Office of Academic Compliance
Academic compliance refers to policies, procedures, and practices in place to ensure that actions regarding degree and certificate programs – from the content of the offerings, to how and where they are delivered – adhere to institutional, state, accreditation, and federal requirements and standards.

Assessment

Why Does it Matter?

  • What do we want students to know and to be able to do?
  • How do we know what students have learned and what they missed learning?
  • What do we know about teaching and learning that can help students learn better?

Assessment—the systematic process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data on student learning or program outcomes, helps inform student learning and improve teaching. By collecting reliable, evidence-based information about student learning, assessment confirms what works — and what doesn’t work — and gives us confidence to make good decisions about our academic programs. Through assessment of student learning, we demonstrate our commitment to the education of our students; to improving our own teaching and research; and ultimately to the University community, by continually improving the quality of our work.

Institutional Research and Analytics works collaboratively with academic departments to provide expert advice and methodological support to conduct assessment in support of the University’s mission and consistent with accreditation standards.

Competency Assessment

The University's competency assessment program is part of a statewide effort in Virginia, administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), to gather data and issue reports on the effectiveness of the Commonwealth's educational institutions.

University Assessment Advisory Committee

The University Assessment Advisory Committee meets at the request of Institutional Research and Analytics to advise on assessment policy and practice. As needed, the committee members may be asked for counsel between meetings.