Northern Michigan University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) located at 230 South LaSalle St. Suite 7-500 Chicago, Illinois. Accreditation is an ongoing process of meeting standards, continuously improving, and assuring quality demonstrated through internal and external review.

Through the accreditation process, the University continuously reviews indicators against accreditation criteria to ensure that the standards are being met and to identify opportunities to strengthen or improve processes and policies. Regular accreditation review requires the University to identify data, information, and evidence and to document results that validate that it is meeting each standard.