Accreditation is essential to colleges and universities. Without it, they are unable to participate in federal student aid programs or confer legitimate degrees. In "Accreditation on the Edge," Susan D. Phillips and Kevin Kinser bring together the expertise of different stakeholders to illustrate the complexities of the accreditation system and to map the critical issues that must be navigated going forward. Accreditation can be seen both as an invaluable resource and as a barrier to needed reform. Presenting an array of different perspectives--from accreditors and institutions to policymakers and consumers--the book offers nuanced views on accreditation's importance to higher education and on the potential impact of proposed reforms. The contributors reveal that accreditation is currently on the edge of a policy precipice, as the needs of higher education and the interests of the many stakeholders may well outstrip its ability to perform. But, they argue, accreditation is also on the cutting edge of the transformation of higher education in the twenty-first century. Intended for policymakers, accreditors, institutional leaders, and scholars in higher education, "Accreditation on the Edge" offers a comprehensive analysis of the critical issues that accreditation reform needs to address if it is to serve the future of a fast-changing higher education environment. This book contains the following chapters: (1) Accreditation (Susan D. Phillips and Kevin Kinser); (2) Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement (Sylvia Manning); (3) Change in Higher Education Accreditation (Leah K. Matthews); (4) The Evolving Context of Quality Assurance (Joseph Vibert); (5) Fixing a Broken Accreditation System (Anne D. Neal and Armand B. Alacbay); (6) Innovation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education (Michael B. Horn and Alana Dunagan); (7) Regulatory Experimentation, Accreditation, and Innovation (Paul LeBlanc); (8) Tensions in the Triad (Peter Ewell); (9) Managing Risk to Students and Taxpayers in Federal Financial Aid (David A. Bergeron); (10) Accreditors as Policy Leaders (Jamienne S. Studley); (11) Crossing Borders (Madeleine F. Green); (12) The Employer Quest for the Quality College Graduate Recruit (Edwin Koc); (13) Accreditation and Return on Investment (Mark Schneider and Audrey Peek); (14) Does Accreditation Protect Students Effectively? (Barmak Nassirian and Thomas L. Harnisch); and (15) Conclusion: Accreditation (Kevin Kinser and Susan D. Phillips). [Foreward by Judith Eaton.]