October 22, 2025
The Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) is a new accrediting agency that will seek recognition from the U.S. Department of Education in order to accredit (and thereby offer access to Title IV funds for) public colleges and universities. CPHE is poised to begin accrediting activity with an initial cohort of ten (10) institutions, and the missions and enrollment sizes of these institutions vary.
CPHE issues this call for nominations/applications for peer reviewers who will evaluate these ten (10) colleges and universities, using accreditation standards adopted by the CPHE Board of Directors earlier this month. (CPHE is in the process of authoring evidentiary guidance that will complement the accreditation standards.)
Specifically, CPHE seeks candidates for teams of four (4) to five (5) members. Each team will evaluate one (1) of the ten (10) institutions in the first cohort of colleges and universities. Whenever possible, a peer reviewer will be assigned to evaluate an institution of mission and size that are similar to those of the reviewer’s home institution. No peer reviewer will evaluate her or his home institution or an institution from the peer reviewer’s same university system. Duties for reviewers will entail orientation and training, review of compliance materials off-site, visit to the institution being evaluated (conducted on-site by the team chair and conducted remotely by other team members), and supply of summary findings in writing and by videoconference to the CPHE Accrediting Recommendation Committee. Completion of these steps will begin in the late fall of 2025 and continue through the summer months of 2026.
The chair of each peer review team will receive an honorarium of $2,000. Other team members will receive an honorarium of $1,500 per person. Team members and chairs are encouraged to determine with their respective home institutions if these payments may be considered sums in support of service to higher education or sums that should be declared as compensation for external employment.
CPHE’s needs for members of peer visiting teams will focus on the following:
• members of institutional/system governing boards,
• institutional/system chief executives,
• institutional/system chief academic officers,
• institutional/system financial officers,
• deans of colleges and schools,
• other system/institutional executives, and
• institutional faculty members.
Priority will be given to current and former representatives of public institutions in the United States. In rare cases, CPHE may consider a current representative of a private institution, if particular subject-matter expertise is desired/necessary for evaluation of an institution. CPHE anticipates that this call for peer reviewers may yield nominations or applications for peer reviewers who may evaluate institutions in later accreditation cohorts, in late 2026 and beyond.
CPHE requests nominations and applications for potential members of these peer visiting teams. Please send a resume or c.v. and concise cover letter that describes the nominated/applying individual’s experience with institutional and/or programmatic accreditation to contact@cphe.org. Consideration of nominations/applications will begin immediately