US President Donald Trump in a new executive order signed Wednesday (local time) targeted the college accreditation process, a key mechanism through which universities gain access to federal financial aid, intensifying his administration’s ongoing conflict with elite academic institutions such as Harvard University, The Hill reported.
The order, which has not yet been publicly released, was described by the Wall Street Journal as an effort to curb what Trump considers “ideological overreach” in higher education and to promote “intellectual diversity” on campus.
The executive directive seeks to make it easier for institutions to switch accreditors, thus encouraging competition in an accreditor space that has long been criticized for its rigid bureaucracy and limited accountability.
“University accreditation is currently a process controlled by a number of third-party organisations that are, by statute, by law. Many of those third-party accreditors have relied on a sort of woke ideology to accredit universities instead of accrediting based on merit and performance,” said White House staff secretary Will Scharf.
The directive authorises the Secretary of Education to hold accreditors accountable, including potential denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination for poor performance or violations of the Civil Rights Act, CNN reported. It also empowers the Attorney General and Education Secretary to investigate and terminate instances of unlawful discrimination in higher education institutions, including law and medical schools.
The order is part of a broader reshaping of higher education governance by Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, led by figures such as deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. It follows a $2.2 billion funding freeze targeting Harvard, announced just a week earlier, underscoring a deepening standoff between Trump’s administration and elite academic institutions over issues of academic freedom, oversight, and alleged political bias.
Further executive actions announced Wednesday include mandates to train students in artificial intelligence, enforce laws on foreign gifts to universities, and launch a White House initiative on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). “That’s a big deal,” Trump said of the AI training push. “We have literally trillions of dollars being invested in AI.”
The political backdrop to the order is fraught. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to revoke Harvard’s certification to enrol international students unless the university complies with demands to provide records on “illegal and violent activities” involving foreign students. According to the DHS, Harvard must submit the records by April 30, 2025, or face immediate consequences.
Harvard, which has nearly 6,800 international students — roughly 27.2% of its total enrollment for 2024–25 — said in response that it “will not surrender their independence or relinquish their constitutional rights.”
This intensifying federal scrutiny of accreditation also follows similar grievances aired by Republican figures like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who last year sued the Biden administration, declaring he would not “bow to unaccountable accreditors who think they should run Florida’s public universities.”
The move has sparked anxiety within academic circles, as a revocation of accreditation could deprive universities of federal student loans and Pell grants — critical funding lifelines for both institutions and students alike.
