Trump targets university accreditation — a non-governmental designation
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The Trump administration has taken aim at university accreditation in its battering of higher education.
Why it matters: Accreditation serves to hold institutions accountable and validate their programs, faculty and degrees.
- It's also required to receive federal financial aid.
Driving the news: The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on Wednesday notified Harvard's accreditor that they found the university in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws in regard to treatment of Jewish students.
- In April, Trump signed an executive order to hold accreditors accountable for what he called "unlawful actions" related to diversity and equity initiatives.
Context: "In order to insure a basic level of quality, the practice of accreditation arose in the United States as a means of conducting non-governmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs," per the Department of Education.
- In most other countries, university accreditation is a governmental process.
State of play: U.S. accreditors are private organizations responsible for reviewing institutions and programs for quality, according to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
- Those organizations have been reviewed for quality by CHEA or the Department of Education.
- The federal government requires higher education institutions to be accredited to be eligible for federal grants, loans or other federal funds.
- Accreditation also helps students transfer credits between institutions.
By the numbers: The U.S. is split into six accreditation regions: New England, Middle States, North Central, Southern, Western and Northwest.
- Seven accrediting commissions operate in these regions, according to the CHEA.
Zoom in: Institutional accreditation applies to the whole college or university, while programmatic accreditation is for a specific degree or department.
- To be accredited, institutions or programs prepare self-evaluations to submit to accrediting agencies demonstrating how they reach their standards, according to the Education Department. A team then visits the institution.
- Once accredited, institutions are continuously monitored and periodically re-evaluated.
The fine print: Schools lose accreditation if they fail to meet standards, such as graduation rates, licensure pass rates or post-grad outcomes, per Accredited Schools Online.
- If a college fails accreditation criteria, it is given a warning and asked to remedy the issue. If it persists, it is placed on probation.
- Eventually, an institution will lose accreditation if it stays below standards.
What we're watching: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last month launched an alternative accreditor, the Commission for Public Higher Education, to "break the ideological stronghold" in higher education.
- It is a consortium of six state public university systems in the South.
- The consortium hopes to begin accrediting six institutions by June 2026 and become recognized by the Department of Higher Education by June 2028, per Higher Ed Dive.
Go deeper: Trump administration renews pressure on Harvard over foreign students, accreditation
