Voluntary System of Accountability

College Portrait TemplateUNC, along with 238 other colleges and universities across the nation, is an early adopter of the Voluntary System of Accountability, a national initiative intended to assist students, their families, policy makers, and the general public by providing comparable and transparent information about individual institutions. The initiative was designed through collaboration between the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) to meet the needs of students, their families, and other higher education stakeholders for easier access to information about enrollment, cost of attendance, student experiences, and learning outcomes.

pictureUNC is pleased to be among the first institutions to adopt the VSA. As a member of the VSA, UNC will provide an annual update on a variety of student and institutional characteristics through the College Portrait. Some of the information we will be reporting has been available to the public on our website for years. The College Portrait organizes this information in an easy to find, single location on our website. Because the VSA is a new initiative, UNC has not collected all of the information that will eventually become a regular part of the College Portrait. In the coming months, check back on this webpage to find:

  • National Student Clearinghouse data on student persistence and graduation rates;
  • a cost calculator that provides an estimate of financial aid eligibility;
  • information about recent graduates’ post-baccalaureate plans;
  • the results of the CIRP College Senior Survey, a questionnaire that provides information about student experiences at UNC; and
  • the results of the Collegiate Learning Assessment, an assessment that measures student learning gains in critical thinking and written communication.