Goodbye, Belle Wheelan
Over the last 25 years or so, one model of university accreditation has given way to another. Under the old system, colleges submitted to invasive but essentially nonpartisan examination of…
Posts tagged with
“accreditation system”
The Phony War on Accreditors
It is a low bar to clear, but college accreditation has never been so hotly commented on as at present. Many in the higher-ed world fear for its future. Two…
End the Unjust Stratification of Accreditors
Practically everyone knows of a student who had to take virtually the same class twice—and pay for it twice—because his college wouldn’t accept perfectly good transfer credits from another institution.…
Accreditation-Reform Hopes for the Second Trump Administration
Higher education seemingly played an important if largely negative role in the recent presidential election. Exit polls showed that non-college-educated voters overwhelmingly favored Donald Trump. Many voters associated Kamala Harris…
The Politics of Higher-Education Accreditation
Accreditors often claim to be neutral arbiters who merely measure whether accredited universities meet their own standards. Yet a not-so-deep dive into actual accreditation standards reveals a stacked deck, whereby…
Model Legislation: Accreditation Choice Act UPDATED March 2025
The Accreditation Choice Act aims to enhance educational freedom and improve accountability in higher education by expanding accreditation options for colleges and universities. This legislation empowers institutions to seek accreditation…
A New Liberal-Arts University Arises
Ralston College counts among its first graduates a 24-year-old man who, in his third term of study, asked me what he could do to help ensure our fledgling institution would…
New Accreditors Are the Future
In 2020, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos deregulated college and university accreditation by ending regional accreditors’ monopoly status. The purpose of the move was to introduce innovation and competition to…
A New Accreditor Has Money in Mind
Annual federal spending on various tuition-subsidy programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (1965) now exceeds $130 billion. Last year, the Biden administration proposed new Financial Value Transparency…
Brief Advises Colleges and Universities to Switch Accreditors
Charleston, W. Va. — Today the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy and the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal released a new policy brief recommending best practices for colleges and universities…