University Systems Create Accreditor Focused on Merit and Outcomes
8th July 2025
Today’s higher education accreditors let colleges and universities get away with mediocrity: low graduation rates, highly negative return on investment, and activism that looks little like scholarship.
Accreditors are meant to vouch for college quality and to recommend improvements—but they rarely hold institutions accountable for such travesties as a four-year graduation rate under 15%, a negative return on investment in six figures, and pervasive antisemitism. Instead, they often require “diversity” practices that bleed into illegal discrimination.
Fortunately, university systems in six states have formed a new accreditor to focus on “academic excellence” and “student outcomes.”
The new entity, the Commission for Public Higher Education, is a product of efforts led by the State University System of Florida and state systems in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. (Texas has multiple state systems—the partner here is the Texas A&M University System.) It joins a small number of new accreditors bringing competition and innovation to higher education accreditation.