Presidential Memorandum and U.S. Department of Education Directive Require Colleges and Universities to Report Applicant Pools and Admissions Statistics by Race and Sex

At a Glance

• On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued a memorandum to the U.S. Secretary of Education entitled “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions,” stating that the “persistent lack of available data — paired with the rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies — continues to raise concerns about whether race is actually used in practice” for college and university admissions decisions.
• The memorandum mandates both (1) technological improvements to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and (2) “enhanced” reporting requirements regarding the characteristics of admissions pools at all postsecondary institutions that participate in Title IV federal student aid programs. The memorandum also mandates “increase[d] accuracy checks” for data submitted to IPEDS and directs enforcement through Title IV statutory and regulatory provisions.
• On the same day, Secretary McMahon released a directive to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the administrative unit of the Department of Education (ED) that manages IPEDS, to fulfill those requirements within 120 days for implementation during the 2025-26 academic year. The directive specifies that ED will collect data disaggregated by race and sex relating to the applicant pools, admitted cohorts and enrolled cohorts at the undergraduate level and select graduate and professional programs going forward. ED subsequently issued a notice in the Federal Register on August 15 with further details regarding the admissions data that must be submitted by all four-year institutions “who utilize selective college admissions.”
• Because IPEDS compliance is a requirement of Title IV federal student aid participation, educational institutions should remain attentive to the publication of revised data reporting elements and associated timelines.

On August 7, 2025, the president issued a memorandum to the U.S. Secretary of Education entitled “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions.” Citing the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, the memorandum directs Secretary McMahon to make technological improvements to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and to impose certain “enhanced” reporting requirements, including the sex and race characteristics of applicant pools, in connection with those improvements. On the same day, Secretary McMahon released a directive to the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the administrative unit of the Department of Education (ED) that manages IPEDS, to begin implementation of those requirements. ED subsequently released additional information through a Federal Register notice and request for comment on August 15, which is open to commenters until October 14, 2025.

Nature and Enforcement of Enhanced Reporting Requirements

The new IPEDS data reporting elements must be published within 120 days of the memorandum (i.e., by December 5, 2025), and the first requirement for institutions to report such data must occur during the 2025-26 academic year. Specifically, Secretary McMahon’s directive instructs NCES to collect data disaggregated by race and sex relating to the applicant pool, admitted cohort and enrolled cohort at the undergraduate level and for specific graduate and professional programs. Institutions will also be required to report quantitative measures of applicants and admitted students’ standardized test scores, grade point averages, first-generation-college-student status and other applicant characteristics for each race-and-sex pair.

The memorandum also directs the Secretary to “increase accuracy checks” of the data that is submitted to “ensure the validity” of IPEDS records. In addition, if institutions “fail to submit data in a timely manner,” or “are found to have submitted incomplete or inaccurate data,” the memorandum directs the Secretary to take “remedial action consistent with” Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and any other applicable laws.

On August 15, ED released additional information through a Federal Register notice and request for comment. The notice proposes the addition of a new IPEDS “Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement” (ACTS) survey component, which will apply to “all four-year institutions who utilize selective college admissions.” The survey component specifically targets “selective” four-year institutions, which ED assessed to “have a higher risk of noncompliance in awarding scholarships” compared to community colleges and trade schools.

The notice clarifies that the ACTS component will collect disaggregated undergraduate data by race-sex pair on application, admission and enrollment cohorts by test score quintiles, GPA quintiles, family income, Pell Grant eligibility and parental education; average high school grant point averages and admission test score quintiles for each cohort; and counts of students admitted via “early” action compared to regular admissions. The ACTS component will also collect data on the count and average amount of students receiving institutional, local, state, and federal government financial aid, all disaggregated by the factors previously referenced (e.g., test scores, income, etc.).

Notably, the 2025-26 version of the ACTS component will require institutions to submit data from the past five academic years “to establish a baseline of admissions practices from before the Supreme Court decision in SFFA v. Harvard.” ED specifically notes that this data may be used to develop “risk-based enforcement practices,” elevating compliance and enforcement risks associated with institutions’ survey submissions. Public comments on the August 15 notice are due by October 14, 2025.

Technological Improvements Also Required

To make IPEDS data “easily accessible and intelligibly presented for parents and students,” the presidential memorandum directs the Secretary to “revamp” the online presence of the IPEDS site and, if necessary, to “overhaul the IPEDS data collection portal.” Although ED’s “College Scorecard” page already includes substantial data on the socioeconomic diversity of student bodies at postsecondary institutions, NCES will likely be responsible for building and implementing any technological improvements to “more efficiently organize and utilize the data received from the institutions” under the additional IPEDS reporting requirements.

However, in light of the recent significant downsizing of ED (including the majority of staff at the Institute of Education Sciences, which houses NCES), the timeline for implementing such significant changes to the online presentation of IPEDS data remains uncertain.

Consistency With Prior Initiatives

Both the presidential memorandum and Secretary McMahon’s statement are consistent with other recent administration initiatives. For example, the new IPEDS requirement to report the composition of an institution’s applicant pool by race and sex is thematically consistent with the July 29 DOJ memorandum regarding the impermissibility of certain DEI initiatives if they rely on racial classifications or create exclusions based on race or sex. Our analysis of that memorandum is available here.

Similarly, although postsecondary institutions already have substantial reporting obligations through IPEDS, these expanded reporting elements will likely be subject to heightened scrutiny and may specifically lead to potentially significant enforcement actions. Institutions should therefore remain attentive to the implementation of the revised data reporting elements and associated timelines.

Conclusion

We continue to analyze the likely effects of these directives. It is not yet clear how IPEDS reporting obligations will be assessed, nor how purportedly insufficient or inaccurate reports will be specifically determined or enforced (beyond the “remedial action” directive in the memorandum or the “risk-based enforcement practices” referenced in the Federal Register notice). Educational institutions should continue to engage with legal counsel to evaluate these directives and their planned implementation during the 2025-26 academic year.

For More Information

For further information, please contact the authors.