The U.S. Department of Education plans to announce on Friday a narrow set of new requirements for the nation’s higher-education accreditors, the private, nonprofit organizations that serve as the gatekeepers to billions of dollars in federal student aid.
The changes, being made through executive action, will also set down some of the Obama administration’s priorities for accreditation as Congress considersreauthorizing the Higher Education Act.Those include a streamlined accreditation process for some colleges and a more uniform set of definitions and data that accreditors report to the federal agency.
The Education Department also wants to make public the documents related to final accreditation decisions regarding individual colleges, and to require that some high-risk colleges have reserve funds to cover the costs for students to finish their academic programs if the institutions were to close suddenly.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/US-to-Put-New-Requirements/234082