AQIP - Academic Quality Improvement Process

In 2006, Columbus State began participating in a new HLC Accreditation program, the Academic Quality Improvement Program, or AQIP. This eight-year accreditation pathway is based on the quality improvement principles of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program.

The Systems Portfolio is a key element of AQIP. This 125-page report focuses on institutional improvement processes. Revised in 2014, the six Portfolio categories provide a detailed framework that institutions can use to chart their quality progress and explore new opportunities for improvement.

• Category One: Helping Students Learn focuses on the design, deployment, and effectiveness of teaching-learning processes (and on the processes required to support them) that underlie the institution's credit and non-credit programs and courses.
• Category Two: 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.
• Category Three: Valuing Employees explores the institution's commitment to the hiring, development, and evaluation of faculty, staff, and administrators.
• Category Four: Planning and Leading explains how the institution achieves its mission and lives its vision through direction setting, goal development, strategic actions, threat mitigation, and capitalizing on opportunities.
• Category Five: Knowledge Management and Resource Stewardship details the management of the fiscal, physical, technological, and information infrastructures designed to provide an environment in which learning can thrive.
• Category 6: Quality Overview covers the culture and infrastructure of the institution. This category gives the institution a chance to reflect on improvement initiatives, how they are integrated, and how they contribute to improvement of the institution.