New on WCET Frontiers
Policy
Major Changes to Distance Ed: Department of Education Rulemaking Final Session Update
Published by: WCET | 3/20/2024
Major changes loom on the horizon for postsecondary distance education programs in the United States, but we are now in a temporary limbo of uncertainty. The Department of Education’s Program Integrity and Institutional Quality negotiated rulemaking sessions ended on March 7. Despite tons of suggestions and hours of discussion, none of the distance and digital […]
Practice
Unprecedented Times Surprised Some Institution Staff with State Regulatory Compliance Requirements
Published by: WCET | 11/10/2020
These unprecedented times raised regulatory compliance challenges that may have surprised some institution personnel. However, some of these regulatory compliance challenges were not actually unprecedented. The COVID-19 pandemic induced institutions to shift from in-person to remote instruction. As a result, […]
Practice
Did Your Course Go Digital Due to COVID-19? Playbook Advises on Regulations When Making the Switch
Published by: WCET | 11/4/2020
The spring 2020 term saw an unprecedented response to an unprecedented challenge as virtually every U.S. higher education institution offering face-to-face instruction rapidly switched to remote instruction, many in as little as one to two weeks and some in a […]
Practice
Final Federal Regulations for State Authorization Released!
Published by: WCET | 11/4/2019
Without a moment to spare, on Friday, November 1, 2019, the Federal Register shared the release of the long awaited 2019 Final Federal Regulations with the official and concise title: Student Assistance General Provisions, The Secretary’s Recognition of Accrediting Agencies, […]
Practice
Everything You Need to Know (But Are Afraid to Ask) About The 2016 Distance Education Regulations
Published by: WCET | 7/31/2019
Last week’s announcement by the Department of Education that “consistent with the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California…. As of May 26, 2019, the amendments to 34 CFR 600.2, 600.9 (c), 668.2, and the […]
Practice
New Federal Regulations Ready for Your Comments – Accreditation-Related Regulations
Published by: WCET | 6/14/2019
This is the second of two posts on the new regulations that the U.S. Department of Education released in the Federal Register earlier this week. The first post focused on state authorization and student notification issues. This post focuses on […]
Practice
New Federal Regulations Ready for Your Comments – State Authorization and Student Notifications
Published by: WCET | 6/13/2019
The Federal Rulemaking process has taken its next step. The U.S. Department of Education released in the Federal Register a portion of the proposed regulations. This first set of regulations focuses on accreditation and state authorization. The proposed language came […]
Practice
UNLV Pays a Cost for Not Notifying Students about Charges for Proctoring Services
Published by: WCET | 10/17/2018
Cheryl Dowd, Director of the State Authorization Network, and I have been presenting this summer about the status of the federal state authorization regulation. In those presentations we remind people about other federal regulations that remain in place. The one […]
Practice
The Announcement of the Delay was Delayed, but the Result is a Delay!
Published by: WCET | 7/5/2018
When is a “delay” not a delay? The Department of Education’s latest regulation on state authorization went into effect on July 1. The Department wanted to announce a delay of the effective date before last Sunday. They missed that deadline. […]
Practice
Higher Education Act – Innovations, Definitions, and State Authorization
Published by: WCET | 3/15/2018
When passed in 1965, the Higher Education Act (HEA) was intended to “to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education.” Updated or “reauthorized” several times since […]