Higher Education News
Reporting on higher education reform, tuition costs, and academic freedom. The Daily Signal includes commentary and opinion on cultural and policy debates in academia.
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opinion
Diversity, Equity, and Confabulation
If The Onion or The Babylon Bee or another satirical publication wanted to spoof the absurdity of DEI—the ideology of “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—they couldn’t have invented a character as unbelievable as Jason Arday. But Arday is very real: Born in 1985, in 2023 he became at 37 the youngest black man ever to hold… -
opinion
Conservative College Students Need Courage
It was freshman year at my small liberal arts college. I walked into my social psychology class and was immediately asked to share my “preferred pronouns.” I was appalled by the question. “Do I not look like a girl?” I thought to myself. I hoped that would be the most uncomfortable part of my first semester; I was blissfully unaware that I would soon spend three weeks trying to “unlearn my whiteness.” Growing up in a small, rural town in Pennsylvania, I had… -
opinion
The Hidden Health Risk in College Dorms
Every student knows the smell. The musty odor from an air vent. The dark stain spreading across a dorm ceiling. The damp corner of a communal bathroom. Most students barely notice it. Others joke about it. What many do not realize is that mold is more than an ugly stain or an unpleasant odor. Federal… -
opinion
The Fall of a DEI Darling Reveals Why Universities Won’t Reform Themselves
An almost unbelievable scandal involving a professor of black studies at Cambridge University demonstrates how institutional DEI can only be defeated from without, not within. First, the story, which has received far too little attention from American media. Cambridge University professor Jason Arday has been one of the darlings of academia, particularly in the U.K…. -
news
Texas Approves Classic Learning Test for Public College Admissions
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved the use of the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, for admissions at Texas public colleges and universities. In a July 23 letter to university chancellors and presidents, Commissioner of Higher Education Wynn Rosser informed them that institutions may consider the CLT as a factor when admitting students…. -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: Race-Based Hiring Changed Higher Education
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of Thursday’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. Jack Fowler: I mentioned a couple of episodes ago our friend Bill Jacobson with Legal Insurrection. He has some efforts aimed… -
opinion
The American Bar Association’s Not-So-Separate Law School Accrediting Council
The American Bar Association president, Michelle Behnke, gave a disastrous performance at a House Oversight Committee Task Force hearing last week. She doubled down on DEI and couldn’t answer even straightforward questions. In one emperor-has-no-clothes moment, she refused to answer what her implicit biases might be—even though the ABA proclaims that everyone has them. In… -
news
‘Ghost Students’ Defrauded Utah Taxpayers of Almost $1 Million
According to a recent report from the Utah legislative auditor general, the state’s higher education system lost over $830,000 in recent years to “ghost students” who apply to receive financial aid and run off with the money without pursuing a degree. “Institutions reported disbursing $834k to suspected fraudulent applicants and spending over 15,000 hours working… -
opinion
Want to Rebuild Higher Education? Here Is the Guidebook
The rise of the Democratic Socialists of America—a boom in its boom-and-bust cycle, as my colleague Robert Stilson calls it—has many political observers on the right and the left analyzing the conditions that led to an embrace of that group’s radicalism. And it is radical. As Stilson points out, “[i]n its newly updated platform, the DSA… -
news
Truman Scholarship, a Democrat ‘Talent Pipeline,’ on Path to Reform
A key House committee is moving forward with efforts to reform a federally funded scholarship program after extensive reporting from The College Fix uncovered the program’s overwhelming liberal bias. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce advanced New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s Truman Scholarship Clean House Act, which could soon be brought before the… -
exclusive
GOP Lawmakers Move to Scrap Federal Rule Critics Say Unfairly Targets Career Schools
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., is set to introduce a bill to repeal a federal rule skewing higher education funding. Currently, career and technical schools are being singled out while traditional public and nonprofit colleges and universities are exempt. “Washington should not pick winners and losers in higher education,” Harris told the… -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: Why America’s Universities Are Falling Apart
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. There’s been a lot of news lately about the university’s higher education crisis, and universities are now competing for students… -
opinion
For Spanberger, It’s ‘Do as I Say, Not as I Do’
It’s only been a few months into Abigail Spanberger’s administration, and already I’m growing weary of this. Here we are again in a scenario too similar to issues that dogged Gov. Glenn Youngkin during the previous four years. On several occasions, as is his right and responsibility as governor, Youngkin appointed people to empty seats… -
opinion
Even California Academics Want to Reverse Wokeness
The fruits of another woke revolution are here—and even California academics are fed up. In May 2020, weeks into the nation’s shutdown and days before George Floyd’s death, the University of California regents voted that applicants to the prestigious public higher education system would no longer need to submit SAT or ACT test scores. “I… -
opinion
What Every Graduate Should Aim For
Many of today’s graduates are about to make the same mistake Matthew Emmons made during the 2004 Olympics. It’s commencement season for high school and college seniors. The future may be unknown, but graduates know what they want in their future—money. A 2025 poll by Harvard Political Review asked young Americans to identify their important… -
opinion
Is Wokeness Coming to the University of Florida?
Many see the University of Florida as a bastion against wokeness and DEI, but that might soon change; Stuart Bell, formerly president at the University of Alabama, was recently named sole presidential finalist for the University of Florida. Bell brought DEI policies to Alabama upon his arrival in 2015 and radicalized Alabama’s flagship university within five years. Later, when… -
opinion
Study Examines Whether Advanced Degrees Are Worth Costs
The Left believes there is a contrived war on higher education. However, recent analysis counters that claim by showing that there is an economic disadvantage for many Americans taking on the cost of an advanced degree. The analysis has now landed firmly on the conclusion that much advanced education is a rigged game. This is… -
opinion
When Educational Institutions Drift, Build New Ones
Recently, comedian Rob Schneider posted on X: “I would like to start a CONSERVATIVE TEACHERS UNION as an alternative to the WOKE EMOTIONAL LUNATICS in the @NEA Teacher’s Communist Union…” While those are not the words I would have used, the underlying point resonates: Many educators and parents feel that the nation’s largest teachers unions… -
opinion
Self-Censorship and the Silenced Generation
Are America’s college students doing to themselves what the Chinese Communist state does to its citizens? An Ivy League professor—an old-fashioned liberal who actually cares about free speech—recently warned me about what’s happening in classrooms like his. He encourages class discussion of the great books he teaches in class—but students are afraid to speak, not… -
exclusive
‘HYPOCRITES’: Top Ed Official Slams Democrats for Opposing Rule to Lower College Costs
Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent slammed congressional Democrats for attempting to block a rule that would lower higher education costs for Americans. “Democrats are hypocrites,” Kent told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview. “For years, they have purported to care about student debt, but now they’ve reaffirmed what we’ve all been saying, which is,…