Academic Quality Improvement Project (AQIP)

The Academic Quality Improvement Project (AQIP) is the college’s new model for accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). This process emphasizes critical self-examination and continuous improvement throughout College of DuPage. AQIP uses nine Criteria to examine systematically how it is increasing its effectiveness in educating students and accomplishing key purposes as well as managing and improving processes that allow it to pursue these primary goals. Each Criterion examines a group of processes in order to help uncover opportunities for growth and improvement. The nine AQIP Criteria are:

  Helping Students Learn - Identifies the shared purpose of all higher education organizations.

 Accomplishing Other Distinctive Objectives - Addresses the processes that contribute to the achievement of an institution’s major objectives.

 Understanding Students’ and Other Stakeholders’ - Examines how a quality-driven institution works actively to understand their needs.

 Valuing People - Allows the institution to demonstrate its commitment to the development of the talents of all of its faculty, staff, and administrators.

 Leading and Communicating - Addresses how an institution’s leadership and communication structures, networks, and processes, guide the institution in setting directions and making decisions.

 Measuring Effectiveness - Examines the information system the institution employs to collect and use data to responsibly manage itself and to drive performance improvement.

 Planning Continuous Improvement - Examines how an institution aligns what it wants or hopes to do with what it actually does.

 Building Collaborative Relationships - Examines an institution’s relationships to analyze how they contribute to the institution’s accomplishing its mission.