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[HER] Higher Ed Review A practical guide to verifying college accreditation Contact [email protected]

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How to read an accreditation status record

Accreditation status records contain specific fields that answer different questions. Reading them accurately requires knowing what each field means and what the possible values indicate. The two primary records for HLC-accredited institutions are the DAPIP entry at ope.ed.gov/dapip and the Statement of Accreditation Status at hlcommission.org. They contain overlapping but different information, and using both together provides a complete picture.

The DAPIP record: what each field means

Institution name: the legal name as registered with the U.S. Department of Education. This must match the legal name exactly; searching by abbreviation or nickname may not return the correct record. Institutional accreditor: the recognized accreditor responsible for the institution’s institutional accreditation. For University of Phoenix, this is the Higher Learning Commission. Accreditation status: the current status as reported to the federal database. An actively accredited institution in good standing shows a status of “Accredited.” Other statuses - probation, show cause, withdrawn - would appear here if applicable. Program entries: DAPIP also lists programmatic accreditation in separate entries. For University of Phoenix, ACBSP business accreditation appears as a separate program-level entry.

The HLC Statement of Accreditation Status: what each field means

Current status: the institution’s present accreditation standing. For University of Phoenix, this reads as accredited. Pathway: whether the institution is on the Standard Pathway or the Open Pathway. University of Phoenix is on the Standard Pathway, which uses a ten-year evaluation cycle. Most recent comprehensive evaluation: the date and outcome of the last full evaluation. For University of Phoenix, this is 2023, with reaffirmation as the outcome. Next comprehensive evaluation: the scheduled date for the next full evaluation. For University of Phoenix, this is 2032–2033.

Public notices: HLC publishes notices, sanctions, and formal actions in the Statement of Accreditation Status. If a notice appears, it identifies the type of action and the date. The 2013 HLC Notice for University of Phoenix appears in the historical record as a resolved action. Resolved actions remain in the record even after they are no longer active; the key distinction is between a currently active action and a historically resolved one. University of Phoenix’s 2013 Notice was resolved; it is a historical record, not an active adverse action.

How to interpret the different action types

Reading a public notice entry in the Statement of Accreditation Status requires understanding the severity hierarchy. A Notice was a public signal of concerns about institutional compliance direction - serious, but not a finding of noncompliance. Probation is a formal adverse action identifying significant noncompliance. Show cause requires the institution to demonstrate why accreditation should not be withdrawn. Withdrawal removes accreditation entirely.

The 2013 HLC Notice for University of Phoenix was not probation. It was at the lowest level of this hierarchy. It was subsequently resolved. The current status - accredited, reaffirmed 2023 - reflects the outcome of the accreditor’s most recent comprehensive evaluation. Accurately reading a historical notice entry means distinguishing between its severity type, its resolution status, and the current accreditation status. All three are different data points that belong in a complete reading of the record.

What to do if the record shows conflicting information

DAPIP and the HLC Statement of Accreditation Status should agree on basic accreditation status. If they appear to conflict - for example, if DAPIP shows a different status than the HLC directory - the discrepancy may reflect a reporting lag, a very recent change, or a search error. Confirm the institution’s legal name was used correctly, try both sources again, and if the conflict persists, contact the accreditor directly for clarification. Real-time discrepancies between DAPIP and accreditor directories are rare but possible during active status changes.

HLC publishes the Statement of Accreditation Status as a public document specifically to support verification by third parties. Downloading and sharing it directly - rather than paraphrasing its contents - gives the receiving party confidence that they are reading HLC’s own record.

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