But who will hold the accreditors accountable?
This week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released its final regulations regarding the Secretary’s recognition of accrediting agencies. These regulations are the product of a negotiated rulemaking panel that took place earlier this year and reached consensus. Higher Learning Advocates continues to have significant concerns regarding these regulations and how they will impact today’s students.

Accreditors are an important part of the higher education Triad — three gatekeepers that grant higher education institutions approval for eligibility to participate in financial aid programs and assure quality and outcomes for today’s students. However, with today’s ruling, accreditors may become the weakest link in the Triad. Because the final rule would change the current requirement that accrediting agencies demonstrate having “sufficiently rigorous standards,” this could lead to poorer outcomes for today’s students. For example, not holding institutions of higher education to high standards can lead to lower completion rates for students. We all know that the longer a student attends college, the more college can cost them. Today’s students have already accrued more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, and the goal should be to use federal policy to decrease debt for students instead of contributing to its growth.
The new regulations also remove a requirement that accreditors have standards that “effectively address the quality of the institution of program” and replaces it with watered-down language such as “set forth clear expectations for institutions or programs it accredits.” This could also negatively impact today’s students since the regulations remove current regulations that state that accreditors’ standards and policies must be “widely accepted” by educators, licensing bodies, practitioners, and employers.
While we wish the final regulation reflected greater focus on requiring accreditors to have strong standards that are proven to lead to good outcomes for today’s students, we do generally support the regulations’ provisions relating to substantive change. We believe in order to best support today’s students through multiple pathways to and through higher education, if a program is working directly with an employer and in good standing with their accreditor, there should be an expedited review of substantive change in order to allow institutions to quickly respond to workforce needs and serve today’s students well.
Unfortunately, overall, these regulations continue to miss the mark in furthering a regulatory environment that would uplift outcomes for today’s students across institutions of higher education. Higher Learning Advocates recommends a holistic review of accreditation regulations and laws and working toward bipartisan policies that holds institutions of higher education accountable for student success. How can we hold institutions accountable if we’re not doing the same for accrediting agencies?

