On January 20, 2021, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., stood on the western side of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, and recited the oath of office to become the 46th president of the United States. A few weeks prior, newly elected and re-elected legislators were sworn in, and the 117th Congress began its work.
Several of President Biden’s first executive orders addressed issues related to higher education and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. One executive order granted further reprieve for student loan repayment until the end of September 2021. Another executive order directed the acting secretary of education and the acting secretary of health and human services to provide further guidance to institutions of higher learning on safely reopening for in-person learning.
Student loan relief and Title IX enforcement are also likely to be at issue: Before the November election, President Biden committed to exploring options to make college more affordable, or even free, while also forgiving a portion of existing student debt. He is also planning to roll back the Trump administration’s Title IX policies.
At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, elected officials in Congress are exploring measures to optimize the federal government’s role in working with postsecondary education institutions. Last month, Representative Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), in a floor speech and a related op-ed published in the Washington Examiner, called attention to administrative spending in higher education and its impact on the student debt crisis. Also in December, Congress unanimously passed legislation introduced by Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Representative Alma Adams (D-N.C.), the HBCU PARTNERS Act, which will strengthen partnerships between federal agencies and the country’s more than 100 historically black colleges and universities.
It is too early to tell whether Congress will seek to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, last updated in 2008, to address serious problems in the accreditation system that hinder institutional governance. A growing bipartisan consensus is emerging that substantive accreditation reform is necessary to lower costs and create greater accountability to taxpayers for student outcomes. Click here to view ACTA’s resources for trustees on accreditation as well as our policy guidance.
A watchdog group is demanding an accreditation institution probe Harvard University over its handling of plagiarism allegations against its former president Claudine Gay
In the point/counter point that follows, Anne Neal and Judith Eaton present different views on what accreditation is and should be. They are in agreement that accreditation’s central function is to serve as a “self-regulatory, collegial, formative review of institutions and programs,” as well as that this role could have greater value if it were […]
Every six months or so, about 18 higher education experts plant themselves in a hotel conference room for three days to dig deep into the federal recognition of accrediting agencies. That recognition is more than an honorary status: It gives the agencies the authority to serve as the gatekeepers for more than $100 billion of […]
The college accreditation system is supposed to uphold academic quality and integrity. Many Americans assume that if a college or university is accredited, that is equivalent to the Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) seal on appliances – that it has been tested and found to be of good quality. Accreditation is a reliable stamp of approval, isn’t […]
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