Standard Pathway

Pima Community College participates in the HLC's Standard Pathway for reaffirmation of accreditation. The Standard Pathway seeks to achieve the following goals:

• To reduce the reporting burden on institutions by utilizing as much information and data as possible from existing institutional processes and collecting them in electronic form as they naturally occur over time
• To enhance rigor by checking institutional data annually (Institutional Update) and conducting comprehensive evaluations twice in the ten-year cycle
• To integrate as much as possible all HLC processes and requests for data into the reaffirmation of accreditation cycle

Pima's Standard Pathway Cycle

Year 1 of PCC's Standard Pathway accreditation cycle begins Sept. 1, 2015. As part of the normal ten-year Standard Pathway accreditation cycle, two comprehensive evaluation visits are scheduled: the first in Year 4 (for PCC, 2018-19) and another in Year 10 (for PCC, 2024-25).  

Other activities may occur each year during the cycle. For example, Pima has a Notice Report due July 1, 2016 and a Notice Visit scheduled in the Fall 2016.

» View Pima's Standard Pathway Cycle

Quality Assurance and Improvement

Both quality assurance and quality improvement are integrated into the HLC comprehensive evaluations. In addition, the institution addresses quality assurance and improvement through interim monitoring, as required. In the Standard Pathway, both assurance and improvement are directly related to the Criteria for Accreditation. The components of the comprehensive evaluation in the Standard Pathway are:

1. An Assurance Review
2. An Improvement Review
3. A review of Federal Compliance
4. An on-site visit
5. If applicable, a multi-campus review