Accreditation on the Edge

"In their edited collection Accreditation on the Edge: Challenging Quality Assurance in Higher Education, Phillips and Kinser provide insights into the perspectives of accreditors, institutions, policymakers, and consumers. The value of this volume arises from presenting these different perspectives as insiders who understand the complexity of accreditation and how it is perceived throughout their particular sector."

"Tackling an important topic from a variety of perspectives and featuring a stellar lineup of contributors, this book will have a strong impact not just on higher education but on broader audiences as well. Phillips and Kinser help us slow down for a moment and consider what our responsibilities as scholars are to the world."

"Anyone interested in accreditation, or in higher education reform more generally, should read this book. Compelling and well-informed, this book adds significantly to the public discourse at a time when further policy-relevant knowledge is sorely needed."

"Phillips and Kinser address forthrightly and thoughtfully an incredibly timely and urgent issue, bringing together a wide array of experts and perspectives on quality assurance in higher education. More and more individuals need the advantages that come from high-quality credentials, and this book advances an essential conversation about crafting new approaches that will better serve today's students and today's society."

"With accreditation the gateway to more than $120 billion in federal aid, questions about its nature, role, and value loom large in debates over higher education reform. Yet the topic has rarely received the attention it merits—until now. Phillips and Kinser's invaluable volume offers a hard look at where accreditation has been, where it is, and where it needs to go."

"Susan Phillips and Kevin Kinser present a landmark book on accreditation. The perspectives are all here: accreditors, critics, policy makers, those who want accreditation to do more and those who want it to do less. Is accreditation fundamentally flawed? Or is it, paraphrasing Winston Churchill, the worst quality assurance system, except for all the others? These chapters will enliven and inform the debate. Expect no easy answers."

"This book is a must-read for college, university, and government policymakers and practitioners with responsibility to advance quality assurance and improvement processes for higher education in the twenty-first century. Phillips and Kinser have attracted a set of deeply thoughtful authors in this nuanced compendium of competing analyses and perspectives. This book will be used by many local, state, and national stakeholders and experts to inform and guide the national policy debate about the intersection of accreditation and compliance to assess and improve the quality of higher education in the years ahead."

"Whatever one thinks of the US accreditation system, it’s not hard to see that its credibility is at risk. This book tackles that truth head-on and, in the process, provides a critical and constructive overview of where we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we need to go to improve how to assess and, hopefully, improve our diverse higher education system in a way that ultimately benefits its most important constituent, students."