Higher Learning Commission

Last week HLC sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary James Kvaal with suggestions for the Department’s Accreditation Regulatory Non-Consensus language from March 7 of the recently concluded Program Integrity and Institutional Quality negotiated rulemaking session.  

In our letter, we express our concerns about the potential burdens and costs as well as suggestions for improvement to the proposed regulations in the following areas: 

1. Composition of decision-making bodies 

2. Student achievement standards 

3. Substantive change related to contractual arrangements and additional locations 

4. Complaints about institutions 

5. Teach-out 

6. Special rules regarding institutional accreditation or preaccreditation and an institution’s ability to change accrediting agencies. 

These regulations are not final and may change before they are published in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). Once the NPRM is published, the Department will solicit formal public comments about the regulations and respond to any comments before publishing the final regulations. The regulations in the NPRM could change before the publication of the final rule. There is no date set for when the NPRM will be published. 

I encourage you to review our letter and the Accreditation regulation language and engage with the Department on any areas of concern and suggestions for improvement. Once the NPRM is published, HLC will inform the membership regarding the opportunity to comment.