Verifying Openness in University Admission Procedures
The Trump Administration has taken significant steps to ensure transparency in higher education admissions, as the U.S. Department of Education is directed to collect comprehensive data from colleges and universities.
The key measures include expanding data collection, focusing on four-year institutions with selective admissions, and requiring detailed academic data reporting. Institutions must now report admissions data broken down by race and sex, covering applicant pools, admitted cohorts, and enrolled students. They are also required to provide quantitative measures of applicants' academic achievements such as standardized test scores, GPAs, and first-generation-college-student status for each race-sex group.
To establish a baseline reflecting practices before the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that ended race-conscious admissions, schools must submit up to six years of application and admission data. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is tasked with developing rigorous audit processes to ensure data accuracy and consistency across institutions.
The enhanced reporting, planned to start in the 2025-2026 school year, will be made public. The Secretary of Education, in consultation with other agencies, shall revamp the online presentation of IPEDS data for easy accessibility and intelligible presentation.
These actions stem from a presidential memorandum issued by Trump, emphasizing that admissions must be based on merit and achievement rather than race. The aim is to restore public confidence and prevent race-based discrimination in higher education admissions.
Some experts have expressed concerns about potential inaccuracies or misinterpretations due to administrative challenges within the Department of Education. However, the administration maintains that transparency and standardized reporting would protect hardworking students from racial preference policies.
The Supreme Court has held that consideration of race in higher education admissions violates students' civil rights. This memorandum is not intended to create any enforceable rights or benefits.
In summary, the Trump Administration's approach has been to mandate extensive, detailed, and audited race- and sex-disaggregated admissions data reporting to expose and curtail race-based practices in college admissions.
- The Trump Administration's policy-and-legislation focused on education-and-self-development has resulted in mandates for detailed, race- and sex-disaggregated admissions data reporting from colleges and universities, aiming to prevent race-based discrimination and restore public confidence in higher education admissions.
- In the realm of general-news, the Education Department is required to collect comprehensive data from four-year institutions with selective admissions, and during the 2025-2026 school year, this enhanced reporting will be made public, displaying admissions data broken down by race and sex, in an effort to ensure transparency and curtail race-based practices in college admissions.
