Article (WCET Frontiers)
07.27.2022
Federal Regulations
Other Higher Education Issues

Reasonable Cause and Voluntary Membership: The Key Objectives When Institutions Wish to Change a Primary Accreditor

Due to an important federal regulatory change that became effective July 1, 2020, which expanded formerly “regional accreditors” beyond specific geographic areas for institutional accreditors and a new state law in Florida requiring public institutions to change their accreditor on a periodic basis, the U.S. Department of Education determined the need to issue guidance addressing institutions’ changes of accreditors. This very functional guidance is important for institutions to understand the steps that institutions must take when making a change in their primary accreditor or obtaining accreditation by multiple agencies. Additionally, accreditors will benefit from clarifications regarding the Department’s review process to approve accreditor changes.

The guidance released on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, included direction to institutions as to appropriate purpose and specific process steps to make changes plus direction to institutional accrediting agencies to ensure that the changes are for “reasonable cause” and are “voluntary.” Simultaneously, the Department released a post, Postsecondary Accreditation Cannot Become a Race to the Bottom, in its blog HOMEROOM, The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education, to further clarify its reasoning for issuing new guidance. Institutions should carefully consider the Departments’ documents as they operationalize the process described by the guidance. [...]

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