Trump's higher ed shakeup starts a new semester

Students are returning to campus as the Trump administration continues to reshape American academia.

The big picture: The administration has leveraged federal education funding and threatened litigation against universities deemed misaligned with policy priorities — moves critics say subject academia to political whims.

State of play: The all-of-government squeeze on higher education continues a 19-month battle that has brought scrutiny of international collaboration, threats to research funding, litigation and possible accreditation overhauls.

• "It was an earthquake in January of 2025," says Stuart Shapiro, the dean of Rutgers' School of Planning and Public Policy who worked in the Office of Management and Budget. "The relationship between government and academia, which really has its birth in the post-World War II era, has never seen a shakeup like that since then."
• "We're still living with that," he says.

Research funding

After the administration's cuts and freezes last year rocked research, universities and advocates are raising red flags about an OMB proposal to overhaul federal grant-making.

• The proposed rule would require political appointees to review grant requests and make it easier to terminate those that don't align with agency priorities.
• OMB argued that federal grants have promoted "a 'woke' policy agenda" and require "more oversight."

Worth noting: The Senate's bipartisan stopgap measure would temporarily block the rule, which critics warn would undermine merit, innovation and international collaboration.

• "The tragedy of back to school in 2026 is that there will be fewer graduate students and fewer scientists pursuing cures for diseases because of the uncertainty that's been created by OMB," Research!America President and CEO Russ Paulsen tells Axios.

International students and collaboration

New international enrollment dropped last year, pushing students to rival hubs.

• Earlier this month, the Pentagon ordered 30 institutions to audit their foreign collaboration by August 31 to maintain federal research funding, citing national security. The OMB proposal also restricts certain foreign collaboration.
• "Nobody ... is suggesting that we should not be mindful of research security," Paulsen says, "but we also need to be mindful of overly broad restrictions that could undermine our nation's ability to be in the forefront."

Zoom out: The administration is also changing how long international students can stay in the U.S., sparking a court challenge.

• Under the rule, effective September 15, student admission will be capped at four years, rather than the previous "duration of status" policy.

Litigation

The DOJ has continued a cascade of probes against states and universities over admission practices, financial assistance for undocumented immigrants and more.

• It has honed in on medical school admissions, alleging that UCLA, Yale and U.C. San Diego's medical schools illegally considered race.
• The Department of Education also announced last month new probes into five medical schools for "alleged racial discrimination in admissions."
• "It seems like the new strategy now is to threaten litigation, and then to move the institutions into negotiations," Todd Wolfson, the American Association of University Professors president, told Axios. "What they're trying to achieve is not as clear as when they throw a demand letter" at universities.

Accreditation reform

The administration has zeroed in on college accreditation, too. Most recently by threatening the American Bar Association's power to accredit law schools, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

• Department staff found the ABA "out of compliance with the agency's accreditation regulations and recognition standard," a spokesperson confirmed, adding the review remains ongoing.

The Education Department also proposed a new framework intended to "break up entrenched accreditation monopolies" and speed review for new accreditors.

• The proposal emphasizes that accrediting agencies must promote and prioritize "intellectual diversity and the free exchange of ideas amongst faculty."

Go deeper: Dems plan probes into companies, colleges that cooperated with Trump