The concept of institutional effectiveness is at the heart of the SACS Commission on Colleges' philosophy of accreditation and is central to institutional programs and operations.  It pervades the Criteria for Accreditation.  This concept presumes that each member institution is engaged in an ongoing quest for quality and can demonstrate how well it fulfills its stated purpose.

In addition to providing evidence of planning and evaluation in its educational program, the institution needs to demonstrate planning and evaluation in its administrative and educational support services.  For each administrative and educational support service unit, the institution needs to:

• Establish a clearly defined purpose which supports the institution's purpose and goals
• Formulate goals which support the purpose of each unit
• Develop and implement procedures to evaluate the extent to which these goals are being achieved in each unit
• Use the results of the evaluations to improve administrative and educational support services