CHEA Monograph Series

• Presidential Perspectives on Accreditation: A Report of the CHEA Presidents Project (pdf) April 2006
  Thirty distinguished college and university presidents and chancellors shared their perceptions of institutional and programmatic accreditation in a series of interviews conducted by CHEA during Spring 2005. The presidents commented on their knowledge of and involvement in accreditation, accreditation's value to institutions and accreditation's value to society.
• Is Accreditation Accountable? The Continuing Conversation Between Accreditation and the Federal Government (pdf) October 2003
  This monograph addresses key issues in the current discussion between accreditation and the federal government as this relates to accountability and higher education. At stake is a centuries-old tradition of institutional autonomy and self-regulation. The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) now being discussed in Congress is driving this issue to the top of the academic agenda.
• Specialized Accreditation and Assuring Quality in Distance Learning (pdf) (CHEA Monograph Series 2002, Number 2)
  This report describes the work to date of programmatic accreditors in the area of distance learning. It explores the extent to which these accrediting organizations review distance learning as well as the standards, policies, and procedures they use.
• Accreditation and Assuring Quality in Distance Learning (pdf) (CHEA Monograph Series 2002, Number 1)
  This report describes the scope and impact of distance learning on higher education today. It identifies the primary challenges that distance learning poses for institutional accreditation and describes the thoughtful and comprehensive response to date of the accrediting community to assure quality in distance learning.
• Distance Learning: Academic and Political Challenges for Higher Education Accreditation (pdf) (CHEA Monograph Series 2001) The focus of this monograph is how distance learning challenges some fundamentals of the academic work and the politics of American higher education—thereby challenging some related features of quality assurance and self-regulation that are at the heart of national, regional, and specialized accreditation.
• Core Academic Values, Quality, and Regional Accreditation: The Challenge of Distance Learning (CHEA Monograph Series 2000)
  A small set of core academic values is central to the history and tradition of higher education. Distance learning, however unintentionally, challenges these values, forcing reconsideration of their origins and the choices they represent. This paper focuses on regional accreditation as one of the oldest and most frequently used forms of institutional quality assurance in the United States.