Future Directions for U.S. Higher Education Accreditation

Abstract

Institutions value and support accreditation as a nongovernmental peer review process for establishing minimum standards for new and marginal institutions, and for improving quality at well-established ones. It is seen as a bulwark against the creation of a federal ministry of education and any form of federal or national regulation of higher education. The United States Department of Education (USDE) along with some state higher education officers and policymakers have, however, been challenging accreditation agencies to hold institutions more accountable in areas they have defined as important for the public interest. This is especially true in relation to assessing student learning outcomes and providing greater information to the public about institutional quality. In balancing these competing interests, accreditation has made significant changes, and in the future will need to maintain both the consent of institutions and meet demands for clearer external benchmarks of institutional performance. Accrediting agencies have begun to reframe what quality means and how it will be evaluated in the accrediting process. This will most likely be the most enduring and powerful result of the changes that are taking place.

Accreditation operates as a central component of the quality assurance system for higher education in the United States. Formed as voluntary nongovernmental associations in the 1890s, accreditation agencies have gone through many stages of development over the years. The most dramatic changes have occurred in the past 20 years, as these agencies have adapted to significant changes in higher education, governmental regulation, and public expectations for higher education. Today, accreditation is both stronger and more necessary than ever; yet it is under increasing pressure to adapt to demands for public accountability and to establish greater independence from the institutions it accredits.