President Trump Issues Memorandum Revamping the Collection and Presentation of Admissions Data, Expanding the Scope of Required Reporting of Admissions Data, and Increasing Monitoring of Admissions Data

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued a memorandum (“Admissions Memorandum”) for the Department of Education entitled “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions,” along with a corresponding fact sheet. As part of President Trump’s efforts to ensure institutions of higher education prioritize “fairness, merit, and American values,” the Admissions Memorandum follows the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court decision and an order that the President signed on January 21, 2025—Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity—both of which prohibit institutions of higher education from considering race in admissions. The Admissions Memorandum suggests the Trump Administration will focus investigative resources on assessing whether colleges and universities employ race-neutral admissions policies.

Seeking greater transparency, the Admissions Memorandum states that it is intended to address “the persistent lack of available data” that, in conjunction with the “rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies,” raises concerns “about whether race is actually used in practice” in higher education admissions. The Admissions Memorandum further states Americans “deserve confidence in the fairness and integrity of our Nation’s institutions of higher education,” noting race-based admissions “threaten our national security and well-being.”

In an effort to expose unlawful practices, the Admissions Memorandum directs the following actions to ensure that “institutions of higher education receiving Federal financial assistance are transparent in their admissions practices”:

• The Secretary of Education, with the help of other executive departments and agencies, will:
  
  
  • Improve the intake of Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data to remove inefficiencies and increase data utilization. By way of background, higher education institutions that receive funding through Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 are required to submit information to IPEDS—a system of 12 annual survey components—as a condition of participating in federal student aid programs. The IPEDS data, which is publicly available, encompasses nine major topical areas: institutional characteristics; enrollment; completions; graduation rates and outcomes; admissions; student financial aid; human resources; finance; and academic libraries.
    
    
  • Revamp the online presentation of the IPEDS data so that it is more easily accessible, both in form and substance, for parents and students.
    
    
• Within 120 days of the Admissions Memorandum (December 5, 2025), the Secretary of Education, in coordination with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), will “expand the scope of required reporting to provide adequate transparency into admissions.”
  
  
  • The reporting requirements will be initiated during the 2025-2026 academic year.
    
    
  • To ensure the validity of the IPEDs data, the Secretary of Education will perform more frequent accuracy checks of the submitted data.
    
    
  • If institutions (1) fail to submit data in a “timely manner,” or (2) are “found to have submitted incomplete or inaccurate data,” the Secretary of Education will take “remedial action, consistent with Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and other applicable laws.”

Following the issuance of the Admissions Memorandum, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a press release directing NCES to collect data disaggregated by race and sex relating to institution’s applicants, admitted students, and enrolled students. Of note, previously, IPEDS surveys requested the racial breakdown of enrolled students, but not applicants or admittees. The data will include quantitative measures of applicants’ and admitted students’ academic achievements such as standardized test scores, GPAs, and other applicant characteristics. Secretary McMahon further directed NCES to “develop a rigorous audit process to ensure the data being collected is accurate and reported consistently across institutions.” Given the Department of Justice’s recent initiative to use the False Claims Act to pursue claims for violations of civil rights laws, certifications of IPEDS data could draw increased scrutiny by the federal government.

Notably, the fact sheet also references the Trump Administration’s recent settlements with Brown University and Columbia University, both of which include provisions that agree to provide the Administration with detailed admissions data.