Thirty institutions have until August 31 to complete Pentagon-ordered audits of their foreign research collaboration or forfeit federal funding, a deadline that marks one hard edge of a 19-month federal campaign that spans research grants, international enrollment, medical school admissions, and accreditation authority across American academia.
Research funding under political review
The Office of Management and Budget has proposed a rule that would require political appointees to review federal grant requests and make it easier to terminate those that do not align with agency priorities. OMB described existing grant-making as having promoted a "woke" policy agenda. A bipartisan Senate stopgap measure would temporarily block the rule. Russ Paulsen, president and CEO of Research!America, warned that fewer graduate students and scientists will pursue disease research because of the uncertainty the OMB proposal has introduced. He added that while research security is a legitimate concern, overly broad restrictions could erode U.S. standing at the frontier of global research.
New international enrollment fell last year, redirecting prospective students toward competing destination countries. The Pentagon's August 31 mandate cites national security, and the OMB proposal would also restrict certain foreign collaboration. A separate rule, effective September 15, caps international student admission at four years rather than the prior duration-of-status standard. A court challenge is underway.
Admissions probes and accreditation pressure
The Department of Justice has run probes into states and universities over admissions practices and financial assistance for undocumented immigrants, concentrating on medical schools. It has alleged that UCLA, Yale, and UC San Diego's medical schools illegally considered race. The Department of Education announced probes into five additional medical schools last month for alleged racial discrimination in admissions.
The Education Department has also threatened the American Bar Association's authority to accredit law schools, with department staff finding the ABA out of compliance with accreditation regulations. A proposed framework would break up what the department calls entrenched accreditation monopolies and require accrediting agencies to prioritize intellectual diversity among faculty.
Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said the administration has shifted toward threatening litigation as a lever to move institutions into negotiations, with intended outcomes less legible than when formal demand letters arrive. Stuart Shapiro, dean of Rutgers' School of Planning and Public Policy and a former OMB official, called January 2025 an earthquake in the government-academia relationship without precedent since the post-World War II era that gave rise to federal research funding. "We're still living with that," he said.