Negotiated rule making for higher education accreditation is concluding this week, with expectations of smooth consensus based on prior sessions. After public comment and finalization, new accreditation rules could be issued by July of next year. Colleges and universities acknowledge the need for accreditation improvements, but many disagree with the proposed approach. The Education Department aims to address affordability by requiring standards tied to students’ return on investment and by mandating seamless credit transfer. The department also seeks to make it easier for institutions to change accreditors and to reduce red tape for establishing new accreditors. Accreditation experts and institutional leaders argue the plan increases regulatory burdens and threatens academic freedom, including concerns about regulating ideological diversity.
"The Education Department's accreditation reforms seek in part to address affordability challenges by setting standards for students' return on investment and mandating seamless credit transfer. The department also wants to make it easier for institutions to switch accreditors and to cut red tape around establishing new accreditors."
"Most in the sector would agree those problems warrant reform, but accreditation experts and institutional leaders say the department's plan introduces greater regulatory burdens and threatens academic freedom. And Bob Shireman, a longtime accreditation expert and Democratic appointee on ED's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, told our reporter Jessica Blake that the positive items in the proposed reforms "in no way are enough to make the rest of it worth doing.""
"Elsewhere, Shireman said ED's attempts at regulating ideological diversity, in particular, via accreditation reform "would destroy the independence that has made American higher education different, and better, than the more regulated systems across the rest of the world.""
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