College Accreditation Is Changing. Here’s What Students Need to Know
HEADLINES
College Accreditation Is Changing. Here’s What Students Need to Know (Best Colleges, April 12, 2024) President Joe Biden's administration is making regulatory changes for accreditation, including minimum student achievement standards. While politicians and student advocates seem to agree that accreditation needs fixing, finding consensus on which parts of the system require the most work remains elusive.
Virginia Union University Hosts Historic Gathering of Seven Sister HBCU Presidents for Book Project Launch Event (VUU.edu, April 11, 2024) Virginia Union University proudly welcomed a groundbreaking event with seven esteemed Sister HBCU Presidents who convened to share their extraordinary leadership journeys. This momentous occasion marked the launch of a collaborative book project titled "The HBCU Sisterhood: Testimonies of Triumph and Transformation," with each dynamic Sister-President committing to contribute a chapter to this upcoming publication. Among the participants is Council for Higher Education Accreditation President Cynthia Jackson Hammond, who previously served as president of Central State University (2012-2020).
Traction for the Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree (Inside Higher Ed, April 12, 2024) Regional Accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, approved three-year bachelor’s degree programs developed by Brigham Young University–Idaho and its affiliate Ensign College. But the accreditor’s officials say they won’t approve any other programs until they see outcomes, which they have yet to specify, from the two experiments in Idaho.
Why Higher Ed Is Scared of a Second Trump Term (Time, April 12, 2024) College leaders, their lobbyists, and their donors have been nursing for months a low-simmering anxiety about what a second Donald Trump term would mean for their institutions. Academia had already been worried about Trump’s vows to replace the accreditation system to favor a more “pro-American” footing and to install a punitive regime of taxes and fines against schools he sees as “too woke.” An open war with Trumpism is one academia cannot win, but the potential of his looming return to the Oval Office is also not to be ignored.
US Law School Deans Oppose Proposed Accreditation of Online Law Schools (Reuters, April 4, 2024) In November, the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar began the process of modifying its accreditation standards to allow for fully online law schools.