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Quality Improvement Initiative

As part of the HLC 10-year accreditation cycle, Open Pathway institutions are required to conduct a major improvement project, the Quality Initiative.  UNC kicked off its Quality Initiative in 2022-23, and the project will be completed at the end of 2023-24.

UNC’s Quality Initiative is embedded in Phase 2 of Rowing, Not Drifting with a specific focus on improving undergraduate student retention and graduation rates.  The initiative is designed to examine and improve students’ academic experience, primarily by identifying barriers to academic success, improving curricular design, expanding inclusive and high impact pedagogy, and increasing student sense of belonging and connection to their academic major and college.  Much of UNC’s student success efforts have focused on the out-of-class experience and student support services.  UNC’s Quality Initiative expands on past and current efforts by considering the impact of the classroom experience, interactions with faculty, and connection to the academic discipline as important components of student retention and completion.

KEY STRATEGIES
    1. Establish Student Success Committees in each college
    2. Develop plan for supporting ELL/CLD (English Language Learner/Culturally Linguistic Diverse) students
    3. Disseminate and increase use of institutional data examining student success and equity gaps
    4. Fund promising practices projects in the colleges that address the Quality Initiative’s goals
    5. Evaluate and prioritize scalable practices for future investment
PROJECTS AND PROGRESS