CIM's accreditation extended for 10 years

CLEVELAND, May 17, 2025 – On Friday, May 16, the Cleveland Institute of Music received official confirmation from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) that CIM has met HLC’s five criteria and has been reaffirmed for accreditation for the next 10 years. 

This successful result follows 10 years of growth and realignment, after a disappointing 2014 evaluation that saw the Institute placed on Notice for the risk of being out of compliance with the HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation.  

The Higher Learning Commission is an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education that evaluates and accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States, enabling students to access federal financial aid programs. Accreditation is a 10-year cycle designed for member institutions to affirm the quality of their offerings, demonstrate continuous improvement, and confirm that they meet HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation. A peer review team conducts an on-site visit, evaluates materials, including an expansive Assurance Argument and supporting documentation, and considers feedback from students and the community. Interim monitoring may be assigned to track progress. 

The 10-year peer review visit to CIM’s campus was conducted on February 10-11, 2025.  

CIM has been on a journey of transition since HLC issued the public sanction of putting CIM on Notice in 2015, with nearly every faculty and staff member required to reconsider, recalibrate, and in some cases, redo how they approached their professional lives at an institution of higher learning. Virtually every faculty and staff system in place to deliver a first-class education was evaluated, and many required change, even as the teaching and student outcomes of the Institute’s studios, ensembles, and classrooms maintained their high standard.   

“The accreditation crisis of 2014-15 was unmistakable criticism from the Higher Learning Commission, made especially disturbing because the bulk of the citations involved the very core of what we do,” recalled Trustee Charles P. Cooley, current co-chair of the CIM Academic Affairs Committee and Chair of the 2016 Accreditation Working Team. 

“The discipline of many led to the success of the 2025 accreditation evaluation, and while there remains, and to some degree will always remain, work to do, our faculty, staff, trustees, and students should feel valued as members of a community that earned these high marks of progress.” 

“Over the past decade, CIM has experienced significant transition and change. This includes placement on Notice by HLC in 2015, removal of the sanction in 2017, the Mid-Cycle Review in 2019, and subsequent monitoring,” reported the HLC Visiting Team. 

“During this period, CIM has made notable strides in assessment, program review, general education, use of data, operational effectiveness, facilities, fundraising, and planning under its strategic plan, Blueprint:100. The Cleveland Institute of Music has made great strides to effectively enhance the quality of its educational offerings through assessment processes and program review. Improvements implemented are formidable and reflect CIM’s accountability for high-quality educational programs.”

“The Visiting Team acknowledges the strong attendance and engagement of CIM students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and trustees in the site visit. All constituent groups were well-represented, forthcoming, communicative, and highly invested in CIM's success.” 

CIM’s Assurance Argument previewed to the Visiting Team the progress, struggles, and work remaining, and the Higher Learning Commission has asked for a 2027 progress update in two areas: 1) the Blueprint:2030 strategic plan; and 2) the next generation of faculty governance coming out of the Transitional Faculty Council (TFC). 

“I arrived in Cleveland nine years ago with a clear assignment from then-Board chair Richard Hipple, Mr. Hipple’s successor, Susan Rothmann, Ph.D., and the Board of Trustees: CIM needed to move forward into its second century with a clearer vision of 21st-century higher education best practices,” said Paul W. Hogle, CIM’s President & CEO. 

“In service of CIM, its students, and their ambitions, we took on comprehensive changes and worked through major transitions in our approaches to operating and instruction. A decade later, HLC has found us to be substantially stronger, driven by our shared commitment to CIM and the future of classical music.” 

Since its founding in 1920, CIM graduates have performed in the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and opera companies and on the most renowned concert stages. They have won Grammy Awards, performed for Presidents, and expanded the boundaries of composition. The successful visit and extension of CIM’s accreditation allows the Institute to continue its mission to “Empower the world’s most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential” into its second century.