Inside Accreditation - COVID and Change-Adjustments - Can Higher Education Handle Deep Change?

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor

Inside Accreditation February 2021 outlines how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted higher education norms, from enrollment and teaching modalities to student and faculty mental health and institutional governance. It examines uncertainty around quality assurance, learning experiences, and technology-mediated “touch” relationships between students and teachers. The piece argues colleges must be flexible and innovative, prioritize essential mission resources under shifting budgets, and sustain continuous improvement through accreditation self-study, strategic planning, and new partnerships.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Accreditation in a Pandemic Context

Quality Assurance, Learning, and Student Experience

Flexibility, Innovation, and New Models

Resource Prioritization and Budget Stability

Continuous Improvement and Accreditation Self-Study

Inside Accreditation February 2021 Council for CHEA Higher Education Accreditation CHEA International Quality Group ® COVID AND CHANGE-ADJUSTMENTSCAN HIGHER EDUCATION HANDLE DEEP CHANGE? Dr. Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, President, Council for Higher Education Accreditation The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is the private sector organization that provides recognition for agencies that seek accreditation oversight for colleges and universities and institutional programs. CHEA is also a primary advocate for institutional self-study and continuous improvement in higher education. During CHEA’s recent 24th Annual Conference held January 2021, over 370 registrants from 31 countries, representatives from governmental agencies, and higher education stakeholders participated in conversations that were amplified by elements of social injustices and inequalities manifested exponentially by the pandemic. For the past nine months, the scourge of the pandemic has dominated news, lives, daily conditions of families, economic social infrastructures, political upheavals, and international relations and has disjointed all norms associated with higher education. Universities of all sizes, demographics, and varying cultural identities or Carnegie classification scramble every day to stay ahead of the fray of an invasive contagion. The pandemic threatens enrollment, brings questions about quality teaching and learning, and has resulted in mental health decline of faculty and students, fluctuating directives from boards, and the ever-present awareness that these conditions will perhaps persist for a year or more. All of these “unpredictables” are frightening for institutions that operate from the lens of consistency and stabilized structures. One such constant in higher education is the assurance of quality in operations and academic programming. Faculty and staff are shifting in thought and in traditional teaching and learning modalities; students are shifting in confusion about what to do…“go to a class space; stay in my room with a laptop; commute; go to a space on alternate days”….and the indecisiveness and confusion is compounded by taking a COVID test every week and not knowing the results for sometimes up to four days. As one student succinctly put it,“I am confused and afraid.” That fear is not just of epidemiological concern. It is also fear of an eroding of democratic values, the rise in racial and cultural unrest, the manifestation of social injustices through televised homicides, economic deprivation, mistrust of established systems, and the realization that perhaps education is only the great equalizer if you have access. Yet, college students and their families continue to look for new norms and revert to higher education’s traditional model of institutional stability as the anchor to ground society into new “normals.” There is still a public demand for higher education to provide quality learning and experiences to students who will be the problem solvers and decision makers for the post-COVIDera. So, what is higher education to do in accepting the challenge of creating a new generation of learners and leaders? There are many ways to examine options for the challenges ahead. Premier in the process is the realization that higher education must be flexible, innovative, and willing to embrace the formidability of change. Society, students, families, faculty, staff, stakeholders will not bethe same post-COVID. Technology, teaching, and learning will usher in a different relational “touch”system between student and teacher. Brick and mortar buildings and classrooms will take on new purposes as incubation laboratories and community and partnership hubs. Communities will view colleges as think tanks and problem solvers for social concerns and have the expectation that students will emerge as change agents and not just degree holders. Change will not be a choice…it will be a necessity. Seco

FAQs

How has COVID-19 disrupted higher education in the document?

It has dominated daily conditions, challenged enrollment, destabilized standard educational norms, and raised concerns about quality teaching and learning.

What does the document say higher education should do to respond to change?

It should be flexible and innovative, embrace the formidability of change, and create new norms through updated teaching and learning approaches.

How does accreditation and continuous improvement relate to the response proposed?

Through self-study and inward questioning, institutions should avoid compliance and instead pursue continuous improvement to be better tomorrow than today.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor