As the next major step in a 10-year process of accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a peer reviewer will be on the Salina Tech campus Monday and Tuesday.
The college was first accredited by the HLC in 2016, and placed on the commission’s “Standard Pathway” at that time. The pathway includes annual monitoring to ensure continued quality and improvement, a deeper comprehensive evaluation in the fourth year and 10th year.
While the attention is focused on the upcoming site visit, President Nichols said accreditation is an ongoing process rather than a singular event, and the college has been engaged in continuous improvement since seeking initial accreditation from HLC and obtaining it in 2016.
“Earning and maintaining accreditation is important to a college for a number of reasons,” Nichols said, “because it’s an outside indicator that we’re providing our students with a quality education.”
Accreditation also helps ensure credits earned at Salina Tech will transfer to other colleges and universities across Kansas and the country. Accreditation is also required for colleges to qualify for some federal funds, and for students to qualify for some financial aid and scholarships.
Site visits are normally conducted by a team of four or five reviewers from colleges around the country, but because of the Covid pandemic, that has been scaled back to one reviewer on the ground at Salina Tech, while the rest of the review team holds virtual meetings with faculty, staff and students.