April 26, 2018
NACIQI Solicits Comments on For-Profit Conversions
The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) is scheduled to discuss oversight of for-profit institutions that convert to non-profit entities at its upcoming May 22-24 meeting. NACIQI is also soliciting public comments prior to the meeting. Submission of written comments, and requests to make oral comments, must be received by May 9, 2018, and conform to the format described in the meeting announcement.
NACIQI’s decision to examine for-profit conversions appears to come in response to five Democratic Senators who wrote a letter to NACIQI urging it “to address at its upcoming meeting the recent troubling pattern of for-profit institutions converting to, or attempting to convert to, non-profit entities in order to avoid regulatory scrutiny.”
The letter declares that the issue is urgent, given recent examples (here, here, and here) of for-profit institutions seeking to attain non-profit status. Citing regulations that require accrediting agencies to approve such conversions before the Department of Education will approve an institutional change in ownership, the Senators press NACIQI to carefully scrutinize accreditors who review for-profit conversions to nonprofit status and establish guidelines requiring accreditors to closely examine institutions that are attempting to do so.
NACIQI’s decision to examine for-profit conversions appears to come in response to five Democratic Senators who wrote a letter to NACIQI urging it “to address at its upcoming meeting the recent troubling pattern of for-profit institutions converting to, or attempting to convert to, non-profit entities in order to avoid regulatory scrutiny.”
The letter declares that the issue is urgent, given recent examples (here, here, and here) of for-profit institutions seeking to attain non-profit status. Citing regulations that require accrediting agencies to approve such conversions before the Department of Education will approve an institutional change in ownership, the Senators press NACIQI to carefully scrutinize accreditors who review for-profit conversions to nonprofit status and establish guidelines requiring accreditors to closely examine institutions that are attempting to do so.
For more information, please contact:
Jody Feder