HLC Questions
What Might HLC Ask Me?
During a comprehensive visit, the HLC peer review teams may request meetings with students, faculty and staff to ask them questions. Here are some possible questions they may ask:
- What do you know about HLC accreditation and MATC's written assurance argument?
- What are MATC's greatest strengths?
- What are the biggest challenges facing MATC?
- What distinguishes MATC from other colleges in Kansas?
- What is it like to work at MATC?
- How is the morale on campus?
- Do you believe academics are the top priority at MATC? Why or why not?
- Describe any campus processes that could be improved or made more efficient.
- What kind of changes are taking place at MATC? Do you see these as positive or not?
- Do you know MATC's mission statement?
- Where can you find the official mission statement?
- Do you support MATC's mission?
- How does your department support MATC's mission?
- What is MATC's current strategic plan? What are the current strategic planning priorities?
- How are you involved in the strategic planning process?
- Has MATC made progress toward achieving the identified strategic goals?
- Are you familiar with MATC's vision, values, and objectives?
- How does MATC support students? What about students who are unprepared or struggling?
- Are budget decisions made made on the strategic plan?
- Do budget decisions take into account recommendations from the program review?
- What do you believe have been the major accomplishments of MATC over the past 5-10 years?
- How does MATC support the community?
- Are marketing materials accurate and up to date?
- Describe the campus climate at MATC.
- Describe shared governance and how faculty participate in decision-making at different levels of the college (department, division, institution).
- For some common faculty issues (workload, salary, etc.), what works well and what needs to be improved?
- Are you satisfied with the support you receive to enhance your teaching?
- Have MATC administrators established a culture of trust within the college?
- Do you understand the FERPA policy?
- Does MATC have academic and financial requirements which are presented clearly and completely to students and to the public?
- What are the major responsibilities of the Board of Directors?
- Who is responsible for curriculum additions/deletions/modifications?
- Who is responsible for academic policy creation/modification?
- Do you believe you have academic freedom in your teaching?
- Does MATC have policies and procedures in place to address ethical conduct for both faculty and students?
- What characterizes a MATC education?
- What is the process for making curriculum changes in your program?
- Are you familiar with MATC core abilities?
- Are MATC core abilities the same thing as general education outcomes? Why or why not?
- What is the purpose of MATC's core ability assessment? How could it be improved? What are its strengths?
- Do you know your program student learning outcomes?
- How do you know if your program students are meeting the program learning outcomes?
- What is your department's vision for the future? How does it relate to the college's vision?
- How is course quality and consistency ensured in multiple section face-to-face courses? In online courses? in concurrent enrollment courses? How do you ensure academic rigor between courses/sections no matter the delivery method or location?
- Does the college provide support for the development of online courses?
- Are classes offered by your department taught by qualified faculty, including adjuncts and concurrent enrollment course instructors?
- What is the role of faculty in ensuring academic quality?
- Does MATC provide sufficient technology support?
- What resources are available to support faculty? Are they sufficient?
- How would you characterize the relationship between faculty and administration?
- Are students provided with adequate academic and personal support services?
- Are students provided with sufficient and relevant co-curricular experiences?
- Does MATC have sufficient facilities to instruct students?
- Are facilities appropriately maintained?
- How do you know if your program students are successful after they graduate?
- Does MATC have a commitment to student success? What does that look like? How successful have the efforts been?
- Does your program or the college offer opportunities to gain experience with community or civic engagement? With diversity or multiculturalism?
- Describe the program review process.
- Describe the transfer policy process (general education & technical education).
- Are faculty appropriately qualified.
- Describe the general education course approval process?
- Is your department actively involved in assessing student learning?
- How has your department used its assessment findings?
- How are you made aware of MATC's student achievement of student learning outcomes / core abilities? Where is this information located?
- Do you know MATC's first-year retention rates? Graduation rates? How we compare to other institutions?
- What is MATC doing to improve retention/graduation rates?
- What are the different streams of revenue utilized by MATC to fund the institution?
- What challenges do you believe MATC will need to deal with in the next 5-10 years?
- Do you understand the annual budget process?
- Are capital improvements (facilities, technology, equipment) based on strategic needs of the institution?
- How does KBOR and/or the MATC Board of Directors fit into the institutional governance structure?
- What is the role of Faculty Senate?
- How are faculty given the opportunity to provide input into important initiatives?
- How are assessment results taken in to consideration during the budget decision making process?
- How are program review recommendations taken into consideration?
- How are strategic planning goals taken into consideration?
