President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to shake up the college accreditation process, a topic that rarely gets political sunlight but is immensely important to universities.
College accreditation is the process universities must go through to receive federal financial aid, a tool Trump called his “secret weapon” on education on the campaign trail.
“University accreditation is currently a process controlled by a number of third-party organizations that’s by statute, by law, many of those third-party accreditors have relied on sort of woke ideology to accredit universities, instead of accrediting based on merit and performance,” said Will Scharf, White House staff secretary.
Although the text of the executive order is not yet out, a report from The Wall Street Journal said the president aims to use the process to remove what he sees as “ideological overreach” and to increase “intellectual diversity” on campus.
The order will also allow colleges to switch accreditors easily and encourage more competition in the accreditor space, according to the outlet.
Accreditors have a wide variety of benchmarks schools need to meet, ranging from admissions to what classes they offer, but once accreditation is earned, very few schools ever lose it, even if student outcomes are dismal.
It is difficult for new accreditors to emerge due to the lengthy process to get approved by the federal government.
Accreditors see their mission as nonpartisan and deny accusations they are pushing any ideological bent on universities.
Schools in states that have banned certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a pet issue of Trump’s, have been able to stay in compliance with accreditors.
It isn’t the first time Trump made changes to the accreditation system. Back in 2019, he removed geographic restrictions on which accreditors schools could use to broaden the playing field.
But in Florida and North Carolina, universities are now required to switch accreditors after a number of years.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) previously sued the Biden administration over the college accreditation system.
In 2023, DeSantis said he refuses “to bow to unaccountable accreditors who think they should run Florida’s public universities.”
Trump’s focus on accreditation could bring more fear into the higher education system, as a revocation of accreditation could take away access to financial aid and student loans, which would practically end most universities as they know it.
And the administration has showed it is not afraid to mess with university finances, as it has cut billions of dollars from multiple higher education institutions.
The biggest battle so far has been with Harvard University, which refused to cave to Trump’s demands to change a list of policies. In retaliation, the administration cut off $2 billion in funding. Harvard filed a lawsuit against the administration soon after.
—Updated at 5:37 p.m. EDT
