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With Trump headed back to the White House, “higher ed is in for a rough ride,” says Trinity Washington president Patricia McGuire.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
After a divisive and historic election, Donald J. Trump emerged Wednesday with enough electoral votes to return to the White House in January. He'll be the country’s second-ever president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
A second Trump administration will likely ramp up scrutiny of colleges and universities and empower advocates for sweeping reform of the sector during a historically unstable time for American higher education. As enrollments flounder and public disillusionment with college cost grows—and after a year of negative public attention over campus protesters and federal policy blunders on student debt and financial aid—that shift could have transformative implications for higher ed.
Higher education consumed comparatively little oxygen during Trump’s first term, but his actions then offer some clues as to his policy agenda for the next four years. While in office, he toned down oversight of for-profit colleges, issued new Title IX rules that bolstered due process protections for those accused of assault and appointed a conservative majority to the U.S. Supreme Court, empowering it to strike down affirmative action.
Trump didn’t make higher education a primary focus of his 2024 campaign, either. But in the intervening four years, political battles over higher ed have intensified, and high-profile campus issues—like diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives 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 root out alleged left-wing ideological bias that he says threatens free speech.
Trump’s choice of running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, was seen as a signal that he’s moved farther to the right on higher ed. The vice president–elect is a sharp-tongued critic of higher education: He’s called professors “the enemy,” introduced legislation to enforce a broad interpretation of the affirmative action ban and co-sponsored a bill to ratchet up the college endowment excise tax to 35 percent.
“If any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country,” he once said, “we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities.”
That could all add up to more extreme policy positions from a new Trump administration. He promised to reshape the college accreditation process to root out what he sees as ideological bias and misplaced educational priorities. He threatened to punish universities that don’t crack down on pro-Palestinian speech and deport international students who engage in campus protests. He suggested he might ban transgender athletes from participating in college sports via executive action. And he proposed creating a national online university, funded by taxes on wealthy colleges, to combat “wokeness” and foment a “revolution 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 on track to hold the House. That trifecta will give Trump much more power to take aggressive action related to higher education.
Trump is also almost certain to undo some of President Biden’s signature higher ed policies, including new civil rights protections for transgender students and his income-driven student loan repayment plan. Those actions won’t require Congress, as Biden put them into place using executive action.
Experts say some of these proposals are impractical and improbable, especially those that would require a congressional update to the Higher Education Act, which hasn’t been revised since 2008. But a second Trump presidency is likely to amplify concerns about the value of postsecondary education and inflame public anger over campus culture issues. It could also embolden lawmakers who want to slash higher ed funding or impose bans on DEI spending and race-conscious programs.
One consequential unknown surrounding Trump’s second term is the role of the Education Department. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary throughout his first term, is unlikely to return, given her resignation and public disavowal of Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Trump’s own hardened rhetoric around education suggests to some experts that he may appoint a more far-right figure to the post, such as Christopher Rufo, Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s consigliere in his mission to reshape higher education in his state.
Trump recently called for the dissolution of the Education Department, promising to return authority over education “back to the states.” Project 2025, the far-right blueprint for reorganizing American governance that has been tied to the Trump campaign, offers a detailed plan for how to dismantle the department—though most observers say it would be a tall order to follow through on that proposal.
Current department employees can only manage their expectations.
“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona posted on X Wednesday morning. “Regardless of my personal journey, I believed strongly in what was possible if she won ... While I am sad for Vice President Harris, I am more sad for what I know could have been for my children and for children across the country.”
