Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Maintaining Integrity in Higher Education

I was recently appointed as co-chair of my institution's Periodic Review Report (PRR) committee for Middle States accreditation, which is a unique opportunity as a librarian. As such, I've become more interested in issues related to accreditation, and in particular librarians' roles in this process.

This article in the New York Times highlights for me the importance of maintaining peer-reviewed accreditation processes in our non-profit colleges and universities. While these for-profit institutions may be well-meaning (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt) running a high-quality institution of higher education involves a complex network of processes of which most people not working in higher education (and probably many who ARE working in higher ed) are unaware.  Nevertheless, state accrediting agencies are being criticized for not "more aggressively monitoring substandard institutions."  The sad thing is, the victims of the financial fraud of which these "for-profit colleges" are being accused, are often the most vulnerable -- low-income and minority students.

What can we as librarians contribute to maintaining integrity and quality assurance in higher education? A few things that come to mind are providing research-based evidence for curriculum quality, helping students assess their marketability based on career trends and data, and, in general, teaching people to be critical users of information -- including financial aid information -- that can help them make good choices regarding the institutions in which they enroll. The expression, "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is," could apply here.