On Wednesday evening, Dr. Nasser H. Paydar, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and former assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the U.S. Department of Education, shared his thoughts on the current state of higher education in the U.S. and the role accreditation plays.
Dr. Nasser Paydar
Addressing an audience at Baruch College in New York City and more than 40 people joining online, Paydar opened the discussion saying that by the year 2031, 71% of jobs in the U.S. will require some college.
“We will need about 171 million people in the country working, and most of them must have higher education and skills,” he said.
“When I say higher education, I don’t mean baccalaureate degrees or doctorate degrees,” he added. “Some kind of skills, an associate degree or a year program. That is the need.”
Despite an increase in degree attainment, large gaps persist for Black, Hispanic and low-income individuals. While 48% of white individuals had an associate degree or higher as of 2021, the percentage for Black individuals was 34% and 27% for Hispanics.
The issues do not exist due to lack of availability of higher education. There are more than 6,000 colleges and universities in the U.S., and 90% of students attend schools that are not major research institutions.
“Our strength is diversity,” Paydar said. “Diversity is always the strength of a community.” But an examination of degree attainment related to income level shows those in the lowest quartile, which includes many people of color, have the lowest degree attainment.
Between 2010–2020, there was a 12.3% drop in the number of undergraduate students enrolled in higher ed. During this time, there was a drop in access to Pell Grants (from 9.3 million students in 2010 to 6 million accessing in 2022). Hispanics are the only population that increased its access of Pell Grants.
This year also saw a 16% drop in international students, which Paydar noted is a man-made problem. State support in higher education has gone down. When that happens, tuition rises.
Obviously, the pandemic exacerbated enrollment issues, he said, but there is a lack of interest in higher education. Seven in 10 Americans now say higher education is going in the wrong direction. Paydar noted the high cost of attending private institutions. He said there are people who graduate and either cannot find jobs or cannot find jobs that pay well enough to justify the cost of their education.
He pointed out that the political climate plays a role in the decline as well. “There are politicians who say, ‘College is not worth it,’” Paydar said. “That adds fuel to the fire.”
During his remarks, Paydar noted that student success requires continuous improvement by colleges and universities. All stakeholders must be invested in improving the quality of higher education. Successful institutions honestly self-assess, make data-informed decisions and commit to evolving with student needs. There is internal quality assurance and external, which is accreditation, conducted by accrediting agencies or quality bodies to validate performance against shared standards.
“Accreditation is really a mechanism that codifies all of the things I’ve mentioned,” Paydar said.
Accreditation was initiated by universities in 1900, and it was largely peer review from other institutions. The U.S. government became involved around 1952 with the GI Bill, which allotted educational money to active military and veterans. If an institution could not show the value of the education provided, it would not be eligible for federal funds.
Today, there are two types of accreditors — institutional accreditors and program accreditors. The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit accreditors, but it must recognize an accrediting body. If an institution is not accredited, it cannot access federal student aid programs. There are about 20 institutional accreditors. An accreditor will look at academic quality, student protection, compliance, and institutional capacity.
Paydar reminded the audience that only Congress can eliminate the Department of Education, which was established in 1979, but he said the current administration is trying to hollow it. Parts of the department, such as the division overseeing K–12 schools, have been reassigned to other areas of government. Graduate loan programs are undergoing significant revisions as of this July.
Paydar has worn many hats in higher education. From the U.S. Department of education to serving as a faculty member at Indiana University for more than 36 years, he is also a prior chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (now Indiana University Indianapolis) and executive vice president of Indiana University. Now he leverages his wealth of experience to advocate for academic quality and the independence of accreditation in the U.S. as CHEA president.
He said there are two accreditation bills before Congress that are worth watching: one bill bars DEI and social justice standards in accreditation. The other, the Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act, would allow states to become accreditors, limit accreditor governance and include strong religious protections.
“Besides the Department of Education, there is one other organization that looks at accreditors and that is [CHEA],” Paydar said. “We review them for the quality of the program and we complement what the Department of Education does. CHEA is both an institutional member organization … and we advocate for the following: institutional autonomy, governance of universities belong to universities, not the federal government. … These are things we advocate and educate Congress [about].”
