Earlier this year, the Department of Education engaged in negotiated rulemaking around several issues including state authorization and reciprocity, accreditation, distance education and innovation, regular and substantive interaction, competency-based education (CBE), TEACH grants, and faith-based institutions. Despite all odds and expectations, negotiators reached consensus on a comprehensive set of proposed regulations. In July of 2019, the Department released the first of three sets of proposed rules for public comment—those rules concerning state authorization, reciprocity, public disclosures, and accreditation. On October 31st, the Department responded to almost 200 public comments and released final regulations.
Cheryl Dowd and Dan Silverman provided excellent analysis of the final state authorization, reciprocity, and public disclosure regulations. And if you are interested in taking a spin down memory lane and revisiting the larger saga of the 2019 negotiated rulemaking you can do so here, here, and here. Today, though, we are going to examine the final accreditation regulations with an eye towards what has changed and how they might impact your institution—specifically the regional scope of accreditation, the approval of new accreditors, changes to reviewer qualifications, faculty credentialing, and substantive change requirements.
A brief explanation of why the Department of Education is interested in accreditation
Accreditation is considered foundational to quality assurance in the American higher education system; in fact, accreditation by a federally recognized agency allows institutions to access federal financial aid.