the new “ecology” for higher education challenges to accreditation, peter ewell

7/27/2019 The New Ecology for Higher Education Challenges to Accreditation, Peter Ewell

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This is one of a series of concept papers commissioned by the WASC Accrediting Commission forSenior Colleges and Universities, to inform the redesign of its accreditation process.

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WASC Concept Papers, 2nd SeriesTe Changing Ecology of Higher Education and Its Impact on Accreditation

January 2013

As American higher education nears the midpoint o the second decade o a new millennium, it inhabits alandscape that is rapidly being transormed. I current trends continue, college students in 2020 will participatein new kinds o learning experiences, access new kinds o learning resources, and deal with a broader range oproviders than ever beore. Meanwhile, providers themselves harness almost unimagined new technologies, willace escalating demands or perormance and be orced to operate in an increasingly seamless global marketplaceor higher education. ogether, these conditions constitute nothing less than a new ecology or higher educa-tion. Its characteristics are increasingly removed rom the environment in which current accreditation approach-

es evolved. As a consequence, they are bound to pose challenges to these approaches. Tis brie paper examinesthe nature o these changes and the specic challenges that each poses to established accreditation practices.Tese changes are o two main kinds: one external to colleges and universities, and the other embedded in highereducation institutions and the system they constitute. Te paper then goes on to note the kinds o changes inaccreditation practices that are needed to meet these challenges and how WASC has responded.

External ChallengesA rst set o challenges resides within the wider social and political realm in which higher education mustoperate. Colleges and universities exercise little control over these orces and must in some way accommodatethem. Tey do have a choice about how they do so, however, because some adaptations are deliberate and proac-tive, while others remain unconscious and reactive.

AccountabilityforResults. Probably the most important shi in the external landscape or higher educationthat has occurred since the earlier version o this paper is an unprecedented demand or accountability onthe part o the U.S. Department o Education. Beginning with the report o the Secretarys Commission onthe Future o Higher Education in 2007 (the so-called Spellings Commission), each successive year hasoccasioned new calls or increased levels o perormance and public reporting. Just last year, or example,reports were issued by both the American Council on Educations (ACE) ask Force on Accreditation andthe National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) that called or renewedattention to student academic achievement and public reporting. In addition, all expectations that thechange o administration in Washington in 2008 would reduce the pressure on colleges and universitiesto demonstrate student success and acceptable learning outcomes among graduates vanished with the

Obama administrations new postsecondary attainment goals and its accompanying accountability provi-sions. Whatever the ortunes o the respective political parties in the decade to come, thereore, the needto be accountable or learning will likely remain. What is more, the nature o the demand has shied.

Te New Ecology for Higher Education: Challenges to Accreditation

Updated Version*Peter EwellNCHEMS

* Te original version o this working paper was prepared two years ago as a resource or the task orces charged with updating theWASC accreditation standards and visit process. Although this was only two years ago, the conditions aecting American higher edu-cation and institutional accreditation as its principal quality assurance mechanism are suciently dierent today that a new edition iscalled or. Accordingly, this paper expands and updates the observations made earlier in October, 2010.


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the new “ecology” for higher education challenges to accreditation, peter ewell

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