Review of Standards and Evidence Expectations | 2025-2026
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) is conducting a review of its Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation and Evidence Expectations by Standard. The Commission is dedicated to ensuring that our standards continue to drive innovation and best support our institutions and their missions. In addition, our standards must remain aligned with our policies and procedures as well as federal regulation.
This comprehensive review of the Commission’s standards will integrate public feedback from listening sessions and a call for comments, offer multiple opportunities for engagement, and incorporate existing feedback from institutions and evaluators who have used the standards. We will also consider the results of the surveys of teams as well as the recent results of the membership satisfaction survey.
The review process, outlined in the Review of Commission Standards, Requirements of Affiliation, and Policies Policy, reflects the Commission’s commitment to self-reflection and continuous improvement through transparency, responsiveness, and integrity for the benefit of students, institutions, and the public. All constituents will be able to review the proposed standards and provide feedback as well as participate in listening sessions.
A number of exciting initiatives align with this work, including strategic planning with a strategic vision ready to launch January 1, 2026. We also shared more about the standards review and the strategic planning at our Annual Conference.
Key Areas
Some of the key areas where we will be requesting feedback throughout the review process include the following:
- Transfer credit and student mobility
- Campus and student safety
- Student success initiatives
- High-impact practices
- Code of conduct concerns
- Academic integrity
- Institutional planning
- Workforce development, continuing education, or other similar initiatives
- Integration of standards and evidence expectations
Fourteenth Edition
In 2025, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) announced the suspension of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) criteria, and that suspension remains in full effect. Redlined Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation (Fourteenth Edition) and Evidence Expectations by Standard are provided to identify areas in which reporting has been suspended.
Review Committee
Participation Opportunities
We invite you to engage in a variety of participation opportunities throughout the review process:
All Constituents
- Review the proposed standards
- Participate in listening sessions
- Provide verbal and written feedback
Candidate and Accredited Institution Presidents
- Vote on the standards (results presented to the Commission as they consider the final version in June 2026)
Candidate and Accredited Institutions Presidents Vote
The Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation (Fifteenth Edition) reaffirms that which is central to our accreditation: a clear focus on institutional mission, students, continuous improvement, mission-aligned data and evidence, assessment, and innovation. This edition also reflects evolving state and federal policy contexts while preserving independent, mission-centered accreditation. These revisions strengthen the Commission’s foundational commitments while driving innovations that meet the unique and changing needs of institutions, students, and the public.
The development of the fifteenth edition has been responsive to feedback collected since the release of the fourteenth edition of the standards, through five listening sessions in recent months, and during the open call for comments.
Key areas of revision include the following:
- Reduces standards from seven to five (combining Standards I and VII; Standards III and V)
- Removes our already-suspended diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) criteria
- Will include updated introduction and foundational commitments
- Strengthens expectations of mission-aligned data and evidence
- Focuses on student outcomes and innovative practices
- Eliminates redundancies across standards, including the criteria
- Addresses all student learning experiences (credit bearing or otherwise) explicitly
- Articulates stronger supports for innovative practices in student success
- Strengthens expectations for mission-aligned data analysis tied to transfer credit and student mobility
- Enhances expectations for campus safety and integrity
- Addresses current environment with workforce and other alternative learning experiences
The revised standards position institutions to demonstrate quality, integrity, innovation, and impact in a rapidly evolving higher education landscape.
The chief executive officer (CEO) at candidate and accredited institutions can vote to endorse by 4:30 p.m., ET, on Friday, April 17, 2026.
Call for Comments
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) invites comment on the revised Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation (Fifteenth Edition) from January 12-30, 2026.
Our Commission is committed to ensuring that our standards continue to drive innovation and best support our institutions and their missions. In addition, our standards must remain aligned with our policies and procedures as well as federal regulation.
Deadline for Comments
January 30, 2026
Review Process
The periodic review of Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation is required by both federal regulation and Commission policy and procedures and ensures alignment with federal regulations and the Commission’s own policies and procedures. The standards most recently underwent comprehensive revisions in 2014 and 2023.
In 2014, significant revisions included incorporating less prescriptive expectations, a stronger emphasis on student learning and outcomes, and reducing the Commission’s standards from 14 to seven. In 2023, significant revisions included an enhanced emphasis on utilizing data to inform decision-making and institutional improvement, while remaining student and mission centered. In addition, the requirements of affiliation were reduced from 15 to four, and the Evidence Expectations by Standard companion to the standards was introduced.
The review process reflects the Commission’s commitment to self-reflection and continuous improvement. It also is a practice upon which the Commission has relied, much like our institutions, to improve its work and ensure transparency, responsiveness, and integrity for the benefit of students, institutions, and the public.
Your feedback is critical! All constituents, including institutions, students, and the public have opportunities to review proposed revisions, provide feedback, and engage throughout the process. We invite feedback through a variety of forums during this process, including the listening sessions held on November 5, 2025, December 12, 2025, January 5, 2026, and January 6, 2026, and through this call for comment process. In addition, constituents provided written comments following the November 5, 2025, listening session.
As always, the Commission is committed to ensuring a smooth transition for institutions between editions of the standards and continuity in self-study and other accreditation processes. Institutions undergoing self-study during a standards revision will continue to use the standards in effect at the time that they began their self-study. Institutions that are providing follow-up must submit evidence under the standards in effect at the time of the request for follow-up. The proposed standards would become effective July 1, 2026. Institutions entering Self-Study Institute (SSI) and those with follow-up actions dated on or after July 1, 2026, would use the approved standards resulting from this review.
Revision Summary
The proposed revisions represent a deliberate shift toward enhanced clarity, reduced redundancy, and stronger alignment with current higher education developments, while remaining centered on institutional mission, academic rigor, student success, and continuous improvement.
The revisions simplify and streamline both standards and evidence expectations in response to constituent feedback. Building on prior revisions that reduced the number of standards and requirements of affiliation, the proposed draft further eliminates redundancies and duplicative reporting by removing all criteria and integrating the criteria and evidence under the standard. This eliminated evidence duplication across standards and allowed for the visual presentation of the standard and evidence to be presented differently.
In addition, the revisions now address additional areas that drive innovation and support students, institutions, and their missions, including:
- Transfer credit and student mobility
- Campus and student safety
- Information security strategy and infrastructure, including artificial intelligence
- Student success initiatives
- High-impact practices
- Academic integrity
- Institutional planning
- Workforce development, continuing education, or other similar initiatives
Finally, the proposed revisions offer greater clarity and support for meaningful assessment with clarifications on the use of data to support decision-making in addition to language and syntax adjustments. In the revision, we celebrate the following additional changes:
- Clarified that data should be disaggregated and analyzed as appropriate to institutional mission;
- Specified reporting timeframes for certain types of data;
- Clarified evidence should consider a diversity of ideas and perspectives; and
- Adjusted language and syntax to ensure standards remain clear and consistent
Questions
Any questions about the draft standards should be directed to [email protected]. Any questions about accessing the comment form or MSCHE website should be directed to [email protected].
Timeline
- November 5, 2025 | 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET | Listening Session: Framing the Revisions
- November 6, 2025 | 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. | President, Provost, ALO, System Meeting
- December 10-12, 2025 | Annual Conference
- January 6, 2026 | 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Listening Session: Framing the Revisions
- January 12-30, 2026 | Public Call for Comments
- March 11-12, 2026 | Commission Consideration
- March 30-April 17, 2026 | Membership Vote
- May 19, 2026 | 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET | President, Provost, ALO, System Meeting
- June 24-25, 2026 | Commission Vote
- July 1, 2026 | Launch Standards for Accreditation, Requirements of Affiliation, and Evidence Expectations (Fifteenth Edition)