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.

Commission President

Image of Heather Perfetti | “We have learned so much about our current standards through our peer evaluators and institutions, and we want to incorporate those considerations when our Commission must also reflect upon other critical changes in this moment,” said President Heather F. Perfetti. “The process demonstrates that we value the voice of students, institutions, and the public in the development of standards that are future forward, nimble, and innovative for our over 500 diverse institutions.”

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 are sharing 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

Review Committee

Review Committee
Images of the review committee members | Susan Looney Commission Vice-Chair President, Reading Area Community College; Kimberly Davenport Commissioner Partner and Director of Corporate Responsibility, ScottMadden, Inc.; Nicole Biever, Chief of Staff; Terence Peavy Lead Vice President for Institutional Field Relations; Christy Faison Part-Time, Accreditation Services; and Samantha Smith Assistant Director for Accreditation Relations

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)

Listening Session

Join Listening Session: Framing the Revisions on November 5, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET to participate in the revision process:

Timeline

Timeline | Review and Revision October 2025; Listening Session November 2025-January 2026; Public Call for Comments January 2026; Commission Consideration March 2026; Membership Vote March 30-April 17, 2026; Commission Vote June 2026; Launch Revised Standards & Evidence Expectations July 2026