On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued a presidential memorandum titled “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions” along with a related fact sheet. According to the memorandum, the Supreme Court has “definitively held that consideration of race in higher education admissions violates students rights”[1] but a “persistent lack of available data” combined with “overt and hidden racial proxies” caused further “concerns about whether race is actually used in process.” The memorandum indicated that the government has not been able to collect sufficient data to “expos[e] unlawful practices[,]” and directed the Secretary of Education to makes changes to the federal collection and publication of admissions data for U.S. institutions of higher education.

On the same day as the memorandum, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a directive for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to modify the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data collection for the 2025-2026 academic year.  To implement the Secretary’s directive, the NCES, the Institute of Education Science (IES), and the U.S. Department of Education published a request for comment in the Federal Register on August 15, 2025. This publication outlines the new IPEDS “Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement” (ACTS) survey component.

This client alert provides an overview of IPEDS and the changes in data collection that higher education institutions can expect for the 2025-2026 academic year and beyond.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)

IPEDS is a series of surveys conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Participation in IPEDS is mandatory for colleges and universities wishing to participate in federal student financial aid programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Currently, IPEDS collects data on institutional characteristics, institutional prices, admissions, enrollment figures, student financial aid, degree completion, graduation rates, finance, human resources, and academic libraries.

The collected data is publicly available and searchable on the IPEDS website, which allows users to compare colleges. For instance, the most recently released data was from the spring survey covering the 2023-2024 academic year, released in January 2025.

Proposed Changes to IEPDS Data Collection

The presidential memorandum and the Department of Education directive require a comprehensive overhaul of IPEDS, focusing on enhancing data collection related to admissions, to ensure race is not a factor in admissions and scholarships for purposes of compliance with Title VI, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College decision.

According to the Department of Education’s request for comment, IPEDS seeks to introduce a new “Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement” (ACTS) survey component. This survey will apply to “four-year institutions that utilize selective college admissions,” which the Administration views as having a “high-risk of non-compliance with Title VI.” The ACTS survey is not proposed to apply to “open access” institutions such as community colleges and trade schools.

The ACTS survey is expected to collect detailed admissions and financial aid information for undergraduate students from four-year institutions, disaggregated by race and sex.

Based on the request for comment in the Federal Register, the survey is expected to collect the following admissions information for undergraduates:

1. Admissions data on applied, admitted, and enrolled cohorts, with breakdowns by test scores, GPAs, income, Pell Grant eligibility, and parental education;
2. Average high school GPA and admission test scores for applied, admitted, and enrolled cohorts;
3. Count of students admitted via early action, early decision, and regular admissions.

The survey is expected to collect the following financial aid information for undergraduates:

1. Any institutional grant aid;
2. Merit-based institutional aid;
3. Need-based institutional aid; and
4. Any local, state, or federal government aid overall and disaggregated by admission test scores, GPAs, range of family income, and enrollment via early action, early decision, or regular admissions.

The survey is expected to collect the following information for enrolled undergraduates:

1. Students’ average cumulative GPA at the end of the academic year;
2. Average cost of attendance, disaggregated by admission test scores, ranges of high school GPAs, ranges of family income, and enrollment via early action, early decision, or regular admissions;
3. Graduate rates, disaggregated by admission test scores and ranges of high school GPAs; and
4. Graduates’ final cumulative grade point average.

Institutions will report this data for the 2025-2026 academic year and retrospectively from 2020-2021, with graduation rates data extending back to 2019-2020.

The survey proposes separate reporting requirements for graduate student admissions and financial aid.

Impact of These Changes

The Presidential memorandum, Department of Education directive, and the Federal Register request for comment emphasize the need for transparency and accountability to ensure compliance with Title VI’s prohibition on race-based discrimination,.  The current Administration sees these changes as necessary to monitor college and universities’ ongoing compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard regarding the use of race in admissions decisions.

Institutions should closely monitor updates from IPEDS and the Department of Education, and prepare for compliance by ensuring their data collection practices meet the new requirements.  Institutions should also anticipate increased federal scrutiny of admissions data, and public scrutiny once this data is published by IPEDS.

To address these changes to IPEDS, institutions are advised to work with legal advisors and educational consultants to develop comprehensive compliance strategies, ensure that their institutional research personnel are up to date on the latest ACTS survey requirements, and internally audit their own admissions data to prepare for potential federal enforcement actions or legal challenges.

Institutions with questions about these directives, the ACTS survey, or compliance with federal civil rights laws should contact their Hunton lawyer.

[1] See Students for Fair Admission vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).