Trump admin to require colleges to report race in admissions data
As part of its initiative to eliminate race-based admissions in higher education, the Trump administration has unveiled further details of its plan requiring colleges to report admissions data.
The Department of Education is expected to officially release its new proposal in the Federal Register on Friday.
As part of its initiative to eliminate race-based admissions in higher education, the Trump administration has unveiled further details of its plan requiring colleges to report admissions data.
The Department of Education is expected to officially release its new proposal in the Federal Register on Friday, as reported by Inside Higher Ed.
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The proposal seeks to collect admissions data from the current 2025-2026 academic year, as well as the past five academic years in order to “track racial changes in admissions practices” following the Supreme Court’s 2023 landmark ruling against race-based affirmative action in college admissions.
”The federal government does not currently collect racial data on admissions and scholarships and has limited tools to ensure widescale compliance with Title VI,” the document states. ”Greater transparency through the collection of this type of information will help to expose unlawful practices, enable the Department to better [enforce] Title VI, and create good incentives for voluntary compliance.”
The Education Department is specifically tracking data from four-year institutions with ”selective college admissions” since such schools maintain ”an elevated risk of noncompliance with the civil rights laws.”
The newly created Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement will feature a survey to collect data by “race-sex pair” for both undergraduate and graduate students. Such data will include GPA quintiles, admission test score quintiles, Pell Grant eligibility, ranges of family income, and other metrics.
The proposal follows the department’s Aug. 7 announcement to devise such a plan in accordance with President Trump’s memorandum aimed at “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions.” The department specifically announced that schools would need to report “data disaggregated by race and sex” concerning their overall applicants, admitted applicants, and enrolled students for the undergraduate level and certain graduate programs.
”We will not allow institutions to blight the dreams of students by presuming that their skin color matters more than their hard work and accomplishments,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release statement. “The Trump Administration will ensure that meritocracy and excellence once again characterize American higher education.”