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Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday urged American universities to outline their commitments to a set of Trump administration priorities by the end of this year.
In an open letter to university presidents and board members, McMahon lamented that higher education institutions, in her view, have “drifted from the principles that built up so much public esteem.”
McMahon added, “Before the end of 2026, I call on every postsecondary institution to describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service—commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.” The Education secretary asked for university leaders to address seven topics, ranging from the transparency of their admissions processes to the promotion of the “free exchange of ideas” on campus.
“I know that there is no single template for academic excellence, and I hope we will witness a variety of institutional types, each with distinct missions and priorities, issue landmark declarations of purpose that will revitalize higher education in the years ahead,” McMahon wrote.
Seven in 10 Americans told the Pew Research Center in September that U.S. higher education was going in the wrong direction, up from 56 percent in 2020. Just 28 percent of respondents to the Pew survey believed the sector was heading in the right direction.
The second Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach towards universities, launching a number of investigations into alleged discrimination — particularly over concerns of antisemitism on campus — at Ivy League schools last year and briefly freezing their federal research funding.
While some institutions, including Columbia University and Brown University, reached deals with the administration to end the administration’s probes and restore research funding, multiple university leaders rejected a compact the administration proposed later in 2025.
Via the compact, the administration offered schools preferential treatment in receiving federal funds in exchange for a slew of policy changes — including freezing tuition for five years, banning transgender women from women’s locker rooms and athletic teams and capping the percentage of the student body from foreign countries at 15 percent.
But in her letter on Monday, McMahon did not demand schools make any specific changes. Instead, the Education secretary asked for universities to “provide full transparency” regarding where they stand on the aforementioned seven topics.
One of those topics was how universities “encourage intellectual pluralism,” with McMahon asking leaders to describe how hiring and evaluation processes “support academic vitality and ensure that all relevant perspectives” are taken seriously.
A survey of 6,000-plus university faculty the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) conducted in 2024 found that 59.2 percent of respondents leaned left, while 16.6 percent leaned right.
Over half of conservative faculty members told FIRE they at least occasionally hid their political beliefs from other faculty to keep their jobs, as opposed to 17 percent of liberal faculty members.
McMahon also asked for details on how universities will “incentivize rigor in the age of AI,” combat grade inflation, protect academic programs from foreign influence, advance “American security interests” and meet the needs of the workforce.
Additionally, McMahon asked leaders for information on how their institutions can lower tuition costs and improve price transparency.
The average tuition cost for in-state public school students rose from $11,610 in the 2024-25 academic year to $11,950 in 2025-26, according to the College Board. For out-of-state public and private school students, average tuition increased by $1,060 and $1,750 to $31,880 and $45,000, respectively.
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