Jessica Blake
September 16, 2026
While nearly half of respondents on a recent survey anticipate the proposed policy will have “meaningful impacts” overall, many are skeptical about the effect of specific provisions.
More than 70 percent of college presidents who responded to a recent American Council on Education (ACE) survey anticipate that the Trump administration’s proposed changes to accreditation will not make their institution any more likely to change accreditors. Nor will the changes promote academic innovation or help colleges spend less on the accreditation process, roughly the same proportion of presidents say.
But that doesn’t mean the looming accreditation overhaul—which would make it easier for new agencies to gain federal recognition, require all accreditors to enforce First Amendment law and include more prescriptive requirements as far as what they must evaluate—will have no effect at all.