Nixing the first choice college

higheredrocks
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 21:42:11 +0000

I’ve done some work in my school’s accreditation process (minor player, not an expert). It’s not super-unusual for them to use a probation to impose conditions and to give themselves the right to demand regular updates. About 10 years ago, accreditors started demanding “learning outcome” metrics, which no one had in the form that they wanted (should have seen the face of the law school dean who was told that bar results were not relevant). Schools unlucky enough to be up for review when the trend started ended up on probation until they were able to produce the new information. I think Rice and Duke got caught in this. It wasn’t publicized broadly since all of the higher ed press knew it was irrelevant and it had absolutely no impact on anyone. They’ll serve their time, provide massive amounts of documentation, and everyone will move on. Sounds scary, but it’s not like the for-profits who lose accreditation for financial reasons or because they’re a scam.