Ryan Quinn
September 3, 2026
In its departure announcement, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education said it’s “driving broader partnerships.”
Another institutional accreditor has left the Council of Recognized Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC)—the second departure in the last two months from the group of what were once called regional accreditors.
In 2019, the first Trump administration nixed geographic boundaries inside which college and university accreditors could operate. Institutions nationwide can increasingly choose which of these private organizations to seek accreditation from. Accreditation provides not just an imprimatur of quality—it can qualify institutions to receive federal student aid funding, including student loans, if the accreditor is federally recognized.