Academic Quality Improvement Program
Blending continuous quality improvement with college and university accreditation.Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, a technical college in the Wisconsin Technical College System, is accredited by and is a member of the Higher Learning Commission.
As part of WITC's innovative journey, the Academic Quality Improvement program (AQIP) accreditation pathway is premised on principles of continuous quality improvement, and its various processes and requirements are designed to assist institutions in achieving quality improvement, along with reaffirming the institutionís accredited status with the Commission once every AQIP cycle.
With AQIP, an institution demonstrates it meets accreditation standards and expectations through sequences of events that align with those ongoing activities that characterize organizations striving to improve their performance.
The six AQIP Categories provide a framework that institutions can use to examine their key processes and allow institutions to analyze, understand, and explore opportunities for improvement. The use of the categories is fundamental to the development of the institutionís Systems Portfolio.
Each AQIP Category deals with a related group of key processes and allows an institution to analyze, understand, and explore opportunities for improving these processes and the interrelationships among them. Through the analysis of processes, the Categories promote critical reflection that allow colleges and universities to share and learn from other institutionsí experience and insight.
|Helping Students Learn focuses on the design, deployment, and effectiveness of teaching-learning processes (and on the processes required to support them) that underlie your organizationís credit and non-credit programs and courses.|
|Meeting Student and Other Key Stakeholder Needs addresses the key processes (separate from instructional programs and internal support services) through which the institution serves its external stakeholders in support of its mission.|
|Valuing Employees explores the institutionís commitment to the hiring, development, and evaluation of faculty, staff, and administrators.|
|Planning and Leading focuses on how the institution achieves its mission and lives its vision through direction setting, goal development, strategic actions, threat mitigation, and capitalizing on opportunities.|
|Knowledge Management and Resource Stewardship addresses management of the fiscal, physical, technological, and information infrastructures designed to provide an environment in which learning can thrive.|
|Quality Overview focuses on the Continuous Quality Improvement culture and infrastructure of the institution. This category gives the institution a chance to reflect on all its quality improvement initiatives, how they are integrated, and how they contribute to improvement of the institution.|
For more detail please see: http://www.ncahlc.org/Pathways/aqip-categories.html
For additional information, Email Ellen Riely Hauser, Vice President, Institutional Effectiveness.