Accreditation Considerations Related to COVID-19

Considerations Related to COVID-19

The health and safety of our students, staff, and faculty are our top priorities at Caltech. The Institute shifted to online teaching for the Spring Term and reduced occupancy of our undergraduate student housing by more than 90%. In compliance with the March 19, 2020 "Safer at Home" order from the County of Los Angeles and the City of Pasadena, we limited campus activity to essential functions only. 

The U.S. Department of Education provided guidance to institutions for interruptions of study related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 5, 2020 (updated on April 3, 2020, May 15, 2020, and June 16, 2020). This guidance permits institutions to shift to online teaching and distance learning for the remainder of the current term without notification or approval from its accrediting agency. The Department will extend the effective period of guidance if circumstances warrant an extension and adjust dates as needed.

The Accreditation process continued as planned, and included additional material in our self-study about institutional adjustments made due to the impact of COVID-19.  We continued to collect data remotely, monitored Core courses in the remote learning environment, and held working group meetings via Zoom.  The campus visit was held remotely, via Zoom, on October 14-16, 2020.

Please contact the Accreditation team with questions regarding the Program Review and Assessment.