A Compilation of News, Articles and Reports Covering Accreditation and Quality Assurance

What Staggering Loan Defaults At For-Profit Schools Say About Accreditors (Washington Post, September 8, 2015)
“Accreditation agencies have been the gatekeepers standing between colleges and millions of dollars in federal financial aid for more than half a century. But that role is in question after the stunning collapse of Corinthian College.”

Private College’s Progression Rates Criticised by QAA (Times Higher Ed, September 7, 2015)
“Nearly four-fifths of a cohort of students enrolled at a private college were not on course to complete their qualifications within the specified time period, a Quality Assurance Agency review says.”

Universities Could Lose Accreditation (The Slovak Spectator, September 4, 2015)
“The number of universities in Slovakia could be reduced if five schools fail to rectify their shortfalls found by the state Accreditation Commission.”

No Love, But No Alternative (Inside Higher Ed, September 1, 2015)
“As politicians and policy makers seek solutions to what they see as the underperformance of American higher education, they are likely to try to supplement and challenge the existing accreditation system – layering in other ways of trying to measure quality and value in higher education – rather than replace it.”

Plan to Require Unaccredited Law Schools in California To Disclose Dropout Rates OKd (Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2015)
“A panel of the State Bar of California approved a plan on [August 28] to require unaccredited law schools to disclose their dropout rates, in an effort to improve transparency for prospective students.”

College Accreditation Group Should Be Replaced, Task Force Says (San Francisco Chronicle, August 28, 2015)
“The only group authorized to accredit California’s 113 community colleges is far too punitive and should be replaced, a task force convened by the state’s Community College Chancellor's Office concluded.”

Inputs, Outcomes, Quality Assurance: A Closer Look at State Oversight of Higher Education (American Enterprise Institute, August, 2015)
“At the federal level, discussions of how to create space for innovative approaches tend to agree on the problem (accreditation and federal regulation), but they often run aground when it comes to questions about what should replace these pieces of the current system.”

Accreditation and the Presidential Campaigns

Marco Rubio Is the Only Republican Talking About College Costs. Here’s What His Plan Would Mean (Vox, August 28, 2015)
“Rubio’s biggest higher education proposal is that, if elected, he’d overhaul accreditation in his first 100 days in office.”

Carly Fiorina on Major Government Education Program: ‘This Is How Socialism Starts’ (Independent Journalism Review, August 20, 2015)
“They have increased the cost of a four-year college education by forcing a whole set of very complicated accreditation procedures on a whole set of colleges.”

CHEA in the News

What the Public Wants from Accreditation (The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 7, 2015)
“In an interview with The Chronicle, Judith S. Eaton responds to the growing pressure to improve the system everyone loves to hate.”