Journalism Schools Drop Accreditation and Other Accreditation-Related Issues

J-Schools Dump Accreditor (Inside Higher Ed, May 3, 2017) ““This is part of a re-evaluation that’s happening in the education space and in accreditation,” said Judith Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.”

“Kill All the Accreditors” (Forbes, May 2, 2017) “If accreditation is to exist at all, it needs to be information and outcomes based, simplified (do we need multiple regional and umpteen specialized accreditors, for example), transparent (all findings need to be made public), rid of current conflicts of interest, and not binary in nature (currently, it generally is the rule that you are ‘accredited’ or ‘non-accredited,’ with nothing in between).”

DeVos Defends Termination of For-Profit College Accreditor (Politico “Morning Education,” May 1, 2017) “The Trump administration is defending, at least for now, the Obama Education Department’s decision last year to yank federal recognition from the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit colleges.”

Purdue’s Purchase of Kaplan Is a Big Bet — and a Sign of the Times (Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2017) “To take effect, the deal requires the approval of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Higher Learning Commission, the accrediting body for both Purdue and Kaplan.”

Higher Education Shake-Up Gets Go Ahead from MPs (University World News, April 28, 2017) “[The UK higher education reform bill] will establish a system for rating teaching quality at universities, the Teaching Excellence Framework or TEF, which will help aspiring students choose which universities to apply to, and will allow high-performing institutions to increase tuition fees by the rate of inflation.”

The Dark Side of Higher Ed’s ePortfolios  — What Really Happened (eCampus News, April 27, 2017) “The ePortfolio became a tool of higher education’s accountability movement as accreditation agencies began to focus on quality institutional improvement.”

Stakeholders Divided Over Accreditation Reform (Diverse Issues in Higher Education, April 27, 2017) “As Congress seeks to reform the accreditation system for institutions of higher education, it should avoid a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that fails to take into account the varied missions of different colleges and universities that serve diverse student populations.”