The Long Awaited Accreditation Visit

A team of evaluators from ABHE visited campus last week as a part of the accreditation process. This visit provides the necessary information they need to make a decision concerning our readiness to be accredited. There are a number of criteria we must comply with as an institution. We submitted a report concerning our compliance. The visitors came to campus to confirm our report and to give us commendations, suggestions, and recommendations concerning our compliance with the accreditation standards.

Overall, the visit went well. We will have to follow up with their comments when we get the official report in two weeks. I don't think there were too many surprises. A great deal of work went into our preparation for this visit. Work which we have done as an institution over the last few years. To be accredited is an important step for us, because it gives us a stronger legitimacy.

But what does accreditation give us? It does give us a legitimacy, but there is more to it than that. What is interesting in our particular case is that it did not significantly change what the faculty are doing in the classroom. We have an excellent faculty who from the beginning were teaching at the standard of accreditation. For us, the real changes came in the institutional policies and procedures we use for evaluation, financial controls, and student services. ILT has really grown up as an institution because of this process.

Notably, we now have an integrated planning process which includes students, donors, staff, faculty, administration, and the board all the way through. This planning process will help us identify and prioritize those things we will do to improve the institution and move it forward. I tend to "geek out" on the data sets and the information related to our evaluative analysis. I know that not everyone appreciates this the way I do, but I am excited by the amount of information we have available to us as administration to make the decisions which are our responsibility to make. This process has really been good for us.

For those who don't know the process, we went through the following steps:

1. Complete a self-study and turn in compliance report.
2. Go through evaluation team visit.
3. Respond to evaluation team's report.
4. Stand before accreditation commission and receive their decision.

It is impossible at this point to say what will happen. They, of course, do not let us know anything about the decision until it is revealed. This will happen in February at their meeting in Orlando, FL. 

ABHE is the Association for Biblical Higher Education. ILT has been on the accreditation road since 2015. In February of 2017, we were awarded Candidate status. Please check out the ABHE website if you have any questions about the criteria under which we are working. Please also check out our self-study website that has all the reports and information they are using to make their decision.