USDE Does Away With "Regional" (and "National") Accreditation Divisions

[Old Guy]

The Education Department, as they stated in the letter, has never ranked accreditors. There has only ever been one class of accreditation. Any collusion among certain accreditors to the detriment of others has simply been restraint of trade. Competition is rarely bad. It's about time. There will not be a sudden influx of substandard schools into the market. Schools will not want to lose their accreditation and accreditors will not want to lose their authority.

[dfrecore]

So nowhere on here does anything seem to change with regards to whether RA schools can continue to say that they'll only accept credits from other RA schools. It just says that the US Govt won't be looking at which accreditation a school has. So I'm guessing that will not change.

It also seems to mainly focus on two things: 1) that online schools have erased geographic boundaries for regional accreditation, thus negating the need for that; and 2) that schools now have to publish whether a program meets the guidelines for a student to get a particular credential in their state. So this is positive - there will be more clarity for students who want a credential. But otherwise, I don't see much changing.