University News

WIU Receives HLC Reaccreditation

August 12, 2021

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MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) recently announced that Western Illinois University has been reaccredited for 10 years, with the next re-affirmation of accreditation review scheduled for 2030-31.

In March 2021, the HLC's on-site review team virtually visited the Macomb and Quad Cities campuses, for a comprehensive review that included numerous meetings with faculty, staff, students, administration, the Board of Trustees and community leaders in both locations. According to Associate Provost and Accreditation Liaison Officer Mark Mossman, the visit also included a close review of the University's assurance argument, federal compliance forms and numerous other documents, websites and more. After the HLC Review Team's visit and report, the reaccreditation process included a final review and approval by the HLC Institutional Actions Council (IAC).

"During what has been a challenging year and a half, due to the pandemic changing the nature of higher education and so many other aspects of our daily life, it is with so much appreciation that I thank not only the Higher Learning Commission team for their thorough and comprehensive review, which led to our recent accreditation, I give my most sincere thanks to our University community for their diligence and hard work leading to this achievement," said WIU President Guiyou Huang. "The people affiliated with Western Illinois University are doing a wonderful job, and that is evident by the fact that we received reaccreditation for 10 more years. I look forward to being a part of the next phase, which is reviewing and updating our plan for the next review in 10 years. Together we will move WIU into a most successful future."

All of the documents related to the HLC review can be found at wiu.edu/aasp/. Revising and updating the current University Strategic Plan, Higher Values in Higher Education, 2017-2027, follows the accreditation visit.

"We look forward to working with all members of the WIU community as we begin revising our strategic plan to reflect enhanced plans and priorities, as well as HLC recommendations," Mossman added. "We anticipate the updated plan to be launched in 2022."

The revision process will start later this month with the formation of a large Strategic Planning Committee, which will spend the 2021-2022 academic year working with the University community. The process will culminate by seeking governance group endorsement on both campuses before gaining WIU Board of Trustees approval to implement the updated strategic plan.

More information from the Higher Learning Commission can be found at https://www.hlcommission.org/. Western's most recent strategic planning notifications can be found at wiu.edu/aasp/university_planning/

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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