[FRIAM] ‘A huge cudgel’: alarm as Trump’s war on universities could target accreditors | US universities | The Guardian

[Prof David West]

As a retired university professor who participated in six different accreditation reviews (and led two), I have some pretty strong, and vehemently negative, opinions of accrediting agencies. This was before they mandated standards, policies, and procedures for DEI—Trump's target. Like HOAs, Accreditors have absolute power to set arbitrary (or worse, faddish) standards that have nothing to do with quality of educators or education. Compliance requires the addition of administrative staff, exacerbating the imbalance between admin and faculty. A compliance visit is hugely expensive, from $100,000 to $500,000 per visit—every four years, and that is just what you have to pay the accreditors. It does not include the time for faculty and staff to gather data and prepare reports; effort that had no value other than to "check a box."

I do not agree with the motives for attacking accreditors, and will admit that there might be a tiny baby in an ocean of bathwater, but I will not mourn their demise.

davew


On Sat, Apr 12, 2025, at 10:44 AM, Tom Johnson wrote:
> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/11/trump-war-on-universities
> 
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> Tom Johnson
> Inst. for Analytic Journalism
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