Monitoring of Substantive Change

HLC may monitor any approved substantive change through required progress or monitoring reports or on-site evaluations and shall monitor specific changes. 

Campus Evaluation Visit. HLC will conduct an on-site evaluation visit to a new campus or branch within six months of matriculation of students and initiation of instruction at such campus. The visit shall be conducted by HLC peer reviewers and shall be handled according to the procedure for a focused evaluation. 

Additional Location Confirmation Visit. HLC will conduct an on-site visit of each of the first three additional locations, and each of the first two Pell-eligible prison education programs, begun by an institution within six months of matriculation of students and initiation of instruction at the additional location. The visit may be conducted by HLC peer reviewers or HLC staff and will be to confirm the accuracy of the information provided to HLC concerning the quality and oversight of the education at the additional location when it was originally approved by HLC. HLC site visitors may call for further monitoring of an institution’s additional locations through HLC’s established monitoring processes. Such recommendations for further monitoring will be reviewed and acted upon by an HLC decision-making body.  

Additional Locations Offering Pell-Eligible Prison Education Programs. Within two years of an institution initiating instruction at an additional location offering one or more Pell-eligible prison education program(s), HLC will review the methodology used by the institution in collaboration with the appropriate Oversight Entity to determine that such prison education programs demonstrate the same academic quality standards as substantially similar programs that the institution offers that are not prison education programs.   

Multi-Location Evaluation Visit. HLC will conduct an on-site visit to additional locations of an institution with multiple off-campus additional locations (more than three such locations) every five years. The visit shall take place to a sample of such locations as defined in HLC procedure. The visit may be scheduled proximate to an on-site evaluation, an Assurance Review, comprehensive evaluation, or Comprehensive Quality Review, where appropriate to inform that team’s evaluation. The visit may be made by HLC peer reviewers or HLC staff and will be to confirm the continuing effective oversight by the institution of its additional locations. HLC site visitors may call for further monitoring of an institution’s additional locations through HLC’s established monitoring processes. 

If an institution is part of the Notification program for new additional locations, the visit will consider whether the institution continues to meet the requirements for access to the program outlined in the policy and will make a recommendation for the institution’s continued participation in that program. Such recommendations will be reviewed and acted upon by an HLC decision-making body. 

Other Monitoring Related to Additional Locations. HLC will require a Change Visit before extending accreditation to include a new additional location for an institution under HLC sanction, an institution experiencing serious financial problems, or where HLC has raised questions about the institution’s quality assurance processes in its off-campus operations. HLC will also monitor institutions experiencing rapid growth of additional locations through either an on-site focused visit or through other forms of monitoring. 

Other Monitoring Related to Substantive Change. HLC reserves the right to initiate monitoring related to any substantive change it has previously approved if it has questions about the quality of that change in its execution or the institution is experiencing rapid growth in some aspect of the institution’s operations related to the approved change. 

Cumulative Substantive Changes that Result in a Comprehensive Evaluation. HLC reserves the right to call for a comprehensive evaluation when changes made or proposed by an institution are so extensive that they call into question whether they fundamentally alter the nature or character of the institution HLC accredited at the time of the institution’s last comprehensive evaluation. These changes include, but are not limited to, the any or all of the following: 

1. extensive numbers of new or revised academic programs; 
2. extensive numbers of new campuses or additional locations; 
3. significant new populations of students; 
4. new delivery formats including distance, correspondence, compressed, or other formats;  
5. frequent significant modifications to corporate or governance structures;  
6. involvement of the institution in one or more joint ventures, limited partnerships or other arrangements that may affect its academic programs, services, students, or governance structure. 

Policy History

Last Revised: November 2023 
First Adopted: November 1999, June 2010  
Revision History: November 1999, June 2009, June 2011, June 2012, June 2014, June 2020, November 2023 
Notes: Policies combined November 2012 – 3.2(c), 3.2(c)1, 3.2(c)2, 3.2(c)3, 3.2(c)4, 3.2(c)5, 3.2(c)6. In February 2021, references to the Higher Learning Commission as “the Commission” were replaced with the term “HLC.” Policy renumbered in June 2023 (former policy number INST.F.20.060).