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Accreditation is a process of validation in which colleges, universities and other institutions of higher learning are evaluated against a set of pre-defined standards.

Regional accreditation in the Northwest region is largely carried out through peer review. In order for potential colleges to be accredited, they must meet the general standards set by the peer review accreditation boards.

LCC is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), one of the United States' regional accrediting bodies that is recognized by the United States Department of Education.

We are responsible for showing that we meet a number of eligibility requirements and five standards during a seven-year review cycle. There are four primary components of accreditation:

1. Mission (state of intended purposes) - covered in standard 1
2. Compliance (inputs, outputs and processes) - covered in standard 2
3. Outcomes (student learning outcomes) - covered in standards 3 and 4
4. Improvement (evidence of enhanced effectiveness) - covered in standards 3, 4 and 5 

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Useful Links:

• LCC accreditation webpage -- contains copies of reports submitted to the NWCCU by LCC, as well as NWCCU evaluation reports about LCC (lowercolumbia.edu/accreditation) 
• Short (11-minute) video about the accreditation process at LCC -- created for LCC faculty and staff (lowercolumbia.edu/accreditation)
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) website -- on this website you will find a complete listing of the NWCCU Standards and Eligibility Requirements, in addition to a lot of other information (nwccu.org)