NECHE Standards & Committees

Institutions of higher learning achieve accreditation from NECHE by demonstrating they meet the Commission’s Standards for Accreditation and comply with its policies.  The Standards for Accreditation establish criteria for institutional quality; in addition, the Commission adopts policies that elucidate the Standards, relate to their application, and otherwise ensure that the Commission is current with respect to federal requirements and changing circumstances in higher education and public expectation.  Moreover, the Commission expects affiliated institutions to work toward improving their quality, increasing their effectiveness, and continually striving toward excellence.  Its evaluative processes are designed to encourage such improvement.

Each of the Standards articulates a dimension of institutional quality.  In applying the Standards, the Commission assesses and makes a determination about the effectiveness of the institution as a whole.  The institution that meets the Standards:

• has clearly defined purposes appropriate to an institution of higher learning;
• has assembled and organized those resources necessary to achieve its purposes;
• is achieving its purposes;
• has the ability to continue to achieve its purposes.

(NEASC Standards of Accreditation, 2016)