Reforming Accreditation To Strengthen Higher Education

Accreditation controls colleges’ access to Federal student aid. The order shifts oversight toward student outcomes, cost, intellectual diversity, institutional flexibility, and compliance with civil rights laws.

What the order does ​

• Directs the Department of Education to deny, monitor, suspend, or terminate recognition of accreditors that violate Federal law or require unlawful discrimination.
• Orders investigations into accreditation standards affecting law schools, medical schools, residencies, and fellowships, including possible loss of Federal recognition for their accreditors.
• Requires accreditation policy to emphasize high-quality, high-value programs, degree completion, intellectual diversity, academic freedom, and avoidance of unnecessary credential requirements.
• Directs accreditors to use program-level student outcome data without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex.
• Resumes Federal recognition of new accreditors and streamlines institutions’ ability to switch accreditors.
• Creates an experimental pathway for flexible quality assurance and modernizes accreditor review, including through technology and an updated Accreditation Handbook.
• Requires the Office for Civil Rights to share relevant institutional noncompliance findings with accreditors.

Who it affects ​

• Colleges, universities, law schools, medical schools, and graduate medical education programs receiving Federal support.
• Higher education accreditors, especially those overseeing law and medical education.
• Students, faculty, and taxpayers affected by accreditation standards and Federal student aid eligibility.