Roger Swartzwelder and Aaron B. Marks
November 7, 2026
On October 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”) published the Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization (“AIM”) final rule at 91 FR 68626. The rule implements Executive Order 14279, Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education, and is effective July 1, 2027. In its fact sheet accompanying the AIM rule, the Department stated that it adopted the consensus language from negotiated rulemaking sessions earlier this year.
A Market with a Yardstick
The AIM rule is best read as pursuing two goals simultaneously. The first is to frame accreditation as a market and reduce barriers to competition within it. The Department describes a system that has “historically seen very little competition,” in which institutional accreditors “rarely engage in head-to-head competition” and where institutions face “high switching costs and potential risks in maintaining eligibility for Federal student aid.” Its stated aim is to “increase competition among accrediting agencies by reducing barriers to entry, facilitating institutional mobility among recognized agencies,” and cutting rules that discourage new accreditors from forming.