ÃÛ¶¹app is chartered by the State of Ohio and certified by the Ohio Department of Higher Education. ÃÛ¶¹app is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (), an institutional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, (230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500, Chicago, Illinois 60604-1411; Phone: 800-621-7440).
The University hosted the HLC in October 2020 for an Assurance Review. The Committee updated the "assurance argument" for accreditation assurance review using the HLC's , , and the new to shape the argument.
Additionally, several departments and programs within the University hold program-specific accreditations, certificates, and licensures ensuring our graduates the full benefit of approved and professionally recognized degree programs. See our Accreditation, Recognition, and Licensure page for specific associations.
ÃÛ¶¹app participates in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements. Cedarville has been approved to participate in the (NC-SARA), a voluntary, regional approach to state oversight of distance education, since September 2015. Participation in NC-SARA allows Cedarville to offer distance education programs of study to students from other member states.
Accreditation
The Office of Assessment and Accreditation Services works hand-in-hand with Institutional Research to oversee a continuous process to understand, describe, update, and improve the educational quality at ÃÛ¶¹app through the self-study and accreditation processes. Specifically, Assessment and Accreditation Services provides direct support for the Higher Learning Commission and the Ohio Department of Higher Education processes including:
- Self-study supervision and coordination
- Submission of change and new program requests
- Preparation of related and required documents
- Planning and logistics for site visits
- Specialized budgeting
- Timing of strategies and announcements
Assessment and Accreditation Services also provides essential collaboration for specialized programmatic accreditation for specific departments and programs within the University as follows:
- Collaborate with deans and department chairs on an annual basis to ensure appropriate budgetary requirements for accreditation
- Develop an initial timeline and checklist for the self-study and campus visit
- Provide auxiliary support for offices making accommodations for campus visit scheduling of administrators and non-departmental personnel who need to be interviewed
- Collect data and documents requested by the agency that are outside of the departmental control
- Support the departments in their self-study writing process for areas outside of the departmental control and other specific requests
- Review the final content of the self-study and related documents verifying that agency requested responses are answered
- Serve as a liaison to any editor of a final draft of the self-study to ensure consistency of reporting documents
- Participate in campus visits, as needed