HOLDING ACCREDITORS ACCOUNTABLE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to overhaul the higher education accreditation system, ensuring colleges and universities deliver high-quality, high-value education free from unlawful discrimination and ideological overreach.
- The Order directs the Secretary of Education to hold higher education “accreditors” accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, for accreditors’ poor performance or violations of federal civil rights law.
- It directs the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to investigate and take action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American higher education institutions, including law schools and medical schools.
- The Order mandates the Secretary of Education realign accreditation with student-focused principles by:
- Resuming recognition of new accreditors to foster competition.
- Requiring institutions use program-level student outcome data to improve results, without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex.
- Requiring high-quality, high-value academic programs.
- Prioritizing intellectual diversity among faculty in order to advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and student learning.
- Launching an experimental site to test innovative quality assurance pathways.
- Increasing the consistency, efficiency, and effectiveness of the accreditor recognition review process.
- Streamlining accreditor recognition and institutional transitions between accreditors.
ENSURING AMERICAN STUDENTS RECEIVE A HIGH-QUALITY EDUCATION: President Trump is tackling the broken accreditation system that has left students with soaring debt, low graduation rates, and degrees of questionable value.
- Accreditors—the gatekeepers that decide which colleges and universities can access over $100 billion in annual Federal student loans and Pell Grants—have routinely approved low-quality institutions, ultimately failing students, families, and American taxpayers.
- Accreditors have failed to ensure quality, with a national six-year undergraduate graduation rate of just 64% in 2020.
- Nearly 25% of bachelor’s degrees and over 40% of master’s degrees offer a negative return on investment, burdening students with debt and limited earning potential.
- Accreditors have also abused their authority by imposing discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-based standards, violating Federal law.
- The American Bar Association’s (ABA) accreditation standards for law schools require unlawful race-based preferences, which the Attorney General recently reminded the ABA are illegal.
- The Liaison Committee on Medical Education and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education imposes similar discriminatory requirements, prioritizing ideology over quality medical training.
- These practices have diverted focus from student success to ideological conformity, undermining academic integrity and student achievement.
RESTORING TRUST IN HIGHER EDUCATION: President Trump is protecting American students, families, and taxpayers from exploitative and unlawful practices in higher education.
- In his first term, President Trump took historic steps to promote school choice, expand apprenticeship programs, and increase transparency in college costs.
- This Executive Order builds on that legacy by reforming the accreditation system to prioritize student outcomes, eliminate unlawful discrimination, promote academic freedom and intellectual inquiry, and restore accountability.
- These reforms will rebuild public trust in higher education, empowering students and families to make informed choices.