Global Accreditation Project
GAP is building a new path.
Accreditation determines which institutions can exist, award degrees, and access federal aid—yet today it rewards documentation over practice and protects incumbents while saying little about whether the education itself is any good.
GAP
The problem
The current system asks institutions to prove they followed a long list of procedures. It tells you little about whether teaching and learning are actually healthy.
Serious new institutions with different missions face years of expensive, uncertain review. Established ones rarely face consequences when the education they offer goes bad.
Hard to enter, slow to remove failure, and weak at telling anyone what real quality looks like.
Just 4 new colleges per year earn accreditation from U.S. institutional accreditors
Source: Education Next
“Accreditation is a long and winding road.”
New research
A closer look at what the current system rewards, and what a better model would judge instead.
Download the reportThe opportunity
01
A historic shift in the federal regulatory environment.
02
Growing state-level appetite for new accreditation pathways.
03
Demand for accreditation that is less burdensome and more value-adding.
Our vision
Institutions define their own mission and model, then demonstrate results.
Look at whether the work of teaching and learning is sound, not whether the files are complete.
Drop box-ticking that tells no one anything and ask instead for honest evidence about the practice itself.
Create transparent, staged pathways that allow strong new ideas to launch and prove themselves.
Enable cross-border recognition, credit transfer, and alignment with workforce needs.
Create a playbook and resources that other emerging accreditors can adopt.
The global aim
Accreditation and quality assurance are nationally situated. Recognition is granted by national authorities, not declared by a global body. So we are building GAP in the United States first, and seeking recognition from the U.S. Department of Education at a moment when the regulatory environment is open to a different model.
Recognition here is the foundation, not the ceiling. Once established, we will build toward mutual recognition with quality assurance agencies and education ministries abroad, so that an institution judged sound by GAP carries a signal that travels.
Global is the direction. We earn it through national credibility rather than claim it ahead of the work.
GAP is an independent initiative building a new accreditor, one designed to recognize institutions for the health of their educational practice rather than the thickness of their compliance files.
Target launch
Summer 2028
Demanding where it counts, quiet where it doesn't.
2026
Build infrastructure
2026
Activate externally
2027
Pilot process and prepare petition
2027
Submit for federal review
2028
Launch and expand membership
2029
Activate internationally
2026
Build infrastructure
2026
Activate externally
2027
Pilot process and prepare petition
2027
Submit for federal review
2028
Launch and expand membership
2029
Activate internationally
Leadership
Executive Director
Gerard is a higher education leader with more than thirty-five years of experience. He has served as faculty, dean, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Provost, with deep expertise in accreditation, finance, and institutional transformation.
Founding Partner and Managing Director
Strategic education and nonprofit leader with 30+ years advancing mission-driven organizations.
Founding Partner
Nationally recognized academic leader advising on institutional growth and transformation.
We have a plan and we are ready to activate. But we can't do it alone.
We're grateful for your interest in our work and we'd be delighted to include you in our circle. Care to join us in building the capacity needed to launch and sustain the tools, advocacy, and partnerships that drive change?
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