How have Donald Trump’s administration measures affected American college students, excluding immigrants and international students?
U.S President Donald Trump’s second term has profoundly impacted university education in the United States. While some actions by the administration seek to hit the deep pockets of universities, others more directly go after students who are viewed as being anti-Semitic, anti-American or have otherwise given the Trump Administration reason to believe that they would not integrate into the student community at American universities.
This marks a sea change from the approach of the previous administration. Dr. Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, highlights what, in his view, the core differences are. “I did advise the Biden-Harris administration, and I worked closely with the former Secretary of Education, whose goal was really to try to provide access and funding to higher education and education in general, to everyone across the country, regardless of background, regardless of your socioeconomic status, regardless of where you were born or what your lived circumstances were.“
“And this administration feels very differently. This administration’s argument is that everyone should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and that there should be fairness. And I believe that fairness is giving everyone an opportunity, not some individuals an opportunity, and others not. “ he said.
We take a look at how some measures during Mr. Ttrump’s second term have impacted American citizens.
Action for pro-Palestine protests
The crackdown on universities for anti-Semitism has greatly affected student life on campuses. The launch of a federal antisemitism task force and investigations undertaken earlier by the Department of Education’s (DOE) Office for Civil Rights have brought pressure on several schools. Specific focus has been on ten schools where pro-Palestine protests were held (particularly with encampments): Columbia; George Washington University; Harvard; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California.
Faced with threats of funding cuts worth $400 million, Columbia in March 2025 acceded to the demands put forth by the government, and introduced measures that affected students, including tougher protest policies, increased security and disciplinary measures, as well as new oversight for the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department.
Other universities, too, took measures to avoid anti-Israel protests on campus. Yale revoked its recognition of student groups which engaged in pro-Palestine demonstrations, while the University of California sent out a letter to its campuses reminding leaders and student governments they cannot boycott Israel. In some cases, disciplinary action has been taken against students participating in off-campus protests, or they have been questioned for op-eds and posts in support of the Palestinian cause.
Universities are also requiring that students go through anti-Semitism training. In September 2025, 300 students at Northwestern were prevented from registering for classes after they refused to watch an anti-Semitism training video created by advocacy group Jewish United Fund. The video was reportedly biased in favour of Israel, including a segment comparing critics of Israel to Klu Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, besides having a controversial definition of antisemitism and referring to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria (the biblical name used by the Israel government). The training also included a second video about anti-Arab bias.
There has been pushback, and some heartening legal decisions. A lawsuit challenged the Trump administration’s crackdown on students and faculty participating in pro-Palestine protests as violating the First Amendment, with a senior attorney telling the court that such repression of the political speech of immigrants had not taken place since the McCarthy era. District Judge William Young ruled in September 2025 that the threat of deportations had been unlawfully used to repress the freedom of speech of students.
Unexpected fallout for DEI cuts
The administration has sought to root out DEI initiatives and pressed for what it views as more meritocracy. And universities continue to scale back on their diversity-related initiatives. For example, Harvard directed its alumni interviewers to not mention the race, ethnicity or national origin of any candidates they interview as part of the application process. Universities have also been cautioned to not make diversity-related essays or statements a part of the admission process.
However, the Washington Post report noted that some experts were concerned that the real impact of the DEI ban could be faced by different groups from the ones which the administration seeks to target. One such group could be men, and white men in particular, since universities have been attempting to maintain a gender balance even as less men choose to go to college. According to federal data, nearly 40% more women than men are enrolled in higher education, with more than 800,000 women applying to college than men in 2023. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE), told the Post that “The idea of males, including White males, being at the short end of the stick all of a sudden would be a truly ironic outcome.”
While these possibilities have been mooted, the full impact of these measures on students is yet to be gauged. “The data from fall admissions are uneven,” said Jacqueline Stevens, Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Deportation Research Clinic at Northwestern University.
“Some institutions show steep declines in minority admissions; others reflect little impact. A major contributor to these outcomes is a Supreme Court precedent striking down Harvard’s affirmative action admissions policies, though Trump’s DOE is going out of its way to ensure enforcement of this order,” she noted in an email reply.
Barring of transgender athletes
The right wing has targeted LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transpeople, and this has been reflected in administration priorities. The Trump administration formed a Title IX Special Investigations Team to look into instances of transgender women playing in women’s sports teams, reversing course from the Biden administration, which had revised Title IX to include discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender.
Following a crackdown by the Trump administration, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports teams and female-only facilities. It sent out an apology and rescinded the athletic awards of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas following an agreement with the U.S. DOE on July 1, 2025.
The White House also struck a deal struck with Wagner College to settle similar investigations. Stephanie Turner, a female athlete, forfeited a USA Fencing match by taking a knee because her opponent, Redmond Sullivan from Wagner College, was a “biological male competing in the female-only category.” Post the investigation, the college as well as USA Fencing changed their policies about the participating of transwomen, and the definitions of male and female.
Student loans
American students will have to contend with changes brought in by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025 (international students do not receive federal financial aid.) The Act introduced a lifetime borrowing cap of $20,500 for graduate students ($100,000 aggregate limit), and $50,000 ($200,000 aggregate limit) for doctoral, medical or professional degrees. The Act also eliminated the GradPLUS programme and set a $65,000 cap on Parent PLUS loans (unsubsidized loans for parents to support dependent students). The changes go into effect in July 2026.
Further, degree programmes will now be ineligible to use federal student aid if their graduates fail to meet certain income thresholds.
Due to different caps under OBBBA, questions have arisen about what constitutes a professional degree. The regulatory definition from 1965 lists several which signify “ both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor’s degree.” On the list are pharmacy, dentistry, veterinarian medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology. Notable by their absence are those such as nursing, physical therapy, counselling/therapy, architecture, engineering, business, accounting, education, social work, audiology, speech pathology and qualifications for physician assistants. After some debate, clinical psychology was added to the list by the DOE.
Many have criticised the omissions, particularly of nursing. The President of the American Nurses Association Jennifer Mensik Kennedy said in a letter that excluding nursing will “severely restrict access to critical funding for graduate nursing education, undermining efforts to grow and sustain the nursing workforce.”
The OBBBA introduced two new repayment plans for all those taking loans after July 1, 2026, replacing the current ones. Besides this, it has set limits on loan deferments and forbearances.
Current loan debtors will have access to some old repayment plans. However, Joe Biden’s signature SAVE repayment programme, which was challenged in courts by the Attorneys Generals of States including Missouri, Florida, Ohio and Georgia, is set to wind down. The DOE came to an agreement with Missouri, dismissing the litigation in exchange for the Department agreeing not to enroll any new borrowers in the plan and to move all SAVE borrowers into other repayment plans. This means 8 million borrowers have to switch to a different plan by 2028.
The student loan changes are expected to save the government more than $300 billion over a decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.
In what might prove an advantage for some students, Pell Grants have been made available for short-term work training programmes, such as those required for emergency medical technicians and automotive mechanics. Roughly 40% of undergraduates rely on Pell Grants, according to a 2023 study by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Cuts in the federal workforce also has had impacts on access to aid. A National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators survey revealed that 47% of the surveyed universities noted the closure of regional federal Financial Student Aid offices. Per the survey, as reported by Higher Ed Dive, many institutes said their students were facing challenges pertaining to federal loan services.
In perhaps a bright spot for several students, the DOE reportedly opened FAFSA for 2026-27 ahead of the anticipated October 1 2025 launch date. Earlier filling of the form betters student chances to get federal aid. Further, the DoE launched a new earnings indicator to complement the FAFSA process, providing prospective students information about a school’s post-graduation earnings. If the institution’s average earnings are below the average high school graduate, the form will generate a “lower earnings” disclosure, per the DOE’s press release on the issue.
One change may impact students aiming to enter public service. In October 2025, The DOE proposed a rule change for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programme, which was launched in 2007 to encourage Americans to pursue public service by promising to forgive their federal student loans after 10 years of qualifying employment and monthly payments. The DOE’s new rule amends the definition of “qualifying employer” to exclude organizations that engage in unlawful activities and have a substantial illegal purpose, like supporting terrorism or aiding and abetting illegal immigration. This definition remains broad, and may include advocacy organisations in its ambit.
Tuition hikes
Some universities have sought alternate funding models due to cuts in federal funding and falling international student enrollment numbers, and American students may bear the brunt. For example, the University of Nebraska Lincoln has proposed a 5% average tuition increase.The Commonfund Institute’s Higher Education Price Index noted that there was a 3.6% increase in operating costs for colleges in fiscal 2025, and inflation in the sector has been above normal trends.
Dr. Pérez, the CEO of NACAC notes that although some international students get scholarships to study, many of them are paying full tuition “which subsidizes the tuition for students in the United States, and especially for low income students who can’t afford to pay,”
“Because the way the financial model works in American higher education, you might get some subsidies from your state and some subsidies from the federal government, but the majority of institutions need tuition in order to survive, and so it’s very short sighted,” he points out.
Funding for TCUs
Tribal Colleges and Universities, which are attended mostly by native students at free or reduced cost, have been concerned over federal cuts. Often located in rural areas with few other educational alternatives, these colleges conserve traditional knowledge, working on issues such as food sovereignty, teaching native languages, equine sciences and traditional agriculture. They are not a part of DEI efforts but rather a part of US government’s trust responsibilities after native land was taken over by them, and emerge from treaties and the 1978 Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities Assistance Act.
While TCUs get some funding from tribal nations, a majority of their funding— 75% in some cases— is from federal sources like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor and the National Science Foundation. Department of Interior funding is important as well, and several cuts, including those by DOGE, targeted this department.
Mr. Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget included a proposal to slash operations funding from $183.3m to $22.1m for Bureau of Indian Education post-secondary programs, which would have an impact on career and technical schools as well as community colleges and four-year colleges. Additionally, Trump’s 2026 discretionary budget request included a plan to specifically eliminate funding for the Institute of American Indian Arts, which receives $13.5m in annual appropriations.
However, in a reversal, TCUs were not as badly hit as some other targets. Nearly $500 million in federal funding was redirected from Hispanic serving universities to TCUs and Historically Black Universities (HBCUs) “to support the unique and historic contributions of these institutions of higher education.”
Funding for HBCus and MSIs
The funding boost for HBCUs and TCUs arrived soon after $350 million was cut from other grants. An executive order was passed to end discretionary funding to several Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) grant programmes.
Funding was reprogrammed from the following:
The Hispanic Serving Institution programme was created by Congress in 1998 after finding that Latino students were enrolling and graduating at lower rates than their white peers. $250 million had been set aside in 2025 for HSIs, which include well-known universities like University of Texas Austin and University of Arizona. Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions had challenged the grants saying they unfairly exclude universities that fall short of the “arbitrary ethnic threshold.” In July 2025, the Justice Department declined to defend the programmes, saying that the 25% enrollment requirement violates the Constitution.
A report by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel declared MSI programmes unconstitutional because they grant money to institutions based on a racial quota, and recommended that these efforts not be funded. Similarly, it questioned the granting of access to FAFSA data to the United Negro College Fund and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
Meanwhile, HBCUs and TCUs will receive an additional $495 million on top of the anticipated FY 2025 investment, an increase of 48.4% percent and 109.3% percent, respectively. A department press release noted that in total, “HBCUs will receive over $1.34 billion and TCCUs will receive over $108 million from the Department for fiscal year 2025.”
Other positive steps include an executive action that pledges an annual White House summit, an advisory board and other support for HBCUs. (“Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” ). The HBCU order also renewed the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, moving it from the DOE to the Executive Office of the President.
While some funding decisions will benefit HBCUs, experts have suggested that the broader agenda of the Trump administration will impact black student and their families . The Congressional Budget Office estimates that OBBBA will decrease resources for poorest residents by about $1,600 per year—mainly attributable to cuts in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This again, may impact the Black community, where 30% and 20% respectively rely on Medicaid and SNAP.
Community college students
Although the major target of the Trump administration’s policies are elite, well-endowed colleges, the downstream impact is also being felt by America’s 1,100 community colleges, which provide accessible education and vocational training to around 6.4 million undergraduates each year. This makes up roughly 40% of the national student body and more than twice the number enrolled in highly selective colleges.
Community colleges often provide grants to low-income students, engage in inclusive training efforts and function as work-force-development arms for their local economies. They also usually comprise a student body with greater diversity. Now, they are being impacted by federal grant cuts, DEI-related closures and the elimination of programmes.
For example, DOGE cuts impacted funding for a programme at Durham Tech run in partnership with a nonprofit called Hope Renovations that prepared women and nonbinary people for work in the construction trades. Another impacted programme was Durham Tech’s Bulls Academy, which recruited young Black and Latino Durham residents for its training programme in pharmaceutical manufacturing, also providing advising and living expenses. Proposed cuts to the DOE budget will also eliminate most funding for English-as-a-second-language courses.
The OBBBA related cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, and further impacts during the government shutdown in October-November 2025 have an outsize impact on low-income community-college students, preventing them from investing in their education.
The value of cancelled NIH, NSF and other federal grants at community colleges is not much compared to elite universities, but neither are budgets or endowments at such institutions. Further, several community college students aim to transfer to four-year colleges in the vicinity, thus indirectly facing the brunt of cuts to bigger colleges.
Some cuts have been in otherwise non-controversial sectors. Grants pertaining to cybersecurity, semiconductors and automotive technology, as well as those from the USDA have been cut. The DOE also cancelled millions in funds for teacher training at community colleges, calling the programmes “divisive” and focused on subjects that were “inappropriate” and “unnecessary.” The Labour Department has also halted its Job Corps programmes, with training centres shutting down.
Additionally, the Trump administration announced that it would seek to end funding of TRIO grants launched in the 1960s, calling them “a relic of the past.” The Federal TRIO Programs (TRIO) are outreach and student services programmes designed to identify and provide services for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, allowing low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to postsecondary education. There are eight TRIO programmes, including Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services, some of which have been running for decades. More than 100 of these programmes had been impacted as of September 2025.
About 100 colleges and nonprofits across the country that support children of migrant workers through their first year of college also lost funding, leading to some colleges shutting down College Assistance Migrant Programmes
On the other hand, settlement agreements may lead to advances in workforce development and vocational schools.
Mr. Trump wants Harvard to build a trade school, as part of a deal to restore frozen federal funding, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “The Harvard Vocational School,” Lutnick said on September 11, 2025. “That’s what America needs.” Harvard already has certain vocational programmes, such as a Careers in Construction programme offering training and local apprenticeships, announced earlier this year. Other schools too have such programmes in place, such as Princeton’s apprenticeship programme which trains students in fields like welding and cybersecurity, with support from the Department of Energy.
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