- The U.S. Department of Education is pushing for a new set of accreditation rules that target “preferential treatment” in higher education, including race-based scholarships or programs. The proposed rules also seek to root out preferential hiring or promotion practices, a summary of the proposed rule changes shows.
- The proposed rules would require accrediting agencies to ensure that institutions “comport with the First Amendment” and support “intellectual diversity” among faculty – issues that are largely being raised on behalf of conservative or religious students and faculty who feel their views are being squelched on campus, as became clear during a recent Congressional hearing on campus free speech.
- A committee of stakeholders is slated to meet to discuss and provide input on the proposed rules from May 18 to 22.
The bigger picture:
The Trump administration has not been shy about how it is seeking to use accreditation reform to upend higher education. Stakeholders have expressed a litany of reservations about how the administration is going about it.
For instance, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities issued a statement saying that it believes many of the proposed rules on student outcome data “go far beyond what is required by statute or what is appropriate for the federal government to mandate” and “fall outside of the traditional scope of accreditors’ responsibilities.”
Using accreditation to go after race-based scholarships and programs is an expansion of the Trump administration’s ongoing war on DEI in higher education. As The EDU Ledger reported, institutional leaders are already leery about what kinds of diversity initiatives they can implement and which ones might trigger the Trump administration’s Department of Justice or Department of Education to launch an investigation. If the Trump administration’s proposed accreditation rules are approved, it means institutions will also have to worry about losing their accreditation as well.
Under the new proposed rules, accrediting agencies would further be required to use program-level data to “demonstrate achievement,” such as the graduation rates and pass rates on state licensing exams. They would also be required to show what kind of “return on investment” students are getting for their tuition if they enroll in certain programs.
