State laws threaten to erode academic freedom in US higher education

Council for Higher Education Accreditation/CHEA

June 6, 2024

Accreditation in the News 

The accreditation process involves colleges and universities regularly submitting to external peer review. Nonprofit accrediting agencies conduct institutional performance reviews. However, during the 2021-23 legislative cycles, six bills were introduced—three of them were passed into law—weakening the accreditation process and thereby making it easier for political interests to shape university policy.

State Laws Threaten to Erode Academic Freedom in US Higher Education  (Ohio Capital Journal, Isaac Kamola, May 31, 2024)

Over the past few years, Republican state lawmakers have introduced more than 150 bills in 35 states that seek to curb academic freedom on campus. Twenty-one of these bills have been signed into law.

This legislation is detailed in a new white paper published by the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, a project established by the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP. Taken together, this legislative onslaught has undermined academic freedom and institutional autonomy in five distinct and overlapping ways.

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