Accreditation, Institutional Effectiveness, and your ERP
Before understanding the difference in institutional effectiveness and accreditation, it’s important to have a general grasp of the definition of the two terms. In the United States, accreditation is the assurance that a school is providing a high-quality education meeting standards set by the independent accrediting agency associated with the school or program (Wlodarski & Miller, 2019). The agency examines the school’s programs to confirm that the programs meet a predetermined set of standards that show academic excellence. According to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (2012), there are currently 19 institutional accrediting organizations and 60 program accrediting organizations. The Society for College and University Planning (2023) states that institutional effectiveness is a college or university’s effort to evaluate, assess, and improve to fulfill its mission and achieve its goals. The goal of institutional effectiveness is to consistently review and improve upon itself to maintain or increase student retention, stay competitive, comply with reporting requirements from various governing agencies, and support the accreditation process. While institutional effectiveness supports the accrediting process, the difference between accreditation and institutional effectiveness is that institutional effectiveness is an improvement process that is evaluated internally by a higher education institution; accreditation is an external review of the institution by outside sources to verify quality and improvement (Liberty University, n.d.).
Accrediting agencies now require, as part of the accreditation process, institutions to demonstrate positive outcomes and improvement within business processes of the college or university. Colleges must demonstrate how resources and administrative services contribute to the success of learning outcomes in support of helping the institution achieve its goals and vision. This is in addition to demonstrating how the degree programs being offered are of quality and are producing employable graduates.
According to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (2017), institutions constant improvement of programs and services that help the institution fulfill its mission is at the heart of accreditation. Therefore, colleges and universities must engage in institutional effectiveness with a clear mission, vision, and goals of the institution in mind. If these are clear and well defined, a college or university can then engage in institutional effectives by consistent assessment, evaluation, and improvement on the successful achievement of the defined goals. This, in turn, shows quality and effectiveness that is essential for accreditation.
Why is this important to understand? One of the essential goals in implementing a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is to be able to run various reports to help monitor or evaluate effectiveness related to goals of the institution (recruiting, admissions, graduation, retention). Understanding these needs should help identify what the Critical Success Factors (CSF) are of your implementation and guide the decisions of your configuration, starting with platform (HR, Finance, etc.) through to student (admissions, registration, student financials, financial aid, and graduation). Understanding the CSF and partnering with a firm that understands the business of higher education will make sure your new system is a value add to the institutional effectiveness of your organization.
References
Council for Higher Education for Accreditation. (2012). About Accreditation | Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Chea.org. https://www.chea.org/about-accreditation
Liberty University. (n.d.). Institutional Effectiveness [PowerPoint]. Canvas @ Liberty University. https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/460469/pages/watch-institutional-effectiveness?module_item_id=53550192
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. (2017). The principles of accreditation: Foundations for quality enhancement (6th ed.). SACSCCC.
The Society for College and University Planning. (2023). Institutional effectiveness planning. SCUP. https://www.scup.org/planning-type/institutional-effectiveness-planning/
Wlodarski, J., & Miller, D. (2019, June 18). The basics of college accreditation. BestColleges.com. https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/accreditation/
