The Trump administration’s recent executive order places a spotlight on accreditors, who have been traditionally charged with verifying academic and operational excellence for institutions seeking Title IV funding. The executive order is broad—it stands to revoke accreditor status for bodies that don’t adhere to the administration’s social priorities and resumes authorizations of new accreditors. Notably, it also calls for accreditors to “require institutions to use program-level student outcome data to improve results.”
The focus on student outcomes is not new. The Biden administration also proposed more regulation on accreditors.1 Under that proposal, accreditors would be tasked with requiring institutions to set minimum performance standards for graduation rates and licensure pass rates. Rules related to reporting for financial value transparency and gainful employment were related to the concern that students were not getting an appropriate return on investment for degrees. Those rules could be potentially viewed as a precursor to what we see today.
As we detailed previously, a strong program planning process collects data on student outcomes, as they are often considered a measure of academic quality. In light of increased scrutiny on higher education, we reiterate this call for institutions to consider conducting regular, systematic reviews of each of their academic programs. This allows institutions to better understand where to allocate resources and take a strategic approach to understanding each program’s past, present, and future contribution to the institution.
It is also a service to students. It is not uncommon for program reviews to lean on narrative, qualitative assessments of academic rigor, and these assessments are conducted almost exclusively by the people teaching those programs. Where objective measures are used, they are often limited to understanding whether students met the learning objectives of a course or program, sometimes without regard to whether those learning objectives are aligned with employer expectations.
Key Metrics in Strategic Academic Planning
To augment academic planning on your campus, we suggest taking a more in-depth, data-informed approach to measuring program-level outcomes. Some key metrics when we work with clients include but are not limited to:
- Student employment, persistence to graduate, and licensure/certification attainment post-graduation
- Employer input, including taking an inventory of what skills are needed in the market and how well-prepared employees obtained those skills
- Alignment of programs with institutional goals, such as how a program serves students and the surrounding community
The above list is not exhaustive. See our previous FORsights™ article, “Strategic Academic Planning: Using Relevant Data,” for suggestions on how to include academic, enrollment management, institutional, and economic data in your analysis. The list above, however, would help you get started addressing questions you may get from accreditors in the next 18 months.
How Forvis Mazars Can Help
Consider taking a strategic approach to navigating the current environment. It is highly dynamic, and being overly reactive is not strategic. Understanding public shifts in the perception of higher education, including what sorts of skills the public will expect from graduates, is a very forward-looking tactic that could help in preparing for a successful next half-decade. We shared the value of this approach in our 2025 Annual Higher Education Outlook, where we called for institutions to better understand what prospective students, families, and donors want from the college experience. This call wasn’t based on intuition. It was based on years of hints that there would be increased scrutiny on student outcomes, scrutiny that is currently materializing in substantive ways. If you are proactive, as we are in strategic academic planning, you may be able to translate this scrutiny into an opportunity.
Want to learn more about strategic academic planning? Reach out to a professional at Forvis Mazars. For more strategic, innovative approaches to help achieve your school’s mission and goals, explore our higher education consulting services.
- 1“Biden Administration Wants Accreditors to Set Benchmarks For Student Outcomes,” insidehighered.com, March 15, 2024.