The Texas A&M System is partnering with university systems from five other Republican-led states to create a new agency to set quality standards for their schools.
The move comes amid Republican criticism of higher education accrediting agencies, which they say are partly responsible for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and reinforcing liberal bias in the country’s colleges and universities.
Officials with Texas A&M, State University System of Florida, University System of Georgia, University of Tennessee System, University of North Carolina System and University of South Carolina System said in a news release Thursday they will create a new agency to accredit them. They are calling the new body the Commission for Public Higher Education.
Texas A&M and most other public, four-year universities in Texas are currently accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Jim Suydam, Texas A&M University System's director of media relations, said the university is not planning on leaving SACSCOC right now.
"In recent legislative sessions, our top state officials have sought a more reasonable and transparent pathway toward accreditation. And now, the leadership of the Texas A&M University System is pleased to announce that the System has joined an alliance of some of the nation's top university systems to provide a new, less cumbersome and more objective option for accreditation," said Glenn Hegar, who will become the Texas A&M Chancellor on July 1.
Accreditors assess higher education institutions’ quality by reviewing their programs, curricula and graduation rates, among other metrics. Colleges and universities need to be accredited if they want their students to qualify for federal financial aid.
Texas law requires the state's public universities to be accredited by one of seven federally recognized agencies. It's unclear if the five university systems have begun the process of getting the new agency recognized by the federal or state government. Suydam said it will likely be a two-year process.
In recent years, President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have criticized U.S. universities for what they say amounts to promoting liberal ideologies to students.
In April, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Education to overhaul the accreditation process for universities by reviewing existing accrediting agencies, suspending accreditation recognition for those deemed to have a poor performance, and recognizing new accreditors. He claimed some agencies have approved "low quality" institutions and abused their authority by requiring that schools have diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives.
SACSCOC does not have any DEI requirements for universities to get accredited, according to the agency.
“If DEI is the concern, then the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools would satisfy that concern because SACS does not require DEI for accreditation,” said Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors. “So, I don’t know why the southern schools…are going band together to create a new accrediting agency.”
The creation of the new accrediting agency also comes after the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 530, which will give schools other options to become accredited. SACSCOC will no longer be the sole accreditor for Texas universities, allowing them to choose any agency from an approved list by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
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