Faculty Qualifications

Faculty Qualifications

The faculty at UW-River Falls have a primary commitment to teaching. However, they are typically active in research, university and community service, advising and a myriad of other activities. To ensure high-quality performance, all faculty are appropriately qualified in accordance with the expectations of the Higher Learning Commission. This Virtual Handbook of Faculty Qualifications provides information regarding the criteria used to qualify faculty, and the faculty who have been granted graduate and/or undergraduate status.

Each program has criteria that is used to review faculty to determine whether or not they are qualified to work with and teach undergraduate and/or graduate students. In some cases, faculty status may be limited (e.g. restricted to teaching a particular course, or courses, or to a particular sub-field within a discipline). UWRF also provides training to qualify distance-education instructors and faculty receiving this training are also noted.

• Qualified Faculty (Updated 2025)
• Faculty Qualification Review Form

The criteria adopted by each program to determine faculty qualifications can be viewed below.

Key/References

• CBE Handbook (e.g. is a necessary reference for some criteria in the College of Business and Economics)
• NA = Not Applicable (e.g. the graduate program does not have an undergraduate equivalent)
• NA-MD = This is a multi-disciplinary program wherein faculty are qualified in their home disciplines.
• NS = Not Submitting (e.g. the undergraduate program does not have a graduate program and is not defining criteria for its faculty to serve as graduate faculty)

Relevant HLC Criteria and Assumed Practices

The following criteria and assumed practices help guide the institution's review of faculty. 

• HLC Criterion 3.C., The institution has the faculty and staff needed for effective, high-quality programs and student services.
  1. The institution strives to ensure that the overall composition of its faculty and staff reflects human diversity as appropriate within its mission and for the constituencies it serves.
  2. The institution has sufficient numbers and continuity of faculty members to carry out both the classroom and the non-classroom roles of faculty, including oversight of the curriculum and expectations for student performance, assessment of student learning, and establishment of academic credentials for instructional staff.
  3. All instructors are appropriately qualified, including those in dual credit, contractual and consortial offerings.
  4. Instructors are evaluated regularly in accordance with established institutional policies and procedures.
  5. The institution has processes and resources for assuring that instructors are current in their disciplines and adept in their teaching roles; it supports their professional development.
  6. Instructors are accessible for student inquiry.
  7. Staff members providing student support services, such as tutoring, financial aid advising, academic advising and cocurricular activities, are appropriately qualified, trained, and supported in their professional development.
• Assumed Practice A.5.G., "Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct, The institution makes readily available to students and to the general public clear and complete information including a full list of its instructors and their academic credentials."
• Assumed Practice B.2.A, "Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support.  Faculty Roles and Qualifications.  Instructors (excluding for this requirement teaching assistants enrolled in a graduate program and supervised by faculty) possess an academic degree relevant to what they are teaching and at least one level above the level at which they teach, except in programs for terminal degrees or when equivalent experience is established. In terminal degree programs, faculty members possess the same level of degree.  When faculty members are employed based on equivalent experience, the institution defines a minimum threshold of experience and an evaluation process that is used in the appointment process."