Tag: Numbers

Trump 2.0’s impact on higher ed: The first year in 8 numbers

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Monday marked the end of the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, and higher education is still reeling from months of nonstop federal whiplash and policy changes.

The Trump administration has used wide-ranging and unprecedented tactics to gain influence over the academic sector and advance its policy goals. In turn, some college leaders have been forced to decide between defending their institution’s independence and policies or yielding to the federal government’s demands due to financial pressure.

Below, we’re breaking down some of the biggest impacts of the second Trump administration’s first year, number by number.

150+

The number of investigations the Trump administration either opened into colleges or cited while warning of a potential loss of federal funding.

In March, the U.S. Department of Education put 60 colleges on notice over ongoing Title VI probes into allegations that they weren’t doing enough to protect Jewish students from discrimination or harassment. Title VI bans federally funded institutions from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon warned the colleges, many of whose investigations predated Trump’s second term, that federal funding “is a privilege” that is “contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Less than a week later, the Education Department opened 51 additional investigations into colleges over allegations they had programs or scholarships with race-based restrictions for participation or eligibility. The agency again cited potential Title VI violations, along with a February guidance letter aimed at snuffing out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. That guidance was ultimately struck down in August by federal courts.

Several well-known colleges were named in both sets of investigations, including Yale, Cornell, Tulane and Arizona State universities.

Since last March, the Trump administration has opened additional college investigations over institutional policies that run antithetical to the president’s higher education agenda, such as allowing transgender students to play on sports teams aligning with their gender identity.

6

The number of colleges that have publicly brokered deals with the Trump administration to settle allegations of civil rights violations.

Most of the institutions — Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania — each faced hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen or canceled federal funding. By settling with the Trump administration, university leaders sought to restore their funding and remove political targets from their institutions.

The remaining institution, the University of Virginia, still had its funding intact but faced five federal investigations that could have threatened access to such funds. The U.S. Department of Justice paused those probes with the promise of closing them if the university “completes its planned reforms prohibiting DEI” through 2028.

But many higher education experts have decried such agreements as violating academic freedom and emboldening the Trump administration’s assault on the sector.

In one deal, Columbia University agreed to pay the federal government $221 million — the most of any college so far — and implement sweeping policy changes. Those included reporting extensive admissions data to the Trump administration, socializing “all students to campus norms and values” via training, and allowing an independent monitor to oversee the university’s compliance with the agreement.

The settlement will also put up walls between Columbia and international students by requiring the university to reduce its financial dependence on their tuition dollars and making applicants declare why they wish to study in the U.S.

In contrast, Harvard University sued the Trump administration over its attempts to exert influence over the institution. Thus far, the courts have largely sided with Harvard. A federal judge blocked the government’s attempts to revoke the university’s ability to enroll international students and ruled against its decision to withhold $2.2 billion of Harvard’s funding.

15%

The amount the Trump administration sought to unilaterally cap colleges’ reimbursement rates for indirect research costs.

Four federal agencies — the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. departments of Energy and Defense — introduced nearly identical 15% cap policies in quick succession during the first half of 2025.

Research universities, higher education groups and states sued over the changes, and federal courts have so far blocked all four policies. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision permanently blocking NIH’s policy, the first the Trump administration pursued. NIH declined to comment earlier this month on whether it planned to appeal.

21%

The decrease in federal funding for scientific research the Trump administration sought for the fiscal year 2026 budget. Some agencies would have seen particularly large decreases. Under Trump, NSF requested a budget of $3.9 billion — less than half of what it received in fiscal 2025. Similarly, NIH’s head requested $27.9 billion, nearly 40% less funding than the prior year.

Congressional lawmakers have instead passed their own bipartisan funding proposals that reject these broad-based cuts. Congress has until Jan. 30 to pass a full budget for the fiscal 2026 year before a stopgap funding measure expires.

7

The number of agreements the Education Department publicly struck with other federal agencies to offload some of the responsibilities under its purview.

The move came after Trump signed an executive order in March directing McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department.

The full closure of the Education Department would need congressional approval. But the Trump administration has sought to hollow out the department to the “maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law,” according to the executive order.

In November, the Education Department announced interagency agreements with the U.S. departments of State, Interior, and Health and Human Services to do this work. The U.S. Department of Labor is also set to receive additional education programming oversight after it took on key federal workforce developments from the Education Department earlier in the year.

Under the November agreements, the State Department plans to take over administration of the Fulbright-Hays grant, a program that funds educators’ overseas research and training in non-Western foreign languages and area studies. The Education Department canceled the program for the 2025 fiscal year.

Additionally, the Labor Department plans to oversee a majority of federal postsecondary education grant programs. The Trump administration said in December that the agency had finished taking over the federal workforce development programs established under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

And beginning Tuesday, employees in the Higher Education Programs division in the Education Department’s postsecondary education office will be assigned to the Labor Department.

1,300+

The number of Education Department employees the Trump administration fired amid a massive reduction in force in March. Between the layoffs and employee buyouts, the department slashed its employee count from just over 4,100 to about 2,800.

In October, the Trump administration then moved to fire another 466 Education Department employees amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Both rounds of layoffs spurred court battles, which are still ongoing. However, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the Education Department the green light in July to carry on with the first round of layoffs as the lower courts consider their legality.

At the start of December, the department called some Office for Civil Rights employees back to work after nearly nine months. The staff had been on paid leave during that time, while the Trump administration legally defended the March layoffs.

And earlier this month, the administration stopped defending its October round of layoffs in court, appearing to scrap its efforts to push the terminations through.

8,000+

The rough number of student visas revoked by the State Department under the Trump administration, according to a January social media post from the State Department. At least 200 to 300 of those visas stemmed from terrorism-related claims, an agency representative said in August.

In the first half of 2025, the administration canceled the legal status of hundreds of international students in a federal database, often without formally notifying them or explaining why. Lawsuits over the decisions began to pile up, and the federal government announced in April it would temporarily reverse the cancellations pending the adoption of a formal policy.

It never publicly shared how many students were affected. But shortly afterward, court documents revealed a Trump administration policy proposal that would significantly expand the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s power to terminate students’ legal status.

The Trump administration also made headlines over the high-profile detentions and attempted deportation of international and noncitizen students who had criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and related U.S. foreign policy.

Rumeysa Öztürk, an international student at Tufts University, became one of the faces of this trend when plainclothes immigration authorities detained her in March. The Trump administration had revoked her visa earlier that month, a decision Öztürk has argued was not communicated to her and stemmed from a pro-Palestinian op-ed she co-authored in 2024.

Within 24 hours of her detention, the federal government had moved Öztürk from Massachusetts to a notorious ICE facility in Louisiana, all without charging her with a crime, the American Civil Liberties Union said at the time.

Öztürk spent six weeks detained before a federal judge ordered her release on bail in May. Her case is ongoing.

The Trump administration also detained Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student at Columbia, under similar circumstances. However, Khalil is a permanent legal U.S. resident.

In 2024, he served as the lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student organizations that helped organize the pro-Palestinian encampment on the university’s campus.

Like Öztürk, Khalil was detained in March 2025 by plainclothes ICE agents and moved hundreds of miles to a detention facility in Louisiana.

Khalil was detained for three-and-a-half months, missing the birth of his child and his Columbia graduation, before a federal judge ordered him to be released in June. He has sued the government, alleging he was falsely imprisoned and unlawfully targeted over his free speech.

However, a panel of federal appeals judges struck a blow to Khalil’s case Thursday, ruling that the lower court that ordered his release didn’t have the jurisdiction to do so.

Stanford University’s independent student newspaper, with assistance from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, is also suing top Trump administration officials over allegations that their attempts to deport student visa holders based on speech violated their rights to free expression and due process.

A federal judge overseeing a similar case said Thursday that he would restrict the government’s ability to deport members of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association. The professional nonprofits filed a lawsuit last year alleging the Trump administration has been attempting to deport faculty and students over protected speech.

7

The number of states the DOJ has sued over laws or policies allowing certain undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges.

The eligibility requirements vary from state to state, but in each instance, DOJ leaders have argued that the laws illegally offer undocumented students benefits not provided to all U.S. citizens.

The agency filed the first such lawsuit in June against Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, instead of defending the law, signed a joint motion with the DOJ to have it struck down. Texas was the first state to extend eligibility to undocumented students 25 years ago.

Since then, the DOJ has sued California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Virginia over their laws or policies granting certain undocumented students eligibility for in-state tuition.

In Democratically controlled states, like Illinois and California, local officials have sworn to fight the federal lawsuits.

But in Virginia, outgoing Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares filed a motion siding with the DOJ and seeking to strike down his state’s law. A federal judge has yet to rule on that motion.

As of Jan. 16, 22 states and Washington, D.C., had policies allowing undocumented students to pay in-state rates at some or all public colleges, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. That’s down from 24 states before Trump won a second term.

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January 20, 2026
11 numbers that capture the Trump effect on education
by Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report
December 18, 2025

About 1.5 million people teach on college campuses in the United States, and nearly 4 million teachers work in its public elementary and secondary schools. More than 15 million undergraduates attend U.S. colleges and universities. There are more than 50 million school-age children across the country.

They all have one thing in common: Federal education policy affects their lives.

President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon say they want to close the Department of Education and return control of education to the states. At the same time, however, they have aggressively, and rapidly, wielded federal power over schools.

Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education.

Here’s a look at some key data points from the first year of Trump’s second term that represent the outsized effect this presidency has had on the nation’s educational institutions and the people within them.

— 15 —

Number of executive orders Trump signed that exclusively address colleges or schools

In 2017, the first year of his first term, Trump signed two executive orders related to education. This year, he signed three times that number on just a single day in April.

Among his most notable executive orders was one early in his term requiring the Department of Education to begin dismantling itself. He also established an Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force and asked cabinet members to provide him with a plan to end “radical indoctrination” in schools. Other executive orders have addressed school discipline, transgender athletes, registered apprenticeships and foreign influence on college campuses.

Another set of executive orders indirectly affected schools. For instance, the Department of Education interpreted an order about undocumented immigrants to require limiting access to some adult and career and technical education programs. And separately, in a presidential memorandum, Trump ordered universities to begin reporting the race of their applicants and admitted students, not just those who enroll in the fall.

— 26 —

Number of investigations into K-12 transgender policies announced by the Education Department

At the K-12 level, the administration has given no issue more attention than policies that govern which bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams transgender students can access. In all, the department has announced at least 26 such investigations, including into six state education agencies and three statewide athletic associations.

By comparison, the Trump administration announced eight investigations into antisemitism at elementary and secondary schools and four cases of alleged racial discrimination that hurts white teachers or students.

In higher education, it’s the inverse: Just five investigations into transgender issues have been announced, while dozens of cases of antisemitism and racial discrimination are being investigated.

— 50+ —

Number of education-specific lawsuits filed against the Trump administration

It’s not unusual for presidential administrations to be sued: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton brags about suing the Biden administration 100 times. But the first year of Trump’s second term has been marked by unprecedented legal activity related to his administration’s education actions, according to a review of court documents and other lawsuit trackers. Trump, McMahon and the Department of Education have been sued over efforts to fire employees and dismantle the department, freeze funding and cancel grants, and end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The administration’s track record defending itself in court has been mixed, but it scored a major victory when the Supreme Court allowed its March layoffs of hundreds of Education Department staffers. However, courts have blocked some efforts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, forced the federal government to pay out some once-frozen grants and allowed Harvard to continue enrolling foreign students.

— 1,950 —

Number of employees who left the Department of Education in the spring

When Trump took office, the Education Department had more than 4,100 employees. Soon after, those numbers started dropping. In the first seven weeks of the new administration, 572 staffers voluntarily resigned. In March, 1,378 more employees were let go. Many offices were decimated without a clear plan for how or if their work would continue.

The National Center for Education Statistics, for example, went from about 100 staffers to three. That office is responsible for collecting data on the nation’s schools and colleges and administering the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Or take the Office for Civil Rights, which is in charge of investigating complaints about civil rights violations, including sexual harassment, racial discrimination and failure to provide an adequate education to students with disabilities. Seven of its 11 regional offices were shuttered and, in all, it lost nearly half its staff. (In December, some of those staffers were temporarily called back to help reduce a backlog of cases.)

The administration notified another 466 employees they were being let go during the government shutdown in October. Those positions were reinstated, however, as part of a congressional deal to reopen the government. The department also launched a plan to move large swathes of its work to other agencies, including the departments of Labor, State and Health and Human Services.

The Education Department did not respond to several requests for information about how many people are working at the agency now.

— 5 —

Number of regional Head Start offices closed

As part of the administration’s sweeping reductions in force, five out of 10 regional Head Start offices were abruptly closed and all employees fired in April. The offices, all in blue states, help oversee the free child care services provided by local early education programs for low-income children. In all, the five offices had been responsible for oversight of 318,000 — or 44 percent — of Head Start slots.

That wasn’t the only upheaval Head Start programs faced this year. At the end of January, the Trump administration directed agencies to temporarily freeze federal funding for thousands of financial assistance programs, including Head Start. Soon after, the White House said the program was exempt, and later it withdrew the order altogether. (A federal judge eventually ruled the entire directive was illegal.) But dozens of centers serving more than 20,000 children reported weeks-long delays in accessing federal money, with some forced to close temporarily. Then, during the government shutdown in the fall, centers serving 9,000 kids had to close their doors, some for several weeks, according to tracking by the First Five Years Fund.

— 17% —

Decline in new international student enrollment in fall 2025

The Trump administration’s attacks on foreign students with political views it disliked made international headlines this spring, as it targeted students protesting the Israel-Hamas war for deportation and announced plans to scour the social media accounts of new visa applicants. It also imposed travel restrictions and delayed some processing of student visas. The result is a slower pipeline of new foreign students coming to the United States, according to data from the Institute of International Education.

The decrease in new international students was driven by graduate students, whose enrollment declined most sharply. But because most returning students stuck with their U.S. education plans, the overall number of foreign students (including those engaged in jobs related to future or past higher education enrollment) ticked down just 1 percent. Still, that’s a big deal for colleges and universities: Graduate students make up the lionʼs share of international enrollment and are a major source of revenue for many colleges. International students typically do not get financial aid, paying full price to attend.

— $1,700 —

Maximum tax break an individual can get for donating to school choice scholarships

Trump’s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was a major win for school choice advocates: It created a new federal school voucher program. The law sets up tax credit scholarships — vouchers — families can use to pay for private school tuition, tutoring or other educational expenses. Parents will also be able to use the money to cover homeschooling costs. Starting in 2027, individuals can get a tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to nonprofits that provide the scholarships. Those nonprofits, in turn, will be in charge of handing out the money.

States must opt in if they want schools within their respective borders to be able to participate. At least three states so far have said they will decline, but more than 20 others have already established their own tax credit scholarship programs and are expected to sign up when the federal option becomes available.

— 6,353 —

Number of complaints the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed between mid-March and mid-September

In one six-month stretch, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed more than 6,000 complaints without an investigation, according to a September court filing. By contrast, the Biden administration did the same with 2,527 cases in its final three months.

The Trump administration has said in court filings it is following longstanding policies for dismissing cases. Former employees and advocates counter that the jump in dismissals suggests student and parent complaints are not being adequately probed, and that layoffs are affecting an agency that has long struggled to keep up with its caseload.

The rate at which the Trump administration reaches a final resolution in the cases it does investigate has significantly slowed. Between mid-March and mid-September, OCR resolved 581 complaints through mediated settlements, voluntary agreements or technical assistance. Another 138 were resolved after an investigation did not find evidence of violations. Those numbers are roughly the same as the last three months of the Biden administration (595 and 119 respectively).

— $153 million —

Amount of grant money the administration is spending to promote civics education

The Education Department said in September it gave more than $153 million to 85 grantees to work on civics education. That’s a major increase: Since this grant program launched in 2017, just 38 grants worth about $75 million had been awarded in all.

Promoting patriotic education is one of McMahon’s goals. “Patriotic education presents American history in a way that is accurate, honest, and inspiring,” her agency said in a September announcement prioritizing discretionary spending on this issue. “It emphasizes a unifying and uplifting portrayal of the nation’s founding ideals.”

McMahon also started the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, in preparation for next year’s anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The coalition is made up largely of conservative organizations including Turning Point USA, Moms for Liberty, Hillsdale College and Priests for Life.

— $5.8 billion —

Minimum amount of federal research funding cut or frozen

Federal research dollars, many of which flow to colleges and universities, were cut way back this year. It’s difficult to calculate exactly how much was lost; this money comes from many agencies and some remains mired in legal battles. The website Grant Witness, run by a group of researchers, tracks canceled or frozen grants. Its data shows that more than $5.1 billion in National Institutes of Health money that had yet to be spent was earmarked for colleges or universities, as was nearly $700 million from the National Science Foundation. (Some of that funding may have been restored.)

Those agencies were two of the largest sources of federal grants to higher education, but not the only ones. More than $425 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants, many of which are awarded to colleges, were canceled. (Those cuts were later found to be unlawful.) The Department of Agriculture canceled tens of millions of dollars in higher education research funding, and the Environmental Protection Agency also terminated such grants.

The picture doesn’t look better for year two of Trump’s term: The White House has proposed cutting all federal research funding by a third — a decrease of more than $33 billion from 2025.

— 0 —

Number of colleges that have signed the Trump ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’

The Trump administration has been aggressive in trying to bend higher education to its will. In October, officials reached out to nine universities, including some of the country’s most selective institutions, with a deal. The schools could be first in line for federal money if they agreed to a litany of demands including:
- Publishing standardized test scores for admitted students by race, sex and ethnicity
- Capping foreign student enrollment at 15 percent
- Prohibiting transgender females from using women’s locker rooms and bathrooms
- Freezing tuition for five years
So far, none have accepted the offer, with seven universities rejecting it outright. The University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University did not publicly rebuke the compact, but did not sign it. New College of Florida, which was not one of the nine, said it would sign if given the chance. Other universities signed separate agreements with the administration to unfreeze federal money. Columbia University, for example, paid $221 million and accepted a host of conditions to regain access to billions of federal dollars.

Contact investigations editor Sarah Butrymowicz at [email protected] or on Signal: @sbutry.04.

This story about Trump’s effect on education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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December 18, 2025
UK study visa applications up 7% while dependant numbers plummet

New Home Office migration statistics show the full effect of an almost outright ban on dependants – with numbers dropping sharply for the second year in a row since the policy was announced.

While there were 419,558 main applications for UK study visas in the year ending September 2025, marking a 7% increase on the previous year, there were 20,366 dependants – a 57% decrease year on year.

It marks the second consecutive year of falling dependants, with this number decreasing annually by a whopping 87% in the year ending September 2024.

It follows new rules introduced in January 2024 to ban students on postgraduate-taught programs from bringing their dependants with them to the UK.

The number of UK study visas issued to international students and their dependants rose sharply after 2016 – reaching a post-Covid peak of 652,072 in 2023. Now, since the dependants ban, the number of study visas issued has fallen to 439,924.

According to the Home Office, there has been roughly one dependant for every 20 main study visa applicants since the year ending March 2025 – a stark decline since the year ending September 2023, when this number stood at six per 20 main applicants.

Source: Home Office

Indian students were issued the most sponsored study visas in the year ending September 2025, with 99,18 visas issued. Chinese students made up the second biggest cohort – with 89,397 visas issued, 15% fewer than the previous year.

Pakistani students were the third biggest group – issued 39,924 study visas, while there were gains for Nepali students (up 89% to 20,572) and Nigerian students (up 56% to 30,009).

According to James Pitman, chairman of Independent Higher Education (IHE) and CEO of Studygroup, the effect of the dependants ban has been discriminatory – disproportionately affecting women.

Speaking in a personal capacity at yesterday’s IHE annual conference, Pitman acknowledged that the dependants visa has “a major flaw”, but said that this could have been corrected rather than withdrawing the scheme entirely for taught degrees.

“As predicted by the sector, that withdrawal was gender discriminatory, leading to the loss of 19,000 female students vs prior year in the January 2024 intake alone,” he said. “Every one of those was a human story, of ambitions denied, families fractured, careers restricted and yet again women being discriminated against – in this case by UK government policy.”

Every one of those was a human story, of ambitions denied, families fractured, careers restricted and yet again women being discriminated against
^{_{James Pitman}}

Home Office figures obtained by Pitman via a freedom of information request show a marked year-on-year decline in women issued sponsored study visa grants for courses at RQF level 6-8 or equivalent starting in January.

In 2023, of 81,079 total student visas, 45% were issued to women, compared to 55% that were issued to men. But the following year, after the dependants ban was brought in, the gender split was 66% in favour of men. These numbers stayed stable in 2025, the data showed, with 65% of sponsored study visas issued to men.

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November 27, 2025
Schools grapple with whooping cough as 2025 outpaces last year’s peak numbers
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Dive Brief:
- Preliminary case numbers for pertussis, or whooping cough, in the U.S. remain elevated in 2025, compared to immediately before the pandemic, when more than 10,000 cases were typically reported each year, according to recent figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The uptick in cases of the contagious respiratory illness comes as support for school vaccine mandates has decreased nationwide. During the 2024-25 school year, vaccination coverage among kindergartners in the U.S. decreased year over year for all reported vaccines, according to the CDC.
- Meanwhile, KFF reported this year that exemptions from school vaccination requirements — and particularly non-medical exemptions — have increased. In addition, the New York Academy of Sciences reported in May that disinformation across social media, politicization of vaccines and public figures promoting skepticism, “have all contributed to declining coverage, fueling the resurgence of pertussis.”
Dive Insight:

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported on Nov. 3 that it was tracking a significant increase in pertussis cases in 2025. According to provisional data, the agency said, “Texas has had more than 3,500 reported pertussis cases through October this year, roughly four times the number reported for the same period last year.”

The number of cases is also reportedly the highest for the state in 11 years.

Texas schools, among other entities like hospitals, are required to report individuals who are suspected of having pertussis within one work day, according to the state health agency.

This is the second consecutive year that Texas has experienced high year-over-year increases in reported pertussis cases, and it’s also the second consecutive year the state’s Department of State Health Services has issued a health alert, according to a news release.

The CDC said reported cases of pertussis are currently trending down in 2025 since a peak in November 2024, when more than six times as many cases were reported, compared to 2023. The agency added that case counts will likely change as it finalizes the data.

In September, Colorado-based healthcare system UCHealth reported that cases of whooping cough “are on track to be even worse this year than in 2024,” adding that health officials in parts of the state have warned of “a noticeable jump” in pertussis cases as kids have returned to school.

In many states across the U.S. — including Florida, Oregon and Washington — cases of pertussis as of Sept. 20 were already outpacing total year-to-date cases reported by the CDC in 2025. UCHealth’s September report noted that the worst U.S. pertussis outbreaks so far in 2025 were on the West Coast, with high numbers also reported in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina and Arizona.

Other childhood diseases are also on the rise as a result of shifting attitudes toward vaccines and vaccine mandates. According to the CDC, the best defense against pertussis is a vaccination.

In March, measles infections spread across several U.S. states, a quarter-century after the potentially fatal disease had been declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000.

In addition to the impact on student health, an uptick in acute and chronic illnesses can also increase chronic absenteeism issues for schools and school districts. A CDC study published last year found that in 2022, 5.8% of children experienced chronic school absenteeism for health-related reasons.
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November 26, 2025
UCL granted extra CAS numbers after exceeding allocation limit

Last week, The Guardian reported that hundreds of international students were contacted by UCL after the institution exceeded its allocation of Confirmations of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) – an electronic document issued by the Home Office and required for student visa applications.

Students were told they would have to defer their studies to 2026, with many students fearing they’d be left out of pocket, having already spent significant funds on travel and accommodation.

At the time, the university attributed the issue to an “extraordinary surge in demand”. This week, however, it has apologised for the disruption and assured affected international students that they can now begin their studies at UCL, following the allocation of additional CAS numbers.

“We wholeheartedly apologise to all those who have been impacted by the recent uncertainty and we are incredibly grateful for their patience. Our teams are now working quickly to contact students directly with updates and support,” said a spokesperson for the university.

“We also thank the Home Office for working swiftly to assist us in obtaining the additional CAS numbers we requested.”

The university has offered to pay GBP £1,000 for students to make applications through UK Visa and Immigration’s ‘super priority service’.

Our teams are now working quickly to contact students directly with updates and support
_{^{UCL spokesperson}}

Last week, UCL said it experienced “significantly more applications and acceptances of offers than anticipated” leading to it exceeding the number of CAS allocated by the Home Office. The university’s planning is based on historical data and expected trends, which take account of attrition rates and other factors, a spokesperson told The Guardian.

UCL has a significant international student body – in 2024/5, the university had a total of 51,793 students, of which 52% were from overseas.

The institution is expected to be one of the hardest hit institutions by the UK government’s proposed levy on higher education, which could see universities taxed on the income they make from international student fees.

According to recent analysis from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), the greatest financial losses are expected to fall on major metropolitan universities with high proportions of international students. UCL – which derives 79% of its tuition fee income from non-UK students – could face losses of up to £42 million.

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October 6, 2025
Falling mature student numbers requires policy action

With the clutch of traditional higher education flashpoints accounted for – A level and SQA results days, and a clearing season reported to be particularly fraught in some quarters – the summer is drawing to a close, and a new academic year is upon us.

Eighteen year olds are set to attend universities in record numbers, up 5 per cent year on year and up 27 per cent since 2016. This is unquestionably a great thing. However, it masks a troublingly stubborn decline in mature students numbers.

In recent years, the number of these students – those aged 21 and over (or 25 and over for postgraduate study) – entering UK universities has been falling at an alarming rate, down by 26 per cent since 2016 according to UCAS. This decline may sound like a niche concern, but it carries big implications for the wider economy, for skills shortages, and for the prospects of people who want to reskill later in life.

As the government prepares to roll out the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), there’s an urgent opportunity to rethink how the sector and society support adult learners and to ensure that lifelong education becomes a central pillar of our skills system.

The current picture

While the signs from clearing so far offer some encouragement, due perhaps to a sluggish economy, the data remains stark. Over the past decade or more, the number of mature students entering higher education has steadily declined, down 43 per cent since 2012.

The causes are multifaceted, but a shift began with the introduction of higher fees in 2012 and has persisted – it is well established that mature students tend to be more debt-averse, so this coupled with the rising cost of living and the upfront financial commitment of a degree will no doubt put off many.

Others may well be put off by a lack of flexibility. While real strides have been made in this area, particularly at modern universities, the structures of funding and regulation mean a lot of courses are still designed for school-leavers with the time and freedom to study full-time. Family responsibilities, limited employer support for training and the still-dominant perception that universities are designed for 18-year-olds will also play a role.

The pandemic briefly nudged some adults back into learning, but the overall trend remains downward. Without targeted action, these numbers are unlikely to recover on their own.

A price to pay

Why does this matter beyond the university sector? Because a thriving economy depends on people being able to learn, retrain, and adapt throughout their lives. Mature students often bring real-world experience into classrooms and tend to choose courses that fill urgent skills shortages – in health and social care, teaching, engineering, IT, and other high-demand sectors.

When these pathways dry up, industries suffer. Skills gaps are prevalent across key sectors and have been estimated by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation to cost the economy almost £40bn per year. Without a pipeline of retrained workers, employers struggle to fill gaps, productivity growth stalls, and regional economies miss opportunities to regenerate.

It’s also an issue of social mobility. For people whose school results closed off higher education the first time around, mature study offers a second chance to change careers, boost their earnings, and improve their families’ prospects. If that route disappears, inequality widens – and our economy pays the price.

A new hope?

The LLE, due to launch in 2026, aims to reshape post-18 education in England by enabling a move away from the traditional three- or four-year degree as the default model. Instead, individuals will be able to draw on a single pot of funding – equivalent to four years of study, or around £38,000 – and use it flexibly over their lifetimes, taking courses in smaller, more targeted chunks.

In principle, this modular approach could open the door for adults with work and family commitments, allowing them to pursue short courses when needed and return later for further study without losing access to funding. By making learning more flexible, affordable, and tied to labour market needs, the LLE is pitched as a way to lower barriers that currently deter many mature learners, particularly in an economy being reshaped by AI, automation, and the green transition.

Yet the promise of the scheme is far from guaranteed. The rollout is proving complex, with uncertainties over how funding will be administered, whether universities and colleges will be equipped to redesign courses in modular formats, and how easily learners will be able to navigate the system. Awareness is another challenge: adults with established careers and busy lives may not know the scheme exists, or may find the process of accessing funding too bureaucratic to be worth the effort. Employers, meanwhile, will need to support staff in using the entitlement – something that cannot be assumed.

There are also cultural and practical reasons to doubt whether large numbers of mature learners will take up the LLE. Adults may be reluctant to re-enter formal education, particularly if they are anxious about returning to study, lack confidence with digital learning, or doubt the value of small qualifications in the job market. Others may weigh the potential benefits against the costs – not only financial, but also in time and disruption to family or work responsibilities – and decide against it.

In short, while the LLE represents a bold attempt to modernise lifelong education, its success will depend on whether the system can overcome significant implementation hurdles and whether mature learners themselves see it as accessible, relevant, and worthwhile.

The role of modern universities

Universities are at the heart of this challenge. They too cannot rest on their laurels and must continue to consider how they design, market, and deliver their courses if they are to serve lifelong learners as effectively as they serve 18-year-olds fresh from colleges. Modern universities, which traditionally teach the majority of mature undergraduates, must continue to lead this agenda from the front.

Partnerships with local employers, another area in which modern universities lead, are key. By aligning courses with regional economic needs – for example, creating pathways into green technologies, health and care, or digital sectors – universities can help ensure that adults return to education with a clear line of sight to better jobs.

But a cultural shift is just as important. Universities need to be hubs for lifelong learning, not just finishing schools for young adults, and the government has significant work to do in getting the word out to the general public that the opportunity to study or re-train is there to be taken.

The decline in mature students is more than a higher education story. It’s a warning sign for our economy and for our ability to adapt to change. The LLE offers a chance to reverse the trend – but only if universities, employers, and policymakers work together to make lifelong learning a reality.

In a fast-changing world, education cannot stop at 21. The people of Britain need a system that allows people to keep learning, keep adapting, and keep contributing to the economy throughout their lives.

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September 10, 2025
The Numbers Don’t Lie: HSI Funding Delivers Results

Dr. William Casey Boland A lawsuit challenging Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) federal funding represents another figurative bomb lobbed in the current war on U.S. higher education. Galvanized by the President’s blitzkrieg on social funding and education, this assault on the alleged reverse racism of HSI funding reflects the ugly political tenor of the times in the U.S. It also conveniently ignores the evidence of the positive impact of such governmental support.

l’ll acknowledge my bias: I teach at a large urban college that recently received an HSI grant. Nearly all my students are students of color, with roughly half being Hispanic. Many are the first in their families to enroll in college. Most of their parents were not born in the U.S. We are amongst the 20% of all colleges in the U.S. that are eligible to apply for an HSI grant, which are made available through the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Title III and Title V).

Why did we apply for this grant? State funding per student to public HSIs is $6,396.59 compared to $15,526.13 for non-HSIs. The ongoing disparities in postsecondary educational attainment based on race and ethnicity reveal more about a deficit in public policy to address the equitable distribution of resources and less about the ability of students of color to obtain a college degree. Despite modest gains over time, gaps in attainment continue. 28% of the Hispanic population in the U.S. received an associate degree or higher compared to 48% of the white population. The average graduation rate in four-year postsecondary institutions was 52% for Hispanic students compared to 65% for white students. HSI grants are made available in part to narrow this gap in college outcomes amongst Hispanic students.

What is my college doing with its HSI grant? To advance retention, persistence, and specific course completion, the grant will improve the First Year Seminar, provide professional develop with a focus on culturally responsive pedagogy, integrate tutoring, peer mentoring, academic and career coaching, and target intervention in gateway courses.

Many HSI-eligible colleges look like mine, but not all. They are two and four-year public and private non-profit institutions that are under-resourced, become eligible to apply when their undergraduate enrollment reaches 25% Hispanicand at minimum 50% receive some form of financial aid. The rising number of colleges eligible for HSI grants reflects the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. Between 2010 and 2022, the Hispanic population accounted for 34 percent of the overall increase in the U.S. population. Hispanic participation in colleges and universities rose from 14 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2022.

Several characteristics are common across institutions designated as HSIs. First, Hispanics tend to enroll in HSI-designated colleges more than non-HSIs. This is largely due to Hispanic students wanting to enroll in a college close to their community. Second, Hispanic students attending HSIs are often the first in their family to seek a college degree. Third, Hispanic students enrolled in HSIs on average graduated from high schools with large classroom sizes, disproportionate levels of racially minoritized student populations, and lower standardized test scores. Many argue that HSIs offer such students an opportunity to participate in postsecondary education that they would not otherwise have.

Evidence-based research demonstrates the ROI on the federal government’s investment in HSIs. When colleges receive HSI grants, there is a positive effect on Hispanic students. I found that grant receipt increases Hispanic bachelor’s degree completion by nearly 30 percent and associate degrees by almost 25 percent. In another study, we found a 10% increase in Hispanic students obtaining STEM associate’s degrees. We also found benefits for non-Hispanic students, with an 11% increase in the number of those students receiving STEM associate’s degrees. This echoes another study focusing on the initial year HSI STEM grants were awarded with the authors finding HSI STEM grant receipt directly led to an 8% increase in Hispanic students receiving such degrees in community colleges.

I doubt the architects of this recent lawsuit challenging HSI funding have ever spoken to someone who graduated from an HSI. I teach a graduate course on minority serving institutions (MSIs). Nearly all my students are students of color from the New York City metropolitan area. Most attended different MSIs as undergraduates. While experiences vary, most extol the virtues of having attended an MSI. They speak to the level of support they received, the power of being surrounded my others who shared their background, the willingness of HSIs and other MSIs to welcome students’ families and community to campus, amongst many other characteristics that made them glad they chose an HSI or MSI over a PWI.

It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of postsecondary programs funded through tax-payer dollars. Yet recent political antagonism directed towards higher education looks more like red meat being tossed to appease the red base as opposed to thoughtful, evidence-based decision-making. Acknowledging the effectiveness of HSI funding and similar efforts would weaken the core animating principle of the current Republican mission to decimate political support for such programs and reduce the existence of government more broadly.

Dr. William Casey Boland is an assistant professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College-City University of New York.

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July 25, 2025
International Students by the Numbers

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and his administration have acted aggressively against international students, including instituting widespread changes to their legal status and implementing entry bans on nationals of specific countries or for scholars at certain institutions.

To put into context the role of international students in U.S. higher education and their added value to the U.S. economy, Inside Higher Ed compiled five key statistics about them.

1. International students are 1.1 million strong, making up 6 percent of U.S. enrollments.

The U.S. hosts the largest share of international students globally (16 percent), welcoming 1.1 million learners in 2024, according to the Institute of International Education. About 242,700 visitors to the U.S. are on Optional Practical Training, or OPT for short, according to IIE data.

While the U.S. welcomes the largest number of international students, these students make up a fraction—about 6 percent—of the country’s total enrollment. By comparison, Canada welcomed 840,000 international students in 2024, or 39 percent of the country’s total postsecondary enrollment.

2. Two percent of international students have been impacted by new travel bans.

As of Monday, nationals of 12 countries have been barred from entering the United States, and those from seven more countries face significant visa restrictions. The ban, announced in a June 5 executive order from President Trump, will impact students from Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, among others.

About 25,000 students from these countries were studying in the U.S. as of March 2024, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security analyzed by Inside Higher Ed. Approximately one in five of them was participating in a bachelor’s program, and 38 percent were enrolled in a doctoral program.

If the Trump administration succeeds in reducing the number of Chinese students who can participate in U.S. higher education, the impacts may be more dramatic on enrollment; Chinese international scholars numbered 255,146 in March 2024, according to DHS data.

3. California is the No. 1 host among states.

Among the 50 states, California welcomes the greatest share of international students each year—just over 140,800 as of the 2023–24 academic year, according to NAFSA, the national organization for international educators. New York is close behind (135,800 students), followed by Texas (89,500 students) and Massachusetts (82,306 students).

On the opposite end, Montana and Wyoming hosted fewer than 1,000 international scholars apiece, and fewer than 300 international students made their way to Alaska in 2023–24 (and about 50 of those students were from Canada, according to DHS data).

4. NYU is the campus with the most global scholars.

Demonstrating that New York City lives up to its reputation as a melting pot, New York University enrolls the greatest number of international students of any U.S. college or university, totaling 27,247 during the 2023–24 academic year, according to data from IIE. International students make up about 44 percent of NYU’s student population, compared to Northeastern University in Boston, where international students are fewer in number but make up closer to two-thirds of the campus population (21,000 of 31,000 learners).

Among two-year colleges, Texas community colleges lead the way. Houston Community college enrolls the most international students (3,629), followed by the Lone Star College system (3,196) and Dallas College (2,305), as of 2023–24 figures.

5. International students added $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy last year.

According to NAFSA, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023–24 academic year. That’s a pretty big number. To put it in perspective:

Through their tuition, international students support nearly 400,000 jobs at colleges and universities, as well as through spending on housing, food, retail and other living expenses, according to NAFSA.

More Coverage of International Students in 2025

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June 11, 2025
Latest Borrower Defense to Repayment Numbers (US Department of Education)

The Higher Education Inquirer has received information today from the US Department of Education about Borrower Defense to Repayment claims. Here are the results from ED FOIA 25-02047-F.

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May 27, 2025
UniSA, University of Adelaide retain staff numbers after merger – Campus Review

University of South Australia vice-chancellor David Lloyd told a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday that 2,767 academic staff were transferred to the new Adelaide University last Saturday.

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May 21, 2025