Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education intends to develop new regulations this spring to make it easier for new accreditors to gain recognition and curb diversity, equity and inclusion standards, per a notice published this week in the Federal Register.
- Through a process called negotiated rulemaking, the Education Department plans to develop new policy language by bringing together different stakeholders — such as representatives for students, colleges and accreditors — in April and May.
- Overhauling accreditation is a key plank of the Trump administration’s higher education agenda. Before retaking office in 2025, President Donald Trump called accreditation his “secret weapon” to reshaping higher education, saying he would fire what he described as “radical left” accreditors and open the door to new agencies.
Dive Insight:
Accreditors serve as gatekeepers for billions in federal student aid. Without their seal of approval, higher education institutions cannot participate in Title IV programs, such as Pell Grants and federal student loans.
“Accreditation functions as the central nervous system of higher education, and the system cannot be made healthy without addressing its deepest flaws,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a Monday statement.
Kent wants to shape the higher education sector in line with the Trump administration’s policy priorities by overhauling the accreditation system, Bloomberg reported last year.
In this week’s Federal Register notice, the Education Department laid out its priorities for overhauling accreditation. The first proposed issue up for negotiation is how to make it easier for new accrediting agencies to come onto the scene and for colleges to switch accreditors.
The Education Department has already taken steps in that direction.
In April, Trump signed an executive order that, in part, directed U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to make it easier for colleges to move to a different accreditor.
A month later, the department revoked guidance the Biden administration issued in 2022 that outlined a more stringent process for colleges to switch accreditors. While the Trump administration’s updated process makes it easier, some higher education experts voiced concerns that it would lead to colleges switching to agencies with less rigorous standards.
At the time, the department also lifted a moratorium on its review of applications for new accreditors.
Nearly two months later, six Southern public university systems announced plans to form a new accreditor called the Commission for Public Higher Education. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a vocal critic of the traditional accreditation system, announced the new agency and echoed the Trump administration’s complaints by criticizing accreditors' DEI standards.
“They exert all this power over our education institutions,” DeSantis said during a June news conference. “That stops today.”
The Trump administration also signaled that it plans to use accreditors more to bend colleges to its will. In June, the Education Department notified Columbia University’s accreditor that it had determined the Ivy League institution had violated antidiscrimination laws, adding that it no longer met the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s standards.
One month later, Columbia agreed to pay the Trump administration $221 million and make policy changes to restore its federal research funding.
In July, the Education Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services likewise alerted Harvard University’s accreditor that “strong evidence" suggested the institution no longer met the accreditation standards. The New England Commission of Higher Education did not take action against Harvard and reiterated that the federal government cannot direct it to revoke a college’s accreditation.
In this week’s notice, the Education Department said it would seek to amend regulations for accreditors that would “provide for expeditious resolution and actions” if their member institutions are found in violation of civil rights laws.
Additionally, the Education Department is continuing its crackdown on DEI efforts, saying it would review "the role that accrediting agency standards have played in promoting violations of Federal law, including unlawful discrimination by member institutions under the guise of accreditation standards for diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
That’s in line with Trump’s April executive order, which likewise took aim at DEI standards and specifically called out two accreditors of law and medical schools. The American Bar Association has undertaken a review of its standards amid federal pressure and placed a moratorium on its diversity standard.
However, two conservative-led states, Texas and Florida, have recently dropped requirements that lawyers get their degrees from ABA-accredited institutions.
The Education Department’s new notice also said the agency will focus on changing the criteria accreditors are evaluated against to gain recognition. The Education Department said it wants to focus more on “student achievement and outcomes, high educational quality, and high-value programs.”
