The Department of Education and its rule-making committee tasked with determining how to implement Congress's latest loan caps reached consensus Thursday, but that doesn't mean everyone involved was happy with the results-or that the policy proposal is guaranteed to be legally sound, some higher education experts say. The key focus of the regulations, which should be published to the Federal Register by early next year, was to determine which degree programs should be eligible for which level of loans.
The Trump administration's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" continues to make headlines. Nine selective institutions were originally asked to agree to reduce transgender and foreign students' rights and make other changes in exchange for federal funding priority and other unspecified benefits. All of these universities either rejected the compact or gave noncommittal responses, while a few relatively unknown, non-research-intensive institutions have publicly expressed interest in signing.
The pact requires universities to cap enrollment of international students, commit to strict definitions of gender, freeze tuition for five years, conductmerit-based faculty hiring, and ban race and gender in admissions decisions. Several of the schools the Trump administration approached about the compact previously had funding disputes over changes in their research policy or DEI initiatives. Agreeing to the pact would have given the universities priority for grants and invitations to White House events.
As part of National Transfer Student Week, hundreds of college campuses are hosting public celebrations to uplift their transfer student communities, including many in our home state of California. While these celebrations are important to increase visibility and a sense of belonging, transfer students warrant our attention and support year-round. The data demonstrate why: While 80 percent of community college students nationally aspire to earn a bachelor's degree, just 17 percent of community college students in California reach that finish line within six years.
I appreciate the various points of view shared with me by many members of our community. Although USC has declined to join the proposed Compact, we look forward to contributing our perspectives, insights, and Trojan values to an important national conversation about the future of higher education.
In conservative states, a spate of recent laws gives legislators and governors more control over public higher education curriculum, take authority from faculty over educational policy decisions, and require the policing of faculty and programs for left-leaning bias. States exercising increasing levels of control over public colleges and universities are moving toward a regulatory environment for higher education more like that for public elementary and secondary schools.
But the new higher-education compact offered to universities by the administration strongly suggests that Trump's higher-education agenda, if successful, will result in a far less diverse academy, with fewer Black and Latino students. It will do this by demanding that colleges adopt an admissions system based purely on test scores and GPA-and accusing any institution that resists of illegal racial preferences.
Under the terms of the agreement laid out in the memo: Universities must ensure that admissions and financial support services disregard race and sex when admitting students and hiring staff and faculty. They must publicly share anonymised admissions data, including GPA and test scores, broken down by race, national origin and sex. All applicants to universities are required to take a standardised test, such as the SAT, before they can be admitted.
The White House has asked the University of Southern California and eight other major universities to take a shift to the right and agree to President Trump's views on gender identity, admissions, diversity and free speech among other areas - in exchange for more favorable access to federal research grants and additional funding. Universities were asked to sign a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" committing them to adopt the White House's conservative vision for America's campuses.
➡️ The government has officially shut down, the third time this has happened under President Trump's leadership - and Democrats in the Congressional Equality Caucus wasted no time blaming the Republican Party. Meanwhile, Trump ally Michael Flynn urged a federal appeals court to uphold Trump's renewed ban on trans military service in a filing that reads like a culture war manifesto, and Texas is cracking down on state universities teaching about gender identity.
At least five tenured faculty members have been terminated or put on leave over comments they made on social media following the killing of conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk. As tenured professors, in theory they should have some of the strongest job security protections in the country, especially when it comes to freedom of expression. But the speed with which they were punished for their speech suggests an erosion of tenure protections years in the making.
The Trump administration's settlement proposal to UCLA - which includes a nearly $1.2-billion fine over allegations of antisemitism and civil rights violations - seeks to drastically overhaul campus practices on hiring, admissions, sports, scholarships, discrimination and gender identity, a Times review of the document shows. The 28-page letter - whose full contents have not been made public - also lays out in sweeping detail how it wants the university to enforce new policies that adhere to the president's conservative agenda.
Approximately 65 percent of the 1.2 million active-duty service members in the U.S. armed forces have less than an associate degree level of education, according to 2023 data; many of them hold some college credits but no degree. Federal aid programs make enrolling in college and earning a degree more accessible for military-affiliated students, but not every student is aware of academic interventions that can help them complete a credential sooner, including credit for prior learning.
UC president James B. Milliken wrote a letter to dozens of local elected officials Tuesday explaining that "the stakes are high and the risks are very real." The system's 10 institutions could lose billions of dollars in aid, forcing its leaders to make tough calls about staffing, the continuation of certain academic programs and more, he said. President Trump has already frozen more than $500 million in grants at UCLA, allegedly because the Justice Department accused the university of violating Jewish students' civil rights.
Earlier this month, higher education policy leaders from all 50 states gathered in Minneapolis for the 2025 State Higher Education Executive Officers Higher Education Policy Conference. During a plenary session on the future of learning and work and its implications for higher education, Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, reflected on the growing need for people to be able to easily build and showcase their skills.
Ohio State University has advised resident advisers to restrict all dorm floor and common room decor-as well as welcome programming for incoming students-to "Ohio State spirit themes" to avoid offending or alienating students. That means motifs like "retro video games and SpongeBob" motifs, which one outraged former RA on Reddit said they decorated with, won't be allowed.
Mr. Kent has demonstrated the temperament and approach needed to succeed as under secretary, which is no small thing. However, we also know that even as Mr. Kent will work to implement policies we may oppose, he will approach these disagreements with an open mind, centering students, taxpayers, and institutions while seeking the best outcome.
