Northwest completed Year 10 of its Open Pathway cycle in November of 2018. At that time, Northwest submitted a variety of components to demonstrate that it had met the HLC Criteria for Accreditation. Those components are listed below.
- Assurance Argument (AA)
- A narrative in which the institution explains how it met HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation, which is supported by linked documents in the Evidence File.
View a summary of our assurance argument »
- Comprehensive Evaluation
- The process used to determine whether an institution met or continued to meet the Criteria for Accreditation. The comprehensive evaluation included an Assurance Review, a Federal Compliance review, an on-site visit, a student survey and a multi-campus visit, if applicable.
- Federal Compliance Requirements
- Requirements that HLC is obliged to enforce as part of its recognition by the U.S. Department of Education. This included Title IV program responsibilities.
- On-Site Visit
- Portion of comprehensive visit which consisted of a team of 3-5 peer reviewers visiting an institution and interviewing stakeholders.
- Quality Initiative (QI)
- A major quality improvement effort conducted by institutions between Years 5 and 9 of the Open Pathway that addressed a current concern or aspiration specific to the institution.
- Student Opinion Survey
- An online survey conducted by HLC as part of comprehensive evaluations. The opinions and data gathered assist peer reviewers in developing questions for the on-site visit.
Northwest Performance System (NPS)
Northwest's overarching approach to performance, data and metrics is the Northwest Performance System (NPS) 
.
NPS: Faculty Guide
This NPS guide describes the parts of our Northwest Performance System (NPS) that directly relate to the work of faculty.
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