Two Recent Executive Actions Focus On Higher Education Grant Eligibility & Admissions Data and Polices
Overview
Last Thursday, August 7th, while the higher education community and other interested parties were focused on and participating in the virtual public hearing seeking comments and recommendations on how to implement recent statutory changes to the Title IV, HEA programs included in Pub. L. 119-21, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump was busy releasing two new Executive Actions important to the higher education community and other interested and effected parties as well.
The first action taken by the President was the release of an Executive Order (EO) entitled, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grant Making (www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/improving-oversight-of-federal-grantmaking/) ” expressing President Trump and the Administration’s belief that there is “a strong need to strengthen oversight and coordination of, and to streamline, agency grantmaking to address specific problems, prevent them from recurring, and ensure greater accountability for use of public funds more broadly.” The declaration contained in the EO was accompanied by a Fact Sheet (www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-stops-wasteful-grantmaking/) sharing the details of a series of substantial new requirements in the assessment and administration of federal grant approvals across the entire federal government – including institutional grants to institutions of higher education and other higher education affiliated
entities.
The second action taken by the President was publication of a Presidential Memorandum (Memo) to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon entitled “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions (www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/ensuring-transparency-in-higher-education-admissions/) ” asserting that the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) requires “long-overdue technological upgrades to expand its data collection and fulfill its mission effectively.” As part of a revamped and potentially overhauled IPEDS the Memo calls upon the Secretary and the Department to significantly enhance reporting requirements with emphasis on expanding the scope of required reporting providing adequate transparency into admissions, as determined by the Secretary of Education, consistent with applicable law. Like the EO, the Memo was also accompanied by a Fact Sheet
(www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ensures-transparency-in-higher-education-admissions/) detailing the directives designed to require higher education institutions receiving Federal financial assistance to be transparent regarding their admissions practices.
In response to the Memo the Department of Education issues a press release, including a directive to the National Center for Education Statistics to immediately take actions to collect admissions data for institutions of higher education that will allow Americans to ensure race-based preferences are not used in university admissions processes.
As part of this process, NCES has already submitted a Notice for publication in the Federal Register this Friday. The Notice is an information collection request (ICR) in relation to the Memo with emphasis on public comments on:
(1) is the estimated burden of the data collection accurate;
(2) how the Department might enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
(3) how might the Department minimize the burden of this collection on the respondents, including using information technology.
