Federal officials have opened a new regulatory process aimed at lowering barriers for new accreditors, loosening restrictions on colleges seeking to change accrediting agencies, and refocusing oversight on student outcomes.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The U.S. Department of Education has initiated a sweeping effort to rewrite federal rules governing how colleges and universities are accredited, marking a significant step in the Trump administration’s broader overhaul of higher education oversight.
In a notice published Jan. 27, the department announced it is soliciting nominations for an advisory committee that will participate in negotiated rulemaking, a formal process used to draft new regulatory language. The department said the committee will convene this spring to develop proposed changes to accreditation regulations.
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According to the notice, the committee will include representatives of students, colleges, and existing accrediting agencies, as well as prospective new accreditors seeking federal recognition. The department said the panel will address 10 topics, with primary focus on how to make it easier for new accrediting agencies to enter the market and for institutions to switch accreditors.
Other topics slated for discussion include increasing reliance on data-driven measures of student performance, revising how accreditors are evaluated for federal recognition, and continuing efforts to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements from accreditation standards. The department said its goal is to place greater emphasis on “student achievement and outcomes, high educational quality, and high-value programs.”
Accrediting agencies play a central role in the federal student aid system, acting as gatekeepers for more than $100 billion in taxpayer-funded programs each year. Institutions must be accredited to participate in federal student loans and Pell Grants, which are critical sources of aid for lower-income students.
The department argued that the current accreditation framework is failing to adequately protect taxpayers. “Rather than focusing on whether member institutions offer high-quality programs that benefit students and the workforce, the current accreditation regime has become a protectionist system that shields existing players, fuels rising costs, drives credential inflation, adds administrative bloat, allows undue influence from related trade associations, and promotes ideologically driven initiatives,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a Jan. 26 statement announcing the department’s intent to form the committee. “We welcome nominations from key stakeholders willing to challenge the status quo,” he added.
Nominations for committee membership are due Feb. 27. The department said two negotiated rulemaking sessions are scheduled for April and May, with additional details to be released closer to those dates.
The rulemaking effort builds on an April 2025 executive order in which President Donald Trump directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reduce barriers preventing colleges from changing accreditors. The order also instructed the department to take action against accrediting agencies that fail to meet federal recognition criteria or violate federal law, and to require accreditors to rely on program-level student outcome data without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex.
In May 2025, the department revoked guidance issued in 2022 under the Biden administration that had increased scrutiny of accreditor changes. That guidance followed a Florida law requiring public institutions in the state to rotate accreditors. At the same time, federal officials lifted a moratorium on reviewing applications from new accrediting agencies.
Those policy changes helped set the stage for a June 2025 announcement by six Southern public university systems that they would form a new accrediting body, the Commission for Public Higher Education. Participating systems include Texas A&M University, the State University System of Florida, the University System of Georgia, the University of Tennessee System, the University of North Carolina System, and the University of South Carolina System.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a longtime critic of existing accreditors’ use of DEI standards, described the new accrediting body as an alternative that would “break the ideological stronghold.”
Texas and Florida have since eliminated requirements that attorneys graduate from law schools accredited by the American Bar Association, making them the first two states to do so, as broader challenges to traditional accreditation structures continue to expand.