University Systems Announce Alternative Accreditation Model Prioritizing ‘Academic Excellence’

Back in March, Do No Harm released a report highlighting how accreditors’ power over institutions of higher education, particularly in medical education, enables them to inject political agendas into universities’ policies.

Now, there’s a sign that accreditors’ stranglehold on public education may be breaking.

Six public university systems announced plans Thursday to launch a new accrediting agency for public higher education institutions.

The University of Florida System, University of Georgia System, University of Tennessee System, University of North Carolina System, University of South Carolina System, and Texas A&M System together announced the creation of the Commission for Public Higher Education in a press release. The commission will develop an accreditation model aimed at prioritizing “academic excellence, student outcomes and achievement.”

The press release describes the new body as a “consortium of higher education systems from several states offering a new accreditation model that will focus on academic excellence, student outcomes, process efficiency, and the pursuit of quality assurance for public postsecondary education.”

“By establishing rigorous, transparent, and adaptable outcomes-based accreditation standards and practices, CPHE will ensure that colleges and universities meet and maintain academic quality and operational excellence on behalf of their students,” the press release states. 

New accreditation models are sorely needed in medical education: as Do No Harm reported, accreditors often use their perches to require universities and medical schools to engage in divisive and discriminatory policies

This problem prompted President Trump to issue an executive order targeting accreditors for their ideological mandates.

Although the two main medical education accreditors, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), have since walked back their DEI standards, many others have not.

An alternative accreditation model enables universities to operate without deferring to the whims of the entrenched accreditors. 

Do No Harm supports all attempts to direct medical education toward the values of excellence, achievement, and merit.