Faculty Qualifications

In November 2023, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Board of Trustees revised the Assumed Practices to further clarify that an institution must establish and maintain policies and procedures for determining that faculty are qualified; and that an institution could consider a variety of factors as part of these policies and procedures.

The factors that an institution considers as part of these policies and procedures could include, but are not limited to: the achievement of academic credentials, progress toward academic credentials, equivalent experience, or some combination thereof. The institution’s obligations in this regard extend to all instructors and all other entities to which it assigns the responsibility of instruction. HLC will maintain “Institutional Policies and Procedures for Determining Faculty Qualifications Guidelines” to further explain requirements for reasonable policies and procedures in accordance with this Assumed Practice.

Each institution offering dual credit courses, retains sole responsibility for determining if and how its faculty meet HLC’s faculty qualifications.

Resources for Dual Credit Instructors

In 2020, two nonprofit organizations, Northeast Wisconsin Education Resource Alliance (NEWERA) and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) joined forces to help high school teachers find content-specific graduate courses, allowing them to earn credits that will meet instructor qualification expectations to teach college-level courses.

Graduate Credit Quest serves teachers seeking graduate level course offerings. MHEC provided the connections, expertise, and funding to expand the site to help teachers and features courses offered by universities in all twelve of MHEC's members states Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Kansas Degree & Certificate Programs

Below is a list of online graduate degrees & courses offered by public universities in Kansas in some of the most common dual credit subject areas taught in the state. Since HLC requires each institution to determine how its faculty are qualified, current and potential dual credit instructors should request an individual consultation with the institution they are or will teach for to see if the programs below meet HLC faculty qualifications.

This list will be updated as additional information is made available and is being provided solely as a resource without any specific endorsement: