New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 5 - POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION › Chapter 2 - ESTABLISHMENT OF POST-SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS › Part 2 - REQUIREMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS, LEARNING CENTERS, OR CAMPUSES › Section 5.2.2.8 - GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A. The
				commission believes that extended learning programs from existing institutions
				can offer high quality post-secondary educational services to under served
				communities in an efficient manner. Therefore, communities should collaborate
				with existing institutions to meet educational needs through extended learning
				programs. Communities should consider the establishment of a new institution or
				learning center only after it has been demonstrated that services offered
				through extended learning programs are not sufficient.
B. As evidence of local support for a new
				institution, learning center, or campus of an institution or learning center
				that would be eligible for state support, it must be demonstrated that the
				community is willing to impose a local tax levy that is appropriate to the
				nature of the proposed institution, learning center, or campus.
C. The commission believes that learning
				centers, which contract with institutions to provide services rather than
				provide those services directly, will be able to respond to rapidly changing
				educational needs in a community efficiently and effectively. It is anticipated
				that a learning center would contract with regionally accredited institutions
				to provide needed educational programs through the learning center for a
				limited period of time. At the end of the contract, the community based
				governing board would reassess the contract to determine whether the services
				called for in the contract were still needed, and if so, whether those services
				were being provided in an efficient and effective manner. If demand for the
				program were no longer sufficient, or if services were not being provided
				efficiently and effectively, then the contract would not be renewed.
D. The commission believes that learning
				centers can provide a more efficient option for providing access to higher
				education when extended learning is not sufficient. Therefore, an applicant for
				a new institution will have to demonstrate that a learning center is inadequate
				before a proposal to establish that institution will be considered by the
				commission.
E. It is important to
				the commission that any programs offered by institutions or through learning
				centers maintain high standards of quality.
(1) In order to help ensure the quality of
				programs offered through a learning center, learning centers will only enter
				into contracts with regionally accredited institutions. In other words,
				individual programs offered through a learning center need not be accredited,
				but the providing institution must be regionally accredited. It is also
				expected that any new institution will be eligible for regional accreditation
				either directly or through a possible parent campus's accreditation.
(2) Any existing institution that is unable
				to maintain regional accreditation shall be subject to special review by the
				commission.