4), a HLC peer reviewer approved quality initiative project (years 5-9), and a Comprehensive Evaluation for Reaffirmation (year ten).

Rockhurst’s Year-Ten Assurance Review, Comprehensive Evaluation (with visit), and Reaffirmation of Accreditation will take place during the 2032-2033 academic year. Faculty, students and staff will be invited to attend several open forums during the visit.