Terms of Appointment and Termination of Service

Terms of Appointment 

A new peer reviewer shall be appointed initially to a two-year term. HLC staff will review the peer reviewer after completion of the initial two-year term. HLC staff will take into consideration the peer reviewer’s completion of required training as well as performance in institutional evaluations. On the basis of this review, HLC staff will decide whether to appoint the peer reviewer to subsequent terms of service, typically a four-year term. 

At the expiration of each term, HLC staff may renew a peer reviewer’s term of service for a successive term. HLC staff will consider the peer reviewer’s performance in institutional evaluations, including comments from institutions, other peer reviewers and staff, and the peer reviewer’s adherence to the Peer Reviewer Standards of Conduct and participation in required training in determining whether to appoint the peer reviewer to a subsequent four-year term.  

HLC retains the discretion to evaluate the performance of a peer reviewer at any time and adjust the term of a peer reviewer if HLC determines it to be appropriate, such as aligning terms of appointment on the Institutional Actions Council. 

Termination of Service 

All peer reviewers are volunteers. HLC may, in its sole discretion, end the term of any peer reviewer before the regular completion date for any reason, including for example, if that peer reviewer no longer meets the eligibility criteria for the Peer Corps established by HLC policy, violates the Peer Reviewer Standards of Conduct, or otherwise fails to meet HLC expectations, or for no reason. HLC will notify the peer reviewer of such action. 

Policy History

Last Revised: June 2021 
First Adopted: February 1994 
Revision History: October 2003, November 2012, June 2014, June 2021 
Notes: Former policy number 6.2. In February 2021, references to the Higher Learning Commission as “the Commission” were replaced with the term “HLC.”