Get the Daily Brief
Latest Higher Education News
Ransomware rampage: Universities face a new cyber front
Cybersecurity firms report a sharp rise in ransomware and related attacks against colleges and universities in 2025, with education organizations seeing thousands of attempted breaches weekly....
Accreditation under overhaul: Trump aides remake NACIQI
The Education Department moved this month to remake the federal advisory panel that oversees accreditation, signaling a wholesale shift in how colleges are judged. At a Dec. 16 NACIQI meeting...
DOJ memo: Key federal MSI grants unconstitutional
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo this month concluding that several federal grant programs targeted to minority‑serving institutions (MSIs) run afoul of...
Judge orders restoration: ED must reinstate student mental‑health grants
A federal judge has permanently restored two multi‑year Education Department mental‑health grant programs in 16 states, ruling that the department’s April cancellation was unlawful. U.S. District...
Education Dept. to begin wage garnishments: Notices to start Jan. 7
The Department of Education announced it will begin sending wage‑garnishment notices to a first batch of borrowers in default the week of Jan. 7, a policy shift that restarts active collections...
Education Department opens Clery probe at Brown after campus shooting
The Department of Education opened a review of Brown University to determine whether the university met its Clery Act obligations after a campus shooting that killed two students. Secretary Linda...
UNC system makes syllabi public: Syllabi treated as public records
The University of North Carolina System adopted a policy requiring course syllabi to be treated as public records and posted to a searchable online platform beginning in 2026–27. The policy...
Pomona in exclusive talks... to partner with Claremont Graduate University
Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University entered exclusive, confidential negotiations over a potential transaction that could make CGU a legal subsidiary of Pomona while preserving its...
CSU trade workers authorize statewide strike—Teamsters warn walkout possible
Members of Teamsters Local 2010, representing 1,100 skilled trade employees across California State University’s 22 campuses, voted to authorize a statewide strike amid stalled contract talks. The...
Ransomware’s new frontier: Universities brace for escalating attacks
Cybersecurity firms report a sharp rise in ransomware and targeted attacks against education institutions—universities now face thousands of weekly probes and a change in attacker tactics that...
Five years after ban, dozens of CA community colleges still threaten transcript holds
A UC Merced survey found that five years after California outlawed transcript withholding for unpaid college debts, 24 of 115 community colleges still list transcript holds on their websites. The...
Judge orders mental-health grants back — 16 states win
A federal judge has permanently reinstated two Education Department school-based mental-health grant programs after ruling the department’s April cancellations unlawful. U.S. District Judge...
DOJ finds race-based MSI grants unconstitutional — major programs at risk
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that several longstanding Education Department grant programs that use racial or ethnicity-based eligibility — including grants for...
UNC system makes syllabi public — faculty must post by 2026–27
The University of North Carolina System adopted a new policy treating course syllabi as public records and will require instructors to post syllabi to a 'readily searchable' online platform...
Pomona enters exclusive talks to assume stewardship of Claremont Graduate
Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University have moved into exclusive, confidential negotiations over a possible transaction that could make CGU a legal subsidiary of Pomona. The institutions...
CSU trade workers authorize systemwide strike — 1,100 skilled trades vote yes
Teamsters Local 2010, representing about 1,100 skilled trades employees across the 23‑campus California State University system, voted to authorize a strike statewide after CSU declined to pay...
Brown police chief placed on leave as DOE probes campus security after shooting
Brown University placed its police chief on leave as the U.S. Department of Education opened a probe into campus security and surveillance following a fatal shooting that involved a Brown student....
Proposed grad‑loan caps could shrink advanced‑degree pipelines — analysts warn
Policy proposals to eliminate the Graduate PLUS program and impose lifetime federal borrowing caps — $200,000 for a narrow set of 'professional degrees' and $100,000 for most other graduate...
Ransomware assaults surge against higher‑ed — attackers shift tactics
Ransomware attacks on education organizations have accelerated sharply in 2025, with cybersecurity firms reporting year‑over‑year increases in incidents and new attacker techniques targeting...
Deepfakes and AI nudity incidents force schools to confront cyberbullying
Schools nationwide are grappling with a surge in AI‑generated sexual deepfakes of students, a trend that is forcing administrators to rethink discipline, investigation and student-protection...