Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
America’s accrediting organizations are an extremely powerful component of America’s higher education complex. The Higher Education Act of 1965 granted regional accrediting organizations the power as the gatekeepers that qualified institutions of higher education to be eligible for federal student grants and loans. All while programmatic accrediting organizations assumed a role in state licensure and professional development for a host of professions.
Education reformers generally agree on the need to make accrediting organization requirements less political, less bureaucratic, and less biased toward the existing education establishment. But how can this be done, and what should be done? Hear from a panel of experts on accreditation policy and reform to find out.
Join the National Association of Scholars on Tuesday, September 8, at 2 pm ET for “Reforming Accreditation Policy.”
This event will feature Andrew Gillen, a Research Fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, Gillen’s research focuses on the economics of higher education, with an emphasis on federal and state policies related to financial aid, regulation, accreditation, financing, transparency, and accountability; Adam Kissel, Visiting Fellow of Higher Education Reform at The Heritage Foundation, Visiting Lecturer in Formal Organizations at Trinity College (Hartford), a board member of the National Association of Scholars and Southern Wesleyan University, and a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity; and Bob Eitel, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, a conservative nonprofit focused on education and civil rights matters that integrates in-house legal expertise, regulatory engagement, policy innovation, and strategic communications, Eitel served as Senior Counselor to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and was an architect of the Secretary’s reforms concerning Title IX and the Higher Education Act, including accreditation, from 2017-20, and he is also a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity.
America’s accrediting organizations are an extremely powerful component of America’s higher education complex. The Higher Education Act of 1965 granted regional accrediting organizations the power as the gatekeepers that qualified institutions of higher education to be eligible for federal student grants and loans. All while programmatic accrediting organizations assumed a role in state licensure and professional development for a host of professions.
Education reformers generally agree on the need to make accrediting organization requirements less political, less bureaucratic, and less biased toward the existing education establishment. But how can this be done, and what should be done? Hear from a panel of experts on accreditation policy and reform to find out.
Join the National Association of Scholars on Tuesday, September 8, at 2 pm ET for “Reforming Accreditation Policy.”
This event will feature Andrew Gillen, a Research Fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, Gillen’s research focuses on the economics of higher education, with an emphasis on federal and state policies related to financial aid, regulation, accreditation, financing, transparency, and accountability; Adam Kissel, Visiting Fellow of Higher Education Reform at The Heritage Foundation, Visiting Lecturer in Formal Organizations at Trinity College (Hartford), a board member of the National Association of Scholars and Southern Wesleyan University, and a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity; and Bob Eitel, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, a conservative nonprofit focused on education and civil rights matters that integrates in-house legal expertise, regulatory engagement, policy innovation, and strategic communications, Eitel served as Senior Counselor to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and was an architect of the Secretary’s reforms concerning Title IX and the Higher Education Act, including accreditation, from 2017-20, and he is also a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity.
