Former US president Donald Trump and other Republicans have said they will pursue the accreditation status of individual colleges because of unconstitutionality and civil rights violations.
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After a divisive and historic election, Donald J. Trump emerged Wednesday with enough electoral votes to return to the White House in January. He will be the second president of the country to hold two consecutive terms.
A second Trump administration will increase scrutiny of colleges and universities and empower advocates for new sector reform at a historically unstable time in American higher education. With enrollment tumbling and public disillusionment with college costs—and after a year of negative public attention to campus protesters and federal policy failures on student debt and financial aid—that shift could have revolutionary implications at the highest levels.
Higher education consumed relatively little oxygen during Trump’s first term, but his actions have provided clues about his policy agenda for the next four years. While in office, he scaled back oversight of for-profit colleges, enacted new Title IX laws that strengthened due process protections for those accused of assault and appointed a conservative majority to the US Supreme Court, giving it the power to take affirmative action.
Trump didn’t make higher education a priority in his 2024 campaign, either. But over the course of four years, high-profile political battles have intensified, and high-profile campus issues—such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs and campus protests—are increasingly central to the Republican Party’s national messaging. Trump himself has repeatedly asserted that American universities are run and staffed by “Marxist maniacs” and vowed to quash allegations that left-wingers threaten free speech.
Trump’s choice of running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, was seen as a sign that he had moved further to the right in a higher place. The vice president-elect is a sharp-tongued critic of higher education: He’s called professors “the enemy,” introduced legislation to apply a broader definition of affirmative action bans and co-sponsored a college tax relief bill. 35 percent.
“If any of us want to do the things we want to do for our country,” he once said, “we must attack the universities with honesty and violence.”
That could add to the extreme policy positions from Trump’s new administration. He has promised to overhaul the college accreditation process to remove what he sees as ideological bias and unfair academic priorities. He has threatened to punish universities that do not clamp down on pro-Palestinian rhetoric and expel international students who stage college protests. He suggested that he might bar transgender athletes from participating in college sports by making the act more formal. And he proposed creating a national online university, funded by the taxes of wealthy colleges, to combat the “awakening” and promote “reform in higher education.”
Whether Trump can follow through on his plans depends on which party controls Congress. So far, Republicans have a majority in the Senate and appear to be on track to take over the House. That trifecta would give Trump more leverage to take aggressive measures related to higher education.
Trump is almost certain to reverse some of President Biden’s top signature policies, including civil rights protections for transgender students and his income-driven student loan repayment plan. Those actions will not require Congress, as Biden is putting them in place through executive action.
Experts say some of these proposals are unrealistic and impossible, especially those that would require a congressional review of the Higher Education Act, which has not been updated since 2008. and spark public outrage over campus cultural issues. It may also encourage lawmakers who want to cut senior funding or place limits on DEI spending and racially sensitive programs.
Another unknown affecting Trump’s second term is the role of the Department of Education. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary during his first term, is unlikely to return, given her resignation and her public repudiation of Trump in the wake of the violence at the Capitol on January 6. Trump’s tough talk on education suggests to some experts that he could nominate someone closer to the right, such as Christopher Rufo, Florida governor Ron DeSantis in his campaign to reshape higher education in his state.
Trump recently called for disbanding the Department of Education, promising to return education authority “to the country.” Project 2025, the far-right blueprint for restructuring American governance tied to the Trump campaign, offers a detailed plan for how to dismantle the department—though many observers say it would be a tall order to follow through on that proposal.
The department’s current staff can handle their expectations.
“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote on X Wednesday morning. “Besides my own personal journey, I had a lot of faith in what would happen if he won … As sad as I am for Vice President Harris, I’m also saddened by what I know would happen to my children and children across the country. “
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