Higher Learning Commission 10-Year Comprehensive Evaluation

“Complete a thorough review of academic calendars, course-scheduling practices, and credit-hour monitoring (and exception) processes. Identify necessary improvements to ensure that enough time has been scheduled for the course to be in compliance with the university’s definition of a credit hour. Course syllabi should contain complete and consistent information relative to meeting times, course descriptions, learning outcomes, prerequisites and corequisites, regardless of modality or section.”

HLC is the institutional accreditation agency that validates the quality of the education at WashU and about 1000 other colleges and universities, primarily in the Midwest.  With accreditation, WashU is eligible for federal aid to support students. WashU’s accreditation has been reaffirmed, and we aren’t at risk of losing accreditation based on what HLC has required us to do. However, the work to address HLC’s concern is important to demonstrate our commitment to the standards set by the federal government and agreed to by all the institutions that are accredited by HLC.

Institutions of higher learning use a “credit hour” as a commonly accepted measure of the amount of work by instructor and students that counts towards an academic credential, like a degree or certificate. The current WashU definition of a credit hour can be found on the Provost website.  

The Office of the Provost has collaborated with the schools and staff to form a steering committee (the Credit Hour Project Steering, or CHPS, Committee) that is working with six subcommittees (Course Proposals, Syllabus Audit Process, Scheduling, Meeting Patterns + Exams, Adjacent Policy, and Communications and Change Management) and existing university committee (the Calendar Committee).  The CHPS and the six subcommittees, which will meet only during the Spring semester, have representation from all the schools at WashU.

The multi-committee structure was chosen because of some key challenges with this task:

1. The credit unit affects and is affected by many other policies, related processes, and people across our schools.
2. Because the credit unit is woven into the fabric of our academic programs, we benefit from multiple perspectives to better understand consequences of proposed changes, as we strive to minimize disruption while addressing the hard work of accountability and compliance.
3. We have effectively only the Spring semester to comprehensively formulate the problem, ideate on solutions, converge on a solution, and iterate on the solution with feedback from stakeholders.

In this structure, the Steering Committee, comprising primarily faculty from across WashU, helps decide on policy direction, while subcommittees investigate specific areas and provide recommendations on implementation and sustainability.

Here is a listing of what committees and subcommittees have been charged to do:

Credit Hour Project Steering Committee:
Refine the credit policy to align with the HLC’s expectations to fulfill the interim reporting requirement. The Credit Hour Project Steering committee will also coordinate the recommendations from the six subcommittees and academic calendar committee to ensure a consistent, comprehensive, and sustainable approach to resolving current issues of practice and ensuring a sustained culture of compliance.

Course Proposals Subcommittee:
Develop a minimum set of standards that all course proposals should contain to addresses accreditation and federal standards. ​

Explore solutions for making syllabi transparent and accessible to students at the time of registration.​

Syllabus Audit Process Subcommittee:
Review a sample of existing syllabi in line with the credit hour policy to establish patterns and scope of issues.​

Establish future audit process (i.e. determination of which parties will be responsible for semesterly audit; development of reports; process for elevating concerns related to deviations to policy).​

Scheduling Subcommittee:
Document existing course scheduling practices. ​

Recommend best practice in scheduling including an approval and documentation flow for exceptions requested by instructors.​

Meeting Patterns + Exams Subcommittee:
Review and establish standard meeting patterns for Danforth campus.​

Review and revision of exam period schedule.

Adjacent Policies Subcommittee:
Conduct a review of school websites and university-wide resources to identify policies that describe or affect faculty-student contact time. ​Engage in efforts to work with relevant entities to adjust policies to ensure alignment. ​

Communications and Change Management Subcommittee:
Develop a multi-pronged and phased approach to communicating changes related to the curricular landscape (including future and ongoing communications). ​

Develop a plan for establishing a training program/platform. ​

We are very grateful for the following who have volunteered their time this Spring:

By the end of Spring 2025, the Credit Hour Project Steering (CHPS) Committee will be able to provide a set of recommendations for the Provost to review. During the summer, a team from the Provost’s Office will work on drafting a report to the HLC regarding the process we used to respond to their request. As part of that work, the team will draft a project plan to show how WashU can implement the recommendations of the CHPS Committee to assure HLC that we are serious in our effort to provide consistency and transparency in our courses.  While HLC will receive the report in August 2025, they understand that policy and practice changes need to follow WashU’s shared governance processes. Although some recommendations might be easy to make in Academic Year 25-26 as part of administrative practice, others will require more faculty and staff input.  

You can contact Jen Smith (jensmith@wustl.edu), Angela Wilson (angela.wilson@wustl.edu), or Mark Valenzuela (vmark@wustl.edu).