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Congress and the Education Department under fire over structural changes and graduate loan definitions
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon faced tense questioning on Capitol Hill as lawmakers focused on federal loan caps, the department’s civil-rights operations, and the administration’s...
Research funding stress at MIT as federal actions reduce campus grants
MIT President Sally Kornbluth told the campus that federally funded research on campus has dropped by more than 20% compared with the prior year and that new federal research awards are down by...
Princeton pivots from honor-code peer reporting to AI-era proctoring model
Princeton introduced a proctoring approach that changes how students handle the university’s century-old honor code, shifting away from peer monitoring and reporting of suspected cheating. The...
Yale and other medical schools face intensified DOJ enforcement of antidiscrimination rules
The Justice Department’s accusations against Yale come after similar complaints against other large medical schools, with DOJ arguing that race-neutral admissions practices can still produce...
Golden Gate University makes AI central to curriculum and assessment design
Golden Gate University announced a set of AI-first initiatives that restructure curriculum and delivery, including a newly formed School of Psychology focused on how AI affects human behavior and...
Indiana University releases free, open AI skills course amid rising demand for AI literacy
Indiana University made its flagship AI literacy course free and open to all, removing tuition and application barriers for learners who complete the program and earn an AI skills badge from the...
Utah passes law allowing students to opt out of belief-conflicting coursework
A new Utah law gives students the ability to opt out of coursework or assessments when assigned materials conflict with their strongly held religious or personal beliefs. The statute requires...
Online learning consolidation: Coursera and Udemy complete merger to build agentic skills platform
Coursera and Udemy completed their merger after shareholders approved the deal, positioning the combined company to cut costs and invest in AI-driven skills delivery. The companies said the...
AI-powered learning institutions and workforce-ready degrees
Khan TED Institute (KTI) is aiming to launch an “AI-first” competency-based bachelor’s degree in applied artificial intelligence, pricing the program at $10,000 and shaping coursework with input...
Federal student aid progress and new FAFSA momentum
The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) reported that the FAFSA completion rate for the high school Class of 2026 hit a record high, reaching 54.7% as of May 1. NCAN attributed the...
AI accountability, admissions compliance, and civil-rights enforcement
The Justice Department escalated its medical school admissions enforcement, alleging Yale University’s School of Medicine discriminated against applicants by unlawfully giving Black and Hispanic...
Higher education governance, civil rights capacity, and the OCR crackdown
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office released a report saying the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved resolution agreements with colleges and K-12 schools in only 1% of pending...
Education department restructuring and congressional conflict over federal authority
Education Secretary Linda McMahon faced sharp questioning at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on federal loan caps, FAFSA operations, and civil-rights case handling....
Data privacy and learning-platform fragility after major outages
U.S. higher education technology teams remain under strain after the Canvas outage that validated long-running faculty concerns about dependence on private vendors. The report described the outage...
Rising campus cheating scrutiny as AI meets academic integrity
Princeton University moved to introduce AI-relevant changes to its honor system by adding proctoring and altering a century-old practice in which students monitored peers and reported suspected...
Accessibility, credit portability, and quicker pathways through prior learning
A set of policy discussions are pushing states to develop road maps for scaling credit for prior learning—an approach designed to recognize students’ demonstrated competencies earned outside...
Institutional tuition affordability and expanded aid promises
University of Chicago leadership announced free tuition for families with income under $250,000, positioning the policy as a new affordability lever tied to household income. The announcement adds...
Campus affordability and debt relief delivered at commencement
North Carolina State University used a commencement speaker announcement to provide targeted student debt relief. Anil Kochhar, speaking at NCSU’s Wilson College of Textiles, said he would cover...
DOJ pushes back on race-conscious admissions at Yale School of Medicine
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Yale School of Medicine of circumventing the Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious admissions by using “racial proxies” in medical school selection. DOJ’s...
Trump-era Education Department overhaul faces congressional challenge on loans and civil rights capacity
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon faced sharp questioning in a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing focused on the department’s implementation of new federal graduate...