Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA)
Regional accreditation, among other things, ensures that colleges and universities
can receive federal funding for students. Regional accrediting bodies (e.g., WASC)
work to ensure that schools are compliant with federal standards. This is also related
to the Higher Education Opportunity Act. The latest reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act of 1965--the Higher Education Opportunity Act--requires institutions
of higher education to provide various statistics and links publicly. Some of the requirements are satisfied
by the information contained in the
Common Data Set (CDS) section of the OIE website and/or other Pepperdine
websites.
The Significance of WASC
WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, is one
of six official academic bodies in the United States that is responsible for the
accreditation of Pepperdine University. WASC's Accrediting Commission for Senior
Colleges and Universities is in charge of evaluating Pepperdine University. Our
institution accepts specific responsibilities from WASC to provide data and information
for better understanding university goals, infrastructure, processes, and its own
progress. (See
Statement of Accreditation Status.)
The Importance of Accreditation
Demonstrating Institutional Accountability
Pepperdine's taking part in accreditation assures the educational community, general
public, and other organizations and agencies that they meet WASC core commitments
and standards that include:
- Defining institutional purposes and ensuring educational objectives
- Achieving educational objectives through core functions
- Developing and applying resources and organizational structures to ensure sustainability
- Creating an organization committed to teaching, learning processes, and improvement
Accreditation is important because it enables the university to show how it develops
and utilizes indicators of institutional performance and educational effectiveness.
Participation in accreditation also provides Pepperdine the opportunity to demonstrate
its culture of evidence, where indicators of performance are regularly developed
and data are collected to inform institutional planning, decision making, and
engagement in student learning.
Analysis and Improvement
In accreditation, Pepperdine works on refining its functional processes in continuing
to make improvements. During the accreditation process, Pepperdine develops systems
of institutional review and evaluation that help the university upkeep self-review,
systems of quality assurance, data collection, and analysis. Pepperdine also works
towards developing more varied and effective methods of assessing learning and using
assessment results to improve program and institutional practices.
Exhibiting Wide Stakeholder Involvement
Accreditation is also an opportunity for Pepperdine to show involvement from stakeholders
from all levels, ranging from students, staff, and to university faculty members.
Pepperdine's involvement in accreditation allows systematic engagement of faculty
for assessment and improving teaching and learning processes. In accreditation,
Pepperdine works to align support systems for the faculty.
Increasing Understanding
In the accreditation process, Pepperdine seeks to make clear the institutional educational
objectives and criteria for defining and evaluating our goals. The university also
works to gain a deeper understanding of student learning in the accreditation process.
In taking part in the accreditation process, Pepperdine is able to participate in
an active interchange of ideas. The institution provides feedback to comparable
higher educational institutions in a peer review process. In return, accreditation
gives Pepperdine the opportunity to receive an honest assessment of institutional
strengths and weaknesses from WASC and peer institutional reviewers.