HLC approved Diné College as a four-year, baccalaureate-granting institution, opening new opportunities for students and graduates alike.
“For any community or society to grow and prosper, it must have its own means for educating its citizens…It is essential that these educational systems be directed and controlled by the society they are intended to serve” -Robert Roessel, 1979
In 1968, the Navajo people took a momentous step toward educational self-determination by establishing Navajo Community College (now Diné College). This landmark institution was an innovative means to address the long unmet postsecondary educational needs of the Navajo people. As the first tribally controlled college, Diné College continues to meet those needs and has achieved status as a land grant institution recognized by its accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), formerly known as North Central Association Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.