Higher Learning Commission Reaffirms Accreditation for Tulsa Community College

The Higher Learning Commission has reaffirmed Tulsa Community College’s accreditation. TCC is the largest community college in the state of Oklahoma serving 24,000 students annually in college credit courses.

HLC, the regional accrediting agency, visited in September 2018 to review TCC’s ongoing ability to meet HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation. The HLC criteria consists of five core components from mission to resources, planning and institutional effectiveness and four assumed practices from ethical and responsible conduct to teaching and learning: evaluation and improvement.

“The report confirms all the hard work we are doing to support students and produce a trained workforce for the Tulsa community,” said TCC President and CEO Leigh B. Goodson. “The HLC reviewers cited TCC as a vibrant institution that is an integral part of the greater Tulsa community and praised Tulsa Achieves for addressing local educational needs.”

TCC is in the middle of refining the student learning assessment process for a majority of the college’s academic programs. In 2022 as part of a mid-cycle Assurance Review, TCC will provide HLC a comprehensive update regarding assessment practices and how we are using student outcome metrics to make decisions about curriculum and teaching strategies. Reviewers will not return to campus until 2028-29.

Accreditation is important for a number of reasons, and first among those is being able to qualify students for financial aid, and for students to be able to transfer credit hours to other institutions of higher education. Accreditation is affirmation that TCC operates in the right way, meeting HLC’s criteria and incorporating best practices for students, faculty, staff and the Tulsa community. Accreditation validates the strategic plan and the Guided Pathways work the College has embraced.