The original GI Bill legislation had stimulated establishment of new colleges and universities to accommodate the influx of new students, but some of these new institutions were of dubious quality.
)[5] In February 2020, the Department of Education eliminated the distinction between regional and national accrediting agencies, creating one unified set of institutional accreditors.
Initially, the main focus of the organizations was to accredit secondary schools and to establish uniform college entrance requirements.
Nationally accredited schools, a large number of which are for-profit, typically offered specific vocational, career, or technical programs.
[24] A prominent example of such a domain name registered before the current rules came into force is Academia.edu, a for-profit social networking site for academics.
A frequent point of discussion and criticism is that the traditional system is limited to measuring "input" factors, such as instructional time for course credit, adequate facilities and properly credentialed faculty, rather than learning outcomes.
[25] In his 1996 book Crisis in the Academy, Christopher J. Lucas criticized the accreditation system as too expensive, onerously complicated, incestuous in its organization, and not properly tied to quality.
[26][27] Similarly, a 2002 report by George C. Leef and Roxana D. Burris of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) argued that the system does not ensure or protect educational quality, while still imposing significant costs.
[30] Others, such as Edward M. Elmendorf of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, reject these claims, arguing that they are "picking around the edges" of a proven and necessary system for upholding standards.
[33] The Council for Higher Education Accreditation recognizes that there are criticisms,[34] but has opposed these calls for reform, with President Judith S. Eaton arguing that the system is successful and needs to remain flexible to accommodate differences between schools and disciplines.
[31] In 2013, President Barack Obama proposed changes in the accreditation system to hold "colleges accountable for cost, value, and quality".
[36] An article published by "University World News" on 2 February 2018 stated that the higher education accreditation community, which confers the quality-assurance seal of approval that allows United States colleges and universities access to billions of dollars of federal student aid, must do a better job of explaining itself to the public if it wants to reverse waning public confidence in higher education.