Today, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) reached consensus on a proposed regulatory framework to advance the Trump Administration’s vision for reforming and strengthening the nation’s higher education accreditation system. The Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization (AIM) negotiated rulemaking session, which concluded today, marks another important step toward bringing long-overdue reforms to America’s antiquated quality assurance system.
Negotiators reached consensus on several key changes, including reducing barriers for emerging accreditors that will bring increased competition, simplifying the recognition process to change between existing accreditors, ensuring that students can transfer credits that they have previously earned at other colleges, ending collusion between program accreditors and related trade associations that leads to credential inflation and unnecessary costs, eliminating standards that lead to unlawful discrimination, protecting the integrity of academic research, and prioritizing intellectual diversity amongst faculty in order to advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and student learning.
This rulemaking marks the fourth consecutive time the Department has reached consensus on major regulatory changes to implement President Trump’s vision to reimagine America’s higher education system, under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Under Secretary Nicholas Kent.
“President Trump tasked us with implementing some of the most critical higher education reforms in history – and we are proud to once again deliver resounding and lasting results for American students and taxpayers,” said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent. “The work of the AIM Committee continues to build on the broader transformation of our higher education system: lowering costs, simplifying repayment, connecting education to workforce needs, strengthening accountability, and restoring confidence in our accreditation system. We appreciate the negotiators for their hard work in helping make the President’s vision a reality.”
The consensus language, as agreed to by the negotiating committee, makes significant changes to the accreditation framework. Key changes include:
- Streamlining transfer of credit policies: Transfer students are too often required to repeat courses at a new institution for which they have already earned credit, resulting in increased debt and longer time to credential. Under the agreed-upon language, accreditors would be required to ensure institutions maintain policies that presume that undergraduate credit will be awarded for courses successfully completed at another accredited institution, where the content and learning outcomes are comparable. This change will lower costs and shorten time to completion for students.
- Strengthening conflict of interest controls: Relationships between accreditors and their affiliated trade associations have long been susceptible to conflicts of interest, sometimes contributing to credential inflation and monopolies over professional licensure standards that restrict entry into professions. Under the agreed-upon language, accreditors will be prohibited from sharing resources including personnel, services, equipment, facilities, or information technology with any related, associated, or affiliated trade or professional organization. Additionally, accreditors will be required to prominently disclose all relationships with related trade associations or professional organizations on their websites. These changes will help ensure that trade associations do not exert undue influence over affiliated accreditors.
- Opening the market to new competition: New accreditors have faced significant barriers to federal recognition, including a requirement that they conduct accreditation activities for at least two years prior to receiving approval from the Department. Under the agreed-upon language, this two-year requirement is eliminated and replaced with a more reasonable standard that will allow new accreditors to apply for recognition sooner, while still ensuring that recognition is not granted until the agency has accredited at least one or more institutions or programs. These changes will encourage the formation of new accreditors, increasing competition and choice.
- Reducing accreditation cost burdens: Over time, the cost of obtaining and maintaining accreditation has become increasingly burdensome for many institutions, including those with fewer resources. Under the agreed-upon language, accreditors are on notice that the Department intends to ensure accreditation activities are conducted in a manner that avoids unnecessary financial, compliance, and administrative burdens. This change will result in cost savings that can be passed on to students and families.
- Emphasizing merit and student outcomes: Accreditors have often held institutions to unnecessary or perfunctory standards, such as the number of books in a library collection or the date on a syllabus, rather than focusing on meaningful student outcomes. Under the agreed-upon language, accreditors would be required to emphasize student success by evaluating performance on standardized assessments, licensure or certification results, retention, completion and graduation rates, post-completion outcomes, and educational and economic returns. These changes will refocus accreditors on outcomes rather than inputs that increase the cost of higher education without improving student learning or post-graduation results.
- Protecting academic freedom and promoting intellectual diversity: Too many institutions have become echo chambers focused on discriminatory ideology and unlawful discriminatory practices. Under the agreed-upon language, accreditors will be required to evaluate whether an institution maintains academic freedom protections that apply consistently to faculty regardless of race or other immutable characteristics; has policies to prevent fabrication, material misrepresentation, plagiarism, and other forms of research misconduct; has policies to protect civil rights and, as applicable, First Amendment rights; and maintains policies that support, promote, and appropriately prioritize intellectual diversity and the free exchange of ideas among faculty. Collectively, these changes will advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and student learning.
Background:
Section 492 of the Higher Education Act (HEA) requires that the Secretary of Education solicit public comment in the development of proposed regulations before publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking implementing programs authorized under Title IV of the HEA. After obtaining advice and recommendations from the public and stakeholders, the Secretary conducts negotiated rulemaking to develop the proposed regulations.
On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education .
The Department solicited stakeholder feedback at two public hearings on April 29 and May 1, 2025. During the hearing process, the Department received multiple comments to reform the accreditation process.
On January 26, 2026, the Department announced its intention to establish the AIM Committee to prepare proposed regulations.