Recent Trends in US Accreditation

Accreditation plays a central role in higher education in the US, with more than 8,200 institutions and 20,000 programs accredited by one or more of the 85 recognised accrediting organisations operating throughout the country (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 2013). This paper examines three dimensions of US accreditation: what it has been, recent trends affecting its operation, and its likely future. It concludes by contrasting this likely future with a more desirable scenario, urging that the higher education and accreditation communities work to realise a future of the desirable rather than the likely. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.