Educational Effectiveness

The Office of Academic Affairs is responsible for providing important internal and external oversight of Holy Apostles’s institutional accreditation requirements, assessment procedures, as well as the work of Holy Apostles’s Office of Institutional Research.

Statement of Educational Effectiveness

All degree programs, undergraduate and graduate, at Holy Apostles College and Seminary are accredited by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) and approved and accredited by the State of Connecticut Office of Higher Education (CTOHE). All graduate degree programs are accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools.

Since 1998, the Master of Arts in Philosophy and Master of Arts in Theology programs have been approved by CTOHE and NECHE for 100% online delivery. In the summer of 2014, CTOHE approved all undergraduate programs for 100% online delivery. In March of 2016, the school was granted a reaffirmation of accreditation for a ten-year period by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (now the New England Commission of Higher Education, NECHE). Also in the summer of 2014, Holy Apostles College and Seminary was granted Associate Membership in the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). In June of 2017, the school was granted initial accreditation for a five-year period by ATS. On November 3, 2022, the ATS Board of Commissioners reaffirmed the school’s accreditation for a period of seven years, until March 30. 2030, with the next comprehensive evaluation in fall 2029.

In 2022, after adoption of the new strategic plan, undergraduate and graduate programs underwent a comprehensive curriculum review process to align student learning outcomes with the revised mission statement. The college has dedicated itself to building a faculty-led culture of assessment to assure that learning outcomes are aligned at the programmatic and course level so that our graduates complete their programs with the requisite skills, knowledge and abilities to become Catholic leaders in evangelization that is Holy Apostles’ signature.

Additional Steps

To further measure our institutional effectiveness, we utilize a variety of indirect and direct measures to better understand students’ experience across all educational outcomes. The data is used to inform institutional decisions which will ensure that we are meeting our student learning outcomes while providing for student achievement and success.

Some measures readily available to us are as follows:

Indirect measures:

course evaluations
satisfaction surveys;
entering and graduating student surveys;
a departing student survey;
priorities survey;
alumni survey

Direct measures:

deacon homily survey;
supervised ministry and pastors surveys;
MA theses;
comprehensive exams;
keystone assessments in core courses;
peer syllabi reviews based on standardized syllabi;
NECHE and ATS annual report data;
ATS Institutional Peer Profile Report
ATS Strategic Information Report
admissions data;
financial data;
financial aid data

Undergraduate Student Outcomes

An institution’s first-to-second year retention rate refers to the percentage of new or first-year students who continue their enrollment at the same institution for their second year of study. 

An institution’s graduation rate refers to the percentage of students who successfully complete their degree program within a specified time frame. The 4-year graduation rate reflects the percentage of undergraduate students who successfully complete their degree within the traditional four-year timeframe.

The 6-year graduation rate reflects the percentage of students who graduate within 150% of the typical time to a degree.