Trump wants changes to student loans, accreditation, college research

In the last year, American colleges have been asked to conduct sweeping changes in order to keep federal funding.
Different research. Different admissions standards. Fewer diversity initiatives. Changing student programs. Lower tuition.
This week, Trump officials told a gathering of higher education professionals that pressure won’t relent anytime soon.
“Too often, institutions have been eager to accept billions of dollars in federal funds while resisting any meaningful accountability for results,” U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent said, as reported by Higher Ed Dive.
“Let me be clear, those days are over.”
At the American Council on Education’s annual meeting, Kent said he wants college to become cheaper, easier to access and more responsive to the modern workforce.
The Trump administration is using lots of levers to push its goals.
It is overhauling higher education accreditation, recognizing new accreditors and has asked organizations to drop diversity rules.
Some of the accreditation changes are aimed at faculty and intellectual diversity.
Trump’s 2025 Big Beautiful Bill dramatically limited federal student loan access and launched a new earnings test that could cost hundreds of thousands of students access to federal aid. Most federal student loan changes take effect July 1, 2026.
And multiple executive agencies have opened civil rights investigations and frozen funding after accusations of antisemitism, failure to protect female athletes and illegal diversity programs.