It’s Time to Break Up the Programmatic Accrediting Agency Monopolies
Diane Auer Jones
November 19, 2025
The current model has fueled credential inflation in the health sciences.
During the first Trump administration, we promulgated new regulations for accrediting agency recognition that restored a college’s freedom to select an institutional accrediting agency that best aligns with its mission, purpose and priorities. We did this by making clear that no accrediting agency owns the accreditation function in a state or region, that colleges can join more than one institutional accrediting agency since some focus on location and others focus on mission, and that the Higher Education Act recognizes only one type of institutional accrediting agency—the nationally recognized accrediting agency.
The artificial distinction that the former regional accrediting agencies made between themselves and mission-based institutional accrediting agencies—a distinction that was perpetuated by the Department of Education—created a two-tiered system that does not exist in statute or regulations and that harmed millions of students. Choice is the foundation upon which the Higher Education Act was built, and it remains an essential component of a voluntary accreditation system. We were proud to restore it.
