The U.S. Department of Education reached landmark consensus on sweeping reforms to the federal higher education accreditation system through the Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization negotiated rulemaking process. The agreement, described by officials as the most consequential accreditation change in decades, targets how accreditors evaluate colleges and how they relate to affiliated trade organizations. Under the new framework, accreditors would be required to shift toward “hard outcomes” such as graduation rates, licensure exam results, post-graduation employment, and measurable economic returns. The reforms also seek to curtail conflicts of interest by prohibiting accrediting bodies from sharing personnel, equipment, or infrastructure with affiliated trade organizations and requiring public disclosure of such relationships. A major structural change would also remove a two-year “accreditor probation” barrier that has limited new agencies from entering the market. Instead, upstart accreditors could seek federal recognition after accrediting at least one institution or program. Officials additionally flagged transfer credit as a student-facing area of focus, signaling that institutions and accreditors may face new expectations around how credits move across providers—an issue that has long been a flashpoint for completion and student mobility.