Using Accreditation to Advance Institutional Strategy and Student Success: Insights from CHEA’s New:

Changing Higher Ed podcast 288 with host Dr. Drumm McNaughton and guest Dr. Nasser Paydar

Transcript: Changing Higher Ed podcast  288 – with host Dr. Drumm McNaughton and guest Dr. Nasser Paydar

Introduction to Changing Higher Ed^®

Welcome to Changing Higher Ed^®, a podcast dedicated to helping higher education leaders improve their institutions. With your host, Dr. Drumm McNaughton, CEO of The Change Leader, a consultancy that helps higher ed leaders holistically transform their institutions. Learn more at changinghighered.com. And now, here’s your host, Drumm McNaughton.

[00:00:31] Introduction and Guest Welcome

Drumm McNaughton: Thank you, David. My guest today is Dr. Nasser Paydar, President of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). CHEA is a national organization that advocates for academic quality and the independence of accreditation in the US. He’s new to the role, he started in August, 2025, following a distinguished career in federal service and higher education leadership.

Dr. Paydar served as the assistant secretary for post-secondary education at the US Department of Education from 2022 to 2025, and prior to being appointed that role, he was chancellor of the Purdue University, Indianapolis, which is now Indiana University, Indianapolis. He was also a faculty member at IU for more than 36 years and held multiple administrative and executive positions across the university.

Throughout his career, Nasser has been a strong advocate for academic excellence, institutional integrity, and student success, and has a deep commitment to fostering innovation, access and accountability in higher ed. He joins me today to talk about higher education in general, CHEA, and the importance of leadership and being mission driven and laser focused on student success.

 Nasser, welcome to the program.

Nasser Paydar: Thank you. Thank you, Drumm. Delighted to be with you.

Drumm McNaughton: I’m looking forward to our conversation and first, let me extend my congratulations in person to you for assuming the reigns of leadership there at CHEA. It is an incredibly important organization to higher education and with your background, I have absolute no doubt that you’re going to take it and run with it.

Nasser Paydar: Thank you, Drumm. I appreciate it.

[00:02:19] Dr. Nasser Paydar’s Background

Drumm McNaughton: So speaking of background, give us a little bit about yours. I know when we were speaking yesterday, you told me about Indiana University, we had a great conversation about football. Please give us a little bit about your background.

Nasser Paydar: I came to this country right after receiving my high school diploma. I went to upstate New York and ended up getting my bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD from Syracuse University. Those days there were no internet, I had no idea how cold that place gets, and the catalog did not have a single snowflakes, I swear.

And so I, I went there, but of course there I met my wife and that was the best thing that happened to me going upstate New York and getting my degrees.

[00:03:02] Career at Indiana University

Nasser Paydar: From there I joined Indiana University in department of mechanical engineering, and then I was very much interested in administration. Four years into my tenure I became department chair, later on Associate Dean. I moved on in rank associate professor, full professor, did research had grants from US Army, US Navy, a number of private companies. Then I moved on to deanship, associate dean, vice chancellor, provost, and Chancellor of couple of university campuses of Indiana University.

And so I spent about 36 years there in state of Indiana, which is my now home state. I’m a Hoosier by choice.

Drumm McNaughton: Very good. Very good.

[00:03:46] Transition to Department of Education

Drumm McNaughton: And of course, following your time at Indiana, you went into Department of Education. You did a lot of work in government as well.

Nasser Paydar: Once I finished that I was honored to be asked to be assistant secretary for post-secondary education. We went through confirmation, and I spent about two and a half years at the Department of Education working on number of policies related to post-secondary education in this country.

[00:04:09] Role at CHEA

Nasser Paydar: So I left that position on January 20th, 2025, and then this opportunity at CHEA came about and I’m delighted to work with outstanding staff here at CHEA and do all sorts of things for higher education. Continued doing things with higher education.

Drumm McNaughton: You have very big shoes to fill there. I knew Cynthia and her predecessor, and both did just incredible jobs there. So I have no doubt that— well, you’ve got big feet anyway, so— no, I’m just kidding. No. So, with your background, I think this positions you very well for looking at the challenges that higher ed has. And of course, higher ed doesn’t have any challenges now, does it?

Nasser Paydar: Well Drumm, before we talk about challenges, I think we need to admit one thing.

[00:05:00] Strengths of US Higher Education

Nasser Paydar: We have an incredible higher education in this country. Envy of the world. We have incredible diversity of institutions in this country, from community colleges all the way to research universities. Academic quality here is so high that everyone in the world wants to come here. Every year we have about a million students from overseas studying here in US. Although this year the numbers have dropped, International student numbers have dropped in US. Our universities are engines of research and innovation. They lead in scientific discovery, medical breakthroughs, technology. I’m really proud of what our colleagues in higher education here are doing. And of course our accreditation and peer review system that we have in this country remains one of the strongest anywhere in the world. So these are the strength of higher education.

[00:05:46] Challenges in Higher Education

Nasser Paydar: But then at the same time, we have serious challenges.

Enrollments are declining in many regions. Families are asking harder questions about value. Many institutions are struggling financially, balancing rising costs, aging infrastructure. That’s a huge thing. Look at all the universities in hundreds of buildings and infrastructure. They have, they need renovation. And the need to invest in technology and innovation. In the last 30 years, technology, the advances there has been remarkable. But it, it costs a lot.

[00:06:19] Student Success and Graduation Rates

Nasser Paydar: And student success really remains uneven. First of all, we have a gap. Meaning not everyone that goes to higher education graduates, 36% of students never graduate, and some of ’em have debt. So they have debt and absolutely nothing to show for it. And then there are, some people that have been left behind certain communities, the graduation rates are really different. Transfer is another issue there. It complicates the whole thing.

And of course technology is going transforming learning faster than institutions can adapt. Generative AI , it may be achievable for certain university that they could invest in it, but most universities are not able to exactly, to do this. And of course finally, families want to know that degrees that they invest in lead to real opportunities in the workforce. So those are some of the challenges that exist in higher education. But again, I want to impress we have outstanding higher education and we need to solve these challenges.

Drumm McNaughton: It is incredibly outstanding. But I think you really hit on one thing that’s really critical is we have a lot of folks who start their degrees and they don’t finish them. Now, I’ve had Courtney Brown from the Lumina Foundation on multiple times. And they’ve studied this quite a bit, almost 42 million people, the last count was 41.7 or 41.9, haven’t finished their degree, and as that old saying goes, the most costly higher ed degree you go for is the one you never finish. It costs you more money.

Nasser Paydar: Absolutely. That is an issue. The fact that those people don’t graduate and some people that graduate can’t find jobs. The degree that they invest in, it just doesn’t open doors. So no wonder there is a public concern and it’s real. Seven in 10 in the last survey showed that Americans believe higher education is headed in the wrong direction.

Families want clarity, value, and honestly, so there is that. Now I’ve been in higher education for decades as faculty, dean and Provost, et cetera, et cetera. And I know the strength of a higher education, but I also know something that, I can say that because I’ve been in higher education, how slowly we sometimes move even when we know what students need. Students and families are struggling with basic information, understanding the real cost, and all of those issues. But we need to respond, a simple solution for this.

[00:08:51] Transparency and Trust in Higher Education

Nasser Paydar: Imagine if every academic program had one clear, honest page with the information student need most cost, time to degree, typical debt and outcomes, a simple, transparent page.

Every department knows that. They know, they have that information. This transparency builds trust and trust strengthens enrollment. So, that I think is a solution going forward.

Drumm McNaughton: I agree. I agree.

[00:09:21] Accreditation and Peer Review

Drumm McNaughton: One of the things that I really appreciate with WASC, one of the accreditors, and this was a Ralph Wolff initiative years ago, is they publish for all their institutions that they accredit that are in candidacy. They publish the commission action letters. They publish the visiting team reports. I wish all accreditors were this transparent. And they’re moving in that direction. No one’s gone to the same level that WASC Senior and that A-C-C-J-C have gone.

Nasser Paydar: I, Yes, I think that is true. At the same time, the information really comes from institutions. They should be the one putting these up—

Drumm McNaughton: Mm-hmm.

Nasser Paydar: —and make it easier. I’ve been in college for 40 years, 10 years as a student, and 30 years or so—

Drumm McNaughton: Oh, it didn’t take you 40 years to graduate, did it? No, I’m just kidding.

Nasser Paydar: I wish I could stay in college. I love higher education environment.

I’ve been there and I know that they can really produce all of this information. And with all the experience I have, it’s very difficult for me to go to a website of a higher education and figure out exactly what that cost is going to be for that higher ed.

And I am an expert. I have been in college, I should be, I know every department, you name a department, I know exactly who they report to and so forth. It’s so difficult to get that information. There is this actual cost, there’s this sticker price, there is this, so there are all sorts of things.

Make it easier for me to be able to see that. So I think that would go a long way in gaining trust.

Drumm McNaughton: I agree. I don’t think that’s the only reason that there’s 70% of folks out there who don’t trust higher ed, whether completely trust or to the degree that they used to. How did we get onto this path and what do we need to do to change it?

Nasser Paydar: Well, higher education in this country, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, possibly, US had the highest percentage of people with higher education. And jobs became available and the people found out that they, they can go to work without a higher education in certain discipline.

But overseas interest in higher education continue to grow and grow. To a point that today there are countries that if you look at their young population between 25 and 35 and compare it to us 25 to 35, you see that their percentage of people with higher education is higher.

The interest in higher education in other places are increasing, but the interest here is going down. Part of it is political. People badmouth higher education. There is that when they’re encourage their kids to go to college, but , they talk about college is not good.

So part of it’s degrees, we have so many degree programs here, diverse. But people go in there and then they come out and they’re expecting to get a job and they can’t find jobs. So interaction of higher education and businesses is extremely important to prepare students for workplace.

So combination of all of these, not trusting higher education. Degrees that don’t lead to jobs or people that go in there and they can’t find jobs or they go to community colleges and they can’t transfer or lose credit hours. All of that hand in hand result in what we see today and this mistrust of higher education.

I think I can say that my best inheritance is that higher education.

Drumm McNaughton: I would have to agree. One of the things you touched on was how higher ed should prepare graduates in the workforce.

[00:13:01] Interaction with Businesses

Drumm McNaughton: And I know there’s a couple of institutions, one comes to mind is Cal State San Marcos. I used to live in Southern California and I would quote substitute teach for one of the faculty members there when she’d go on vacation.

They have advisory programs that the deans would have business people coming in and help advise them on what is needed. The college or the university itself had the same thing. This was separate from the board of directors. And they took input from business and helped them to formulate and revise their course and curriculum to where it became more relevant. To me, that’s just a fabulous model.

Nasser Paydar: Yes. You know, when I was at indiana University, every dean in every school had advisory council that came from industry and they provided information. I think that’s an input. I think that’s great. We should do more of that. We should have more interactions with businesses, but institutions should be also willing to make a change.

Sometimes faculty love a program that they’ve been teaching in and possibly they take the same textbook to the classroom that they had used as a student themselves. Drumm, sometimes I feel like it may be easier to change the course of a history than to change a history course.

It’s, it is, so input comes in. But we need to be ready. We need to be interested. We need to move fast in that direction. Y

[00:14:33] Adapting to Technological Advances

Nasser Paydar: ou know, technology is advancing at a, at such a speed that three years ago artificial intelligence— well, let me talk about artificial intelligence. It’s been around for 60 years, it’s not a novel thing. Except computers now are fast enough, large enough, that can accommodate this, this fast processing of information. And so a couple of years ago there was no really use of artificial intelligence in, in daily life of individuals. But look what has happened.

All of us are using it or people are using it on us. You do it, you check something, the price of a jacket on a website for five days. Everywhere you go, there is this advertisement of certain jacket for you. So they know what I like and what you like and so forth. But we need to respond very quickly. And that is where I say that higher education could use a bit faster response. But the responsibility of that lies on the shoulder of trustees, the leadership of institutions, and faculty altogether. We should not be waiting for federal government to tell us what to do or states tell us what to do.

We need to do it much faster. And don’t get me wrong, institutions are doing that, but there is room for improvement.

[00:15:50] Leadership in Higher Education

Drumm McNaughton: One of the things that you said when we spoke yesterday, which really impacted me, was we’re not necessarily looking for answers in the right places. We need to be looking more to the chancellors and to the presidents who understand their institutions and understand where they need to go.

Nasser Paydar: Chancellors and presidents have a very tough job these days. Finances, balancing finance, there’s so many priorities out there. And then there are these policy changes and the government executive order and number of others that they have to balance that with federal law, state law, communities and so forth. They have a tough job. But the priority number one should be student success. That is after all what universities are for. At the graduate level, at the undergraduate level, mentorship of students, and preparing students for the workforce of the future should be their priority.

And that should be part of strategic planning review. And that’s where the accreditation come into the picture. In the midst of many things, accreditation is all about making students successful. People look at accreditation as compliance, a check mark, but that is not that. By accreditation is really our system of quality assurance. It protects students, supports improvement, and assures the public that institutions meet expectations. So I think that accreditation plays a role in making students successful and guides institutions in that direction. And of course, the leaders have to do what their title is, lead.

[00:17:24] CHEA’s Mission and Vision

Drumm McNaughton: Exactly, which brings me to CHEA, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This is your mission, this is your raison d’être. This is what you exist for is to continue to increase the quality of higher education and be advocates for the independence of accreditation. Tell us a little bit about that and what’s your vision for CHEA going forward?

Nasser Paydar: I’ll be delighted. CHEA is the national voice for academic quality and the independence of accreditation. We represent colleges and universities that believe in strong peer review. So at CHEA we advocate for institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and integrity of the accreditation system.

So we do two major things. First of all, we are a membership organizations. We have over 1,600 institutions, higher education institutions, that are members from all areas. So we represent them, we work for them, and we advocate on behalf of our members there. So our membership is broad and diverse.

And we also work with Congress, the Department of Education, states, accreditors and higher education association to protect the principles that make higher education strong. We believe in that and that’s what we are doing. And CHEA also runs a recognition process. I say we do two things.

[00:18:52] CHEA’s Role in Accreditation

Nasser Paydar: You know, we are membership, we advocate for them, but we also recognize accreditors. We look at accreditors, we have a set of standards that we want ’em to look at. And if they meet all of those, we recognize them. A seal of recognition so to speak. We compliment what the Department of Education does in this process. So that’s another function of CHEA. We also convene leaders through annual conferences. We have our annual conference of CHEA coming up the end of I believe January 26th and 27, 28. Listeners can go on CHEA.org, CHEA .org and register for this conference.

So we have that conference. We have great discussions, and we talk about the latest federal government issues and higher education issues and all sorts of areas related to that. And we have forums, webinars, we brought over 40 accreditors together. Was it last week? Yes. Last week. We brought 40 accreditors together. We had a discussion to see what it is that they’re doing, how can we work together on that? And so we are a convener of all accreditors in US. And so on and on, I can talk about CHEA for hours. That’s how much I believe in CHEA.

Drumm McNaughton: I appreciate that. I want to dig down a little bit about this convening of the accreditors. Because it seems to me CHEA is in a wonderful position to be the forum where accreditors and colleges and universities work together to raise the standards. It’s not an us versus them, and many cases, it takes the Department of Education outta the picture. Because you’ve got a much stronger quote lobby to be able to say, this is what we’re going to do with standards. Does that make sense?

Nasser Paydar: Well have two types of accreditors. We have institutional accreditors and programmatic accreditors, that does engineering and so on and so forth. And then we have these major regional accreditors. You mentioned WASP being one of them, middle state and number of others.

And then we have faith based accreditors that accredit institutions as a whole. So we have these two kinds. Some are large and they have their own government relations. They know what’s happening in Washington. Some are not that large. So again, by bringing everyone together we can educate everyone. We can talk about what’s common. We can talk about what we can do all together, helping each other that ultimately helps institutions and that ultimately, the bottom line, helps students. So that’s why we can bring, and we are bringing them, together and have a conversation. And we are now producing a forum summary that is going to go to the accreditors that kind of shares the discussions that we had and the areas that we want to work together.

So I think we are doing our part of supporting accreditors and higher education, and ultimately students at CHEA.

Drumm McNaughton: Well, I think that’s a great initiative to be working on. And I don’t see any other place that could host it because you’ve got the right people there. For all the great work that Ted Mitchell and ACE does. They don’t bring folks together like that, so kudos to you and to CHEA for doing that.

Nasser Paydar: Thank you. Thank you. I think ACE, ASP, APLU. They do a great job—

Drumm McNaughton: They do.

Nasser Paydar: —for their mission. But what is important about CHEA is that we are focusing only on one thing, and that is accreditation. We are the only organization, membership organization, that is focused on accreditation.

Drumm McNaughton: Yes. Earlier in the conversation we talked about having the standards and if the accreditors meet those standards. Those standards are really important with respect to student transfer. If you want to be able to have students transfer between colleges, universities, junior colleges, et cetera, there needs to be an ubiquitous standard to where they can actually have their credit hours transfer.

Nasser Paydar: Absolutely. I think one of the strength of all of the accreditors that we have here is when accreditors accredit institutions, they allow the Department of Education to provide federal support for the students that go there. So that is one reason for accreditation there. But from CHEA’s perspective, there are more reasons for accreditation, quality of the programs, improving quality of the programs, students’ success and number of other related items. Not necessarily compliance that the federal government is looking for. They do a great job, and I was part of that Department of Education and accrediting group was part of my portfolio. They do a good job of looking at accreditors from that angle. What we look at is the quality of their programs.

So when accreditors look at an accredit institutions that signals to graduate schools that they can take the undergraduate students from that institution. That gives confidence to businesses that the program has the seed of approval. So those are the strength of accreditation. And that’s what I said at the beginning is that accreditation is not just a check mark. It’s more assures people that there is quality in these programs and students are receiving outstanding education.

[00:24:19] Global Engagement and Partnerships

Drumm McNaughton: Well, the other thing that I really appreciate with CHEA is the work that you’re doing overseas.

Students are transferring back and forth from overseas colleges to the US and vice versa. And being able to transfer those credits and have the credits recognized is important. This is one of the big things that you’re working on with the overseas accreditation.

Nasser Paydar: Absolutely Drumm. So higher education is global now. It’s always been global, but it’s expanding that. And students move across borders. Institutions collaborate internationally. And employers expect global competence. Quality assurance has to reflect that reality. At CHEA we are expanding our reach. Just recently, by recently, three, four days ago I was in Saudi Arabia, I gave a keynote address at the conference. But more importantly, we signed an agreement with what’s called ANQAHE, which is Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, network of all the quality assurance and accreditors in Arab countries.

So we signed an agreement to create a CHEA, ANQAHE gateway. A partnership which is really designed to strengthen cooperation and quality assurance recognition across the region. So this gateway creates a platform for sharing best practices, exchanging expertise, and building deeper connections between US institutions and partners in the Arab world. So CHEA took that initiative and signed the agreement just, as I said, a few days ago. We are now looking at other parts of the ward so that we can do the same thing and learn from those areas as well. Not just look at, say we are the ones that we know the solutions, we want to learn, we have to be partners in global interactions.

Drumm McNaughton: Absolutely.

[00:26:09] Federal Policy Changes

Drumm McNaughton: Let’s swap horses a little bit, because we’ve seen in this last year tremendous change coming out of Washington. Executive orders, impacts on the Department of Education, what’s your perspective on this?

Nasser Paydar: We are in one of the most active periods of federal policy change that higher education has seen in years, decades. There have been, as you mentioned, executive orders, regulatory shifts that are reshaping expectations for institutions and accreditors. The Department of Education is revising definitions, expectations and processes, but we are still waiting for more details to come from the Department of Education. But already accreditors face increasing pressure to demonstrate stronger oversight.

And, you know, DEI has become a highly charged policy topic, and institutions are really navigating federal rules, state laws, and public expectations all at once. But through all these changes, some of this we don’t know, we know it’s coming. Some of it we know it’s coming, but we don’t know the extent of it and we are waiting to get more clarification from Department of Education. But through all of these changes, Drumm, institutions must stay grounded in academic integrity, student learning, and mission. There is no doubt about it. You’ve got to do that. And we need really calm, informed, and consistent dialogue going forward.

But student success and, that, that is so important. We need to be grounded in academic integrity and focus on student and student learning.

Drumm McNaughton: Absolutely couldn’t have said it any better. Department’s going to be coming out with Neg Reg, negotiated rulemaking, around accreditation. Any guesses, rumors that you’ve heard from the hill?

Nasser Paydar: I have heard rumors, but they will stay with me, Drumm. I think we’ll find out, I believe that there is a date that I don’t know when it is, but it’s sometimes in March that there will be a department will be looking at accreditation. And so we’ll be looking forward to learning more about what will happen there.

Drumm McNaughton: That, that is going to be a very interesting one. It’s what’s the old Chinese curse? May you live in interesting times.

Nasser Paydar: Yes.

[00:28:34] Future of Higher Education

Drumm McNaughton: As we start to wrap up here, what’s your ideal vision for the future of higher ed? Where do we need to go?

Nasser Paydar: That’s a very good question. We’re really entering a decade of real transformation. Driven by technology, demographics, workforce needs, and global competitions. Artificial intelligence, we know will play a major role. They can personalizing learning, supporting advising, and improving student success.

But we also must protect academic integrity and keep human judgment central. But AI is going to play a major role going forward. We all know that. I think going forward students will be more diverse, more mobile, more likely to balance work, family, and education. So institutions must be flexible and student centered.

Now leadership must evolve. Leaders will need to navigate political pressures, financial challenges, and rapid innovation, and with clarity and transparency. They have a tough job. Leaders have a tough job, and jobs are going to be more difficult going forward. We’ll continue and grow in blended learning, I predict. And not predict, I mean it’s happening, but it’s going to accelerate microcredentials, it’s going to be extremely important. Stackable pathways, competency best models, those are the areas that I think going forward are going to really dominate some of our discussions in higher education. Even as automation expands the human side of education, that is critical thinking, ethics and creativity, becomes even more important going, going forward.

Drumm McNaughton: Absolutely.

Nasser Paydar: Global engagement and cross-border learning will only grow going forward. That’s another thing that I see coming or growing going forward. Institutions that stay mission driven, student focused, and transparent will lead the next era of higher education.

Drumm McNaughton: I think that’s very well said. The other thing that we talked about yesterday is how do we move forward? There’s tremendous number of opportunities. So you talked about the vision, but the how I think is going to be equally as important.

Nasser Paydar: Well, there are some real issues out there that will force institutions to, to make drastic changes. The financial issues of institutions. Demographics of students is going to force them to do things slightly differently. The pressure from employers is going to force people.

So there will be these pressures on leaders to really look at the way to move forward. The expectations in micro credentials become so important, competitions, accreditations. Also, accreditors play a major role going forward. So there will be reasons for people want to go forward, but again, it all goes back to leadership.

They have to see the future. They have to determine what they want to do, keep students, the center of their focus and prepare them for the future of the workforce. And all of those require stackable future. You can’t go back. If some of the presidents of this country about 200 years ago come back today and go into some of the universities out there, they think that they are in their own time. They look exactly the way they were. They sometimes for graduation, they dress exactly the way they dressed. Maybe in some areas they’re teaching the same courses that they taught. Time has come for us to really, look at the future and make change.

If they don’t want it, future will change them.

Drumm McNaughton: Yes, I love your comment that you said earlier, it’s easier to change the course of history than it is to change a history course.

Nasser Paydar: Unfortunately that may be true in some areas. Yes.

Drumm McNaughton: This has been a fabulous conversation.

[00:32:49] Training Leaders in Higher Education

Drumm McNaughton: I’ve got one more question because you brought up leadership a couple of times. And now, my own background, I went to the Naval Academy, I flew airplanes in the Navy. We were taught leadership from the day we walked through the gates at Annapolis. Higher ed, at least my experience, has not done a very good job in training leaders.

Now, leaders versus management, that’s two different, two different skills. We do a decent job with training managers. What do we need to do to train better leaders in higher ed?

Nasser Paydar: That’s a very good question, and if I had the solution for it, I would’ve started a process myself in there. But it is a combination of all of those things that we are doing. The associations have a major role in teaching people. You know where I learned some of the skills in leading institutions? From people that did wrong things. I learned more from them than having a mentor out there. And so I think it is a combination of everyone working together. You need the trustees to really support leaders, expect leaders to lead, and you also need leaders to, to stand up and to be willing to make tough decisions to move forward. You know, leading an institution through status quo is the easiest thing to do. Anyone can do it. But leading a successful institution into the future is going to be tough. And we do have outstanding leaders, but we’ll know that there will be more pressure on everyone to find ways of keeping that institution successful and moving forward with success of our students.

Drumm McNaughton: Excellent, thank you. Which takes me into my final two questions.

Nasser Paydar: Yes.

[00:34:47] Three Takeaways for Accreditors, Presidents and Higher Education Boards

Drumm McNaughton: Three takeaways for accreditors, presidents and higher ed boards. What do they need to be doing now? What do they need to be doing in the future to maintain and rebuild the public trust?

Nasser Paydar: Well I think that keeping students success in mind, as priority number one, is the first thing that I suggest to people. And everything else you do should keep that objective in mind. So that is extremely important. Accreditors also need to look at the student success and what they’re doing. And working with CHEA is extremely important because we are bringing people, we are bringing leaders together, we are bringing accreditors together. I think following CHEA, CHEA.org is extremely important. And we provide information to leaders from US. What’s happening out there in real time.

So, again, following that is extremely important. I think reaction to what’s happening out there is important. But we can’t lead by just reaction alone. We need to have a purpose, a mission, and stick to it. Sticking to your mission is extremely important going forward.

Drumm McNaughton: Very good. Well, those are great takeaways. Thank you so much.

[00:36:03] Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Drumm McNaughton: What’s next for you? What’s next for CHEA?

Nasser Paydar: CHEA is going to continue to grow and continue to serve the leaders of higher education as well as accreditors out there. We’ll continue working with congress, US Congress, to educate them, to work with them, to provide answers to, to answer their questions. We are going to expand our operation overseas and make sure that we open the door, become a bridge to institutions here to overseas.

So we are going to continue more of those and I’m honored to continue in this role and support CHEA as we go forward.

Drumm McNaughton: As we said yesterday, you failed in retirement twice. I personally am very glad that you did because we wouldn’t have you at such an important organization.

Nasser Paydar: Thank you.

Drumm McNaughton: Nasser, thank you so much for being on the program. I truly appreciate our conversation and more importantly, appreciate you. Thank you.

Nasser Paydar: Thank you so much, Drumm. Delighted to be with you and thanks for the opportunity to talk with you.

Drumm McNaughton: My pleasure, sir.

Nasser Paydar: Thank you.

Drumm McNaughton: Thanks for listening today and a special thank you to my guest, Dr. Nasser Paydar, the President and CEO of CHEA. Nasser, thank you so much for being on the program. Welcome to the job, and I look forward to hearing more great things coming from CHEA and you in the near future.

To my listeners, thanks again for tuning in. See you next week.