What the US Election Means for the Future of Higher Education

The upcoming US presidential election has put a spotlight on the contrasts between Democratic and Republican discourse. And, although often overlooked in favor of flashier topics, the issue of higher education involves discussions that go far beyond simple academic merit, such as immigration laws, financial aid, and freedom of speech.

On the Democratic side, Kamala Harris is expected to continue many of the policies enacted during the Biden-Harris administration of the past four years, keeping things largely the same.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump feeds the conservative vows to revolutionize higher education by creating a strictly non-political university with no “wokeness” allowed. 

Continue reading for a breakdown of each candidate’s position on some of the most pressing topics regarding higher education. 

Student loans

The matter of student loan debt has affected millions of Americans for decades, and Democrats and Republicans have opposite approaches to federal funding and loan programs.

The Biden-Harris administration approved nearly US$170 billion in student loan forgiveness, but since taking over as the Democratic candidate, Harris has steered clear of any further promises regarding student loan cancellations. This shift in strategy follows the pushback that talks of mass loan forgiveness have faced in the Supreme Court.

Despite the lack of solid proposals, Harris released an official statement vowing to “continue our work to lower costs, make higher education more affordable, and relieve the burden of student debt.”

Donald Trump has been outspoken against Biden’s loan forgiveness plans and has praised the Supreme Court for blocking such efforts. To Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, it’s “unlikely that the Trump Administration would even want to continue to defend these programs in court, and I think that they would get to work on chipping away at the systems and programs that the Biden-Harris Administration has worked so hard to improve.”

International students

The results of this election will influence the future of international students seeking an American degree, as these students depend on visa regulations and post-graduation work opportunities.

Although the Democratic platform does not directly mention international students, it supports the creation of new pathways to legal immigration and expanding existing programs, which could streamline visa processes for students and skilled workers. 

In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration was responsible for revoking Trump’s travel ban, which halted entry into the US by citizens of fifteen countries – most of which had predominantly Muslim populations.

If elected, Trump has promised to bring back the travel ban, a move that can jeopardize students from Muslim countries. But, going against his own rhetoric, the Republican candidate said in June that he believes every college graduate should automatically receive a visa to stay in the country.

Following the statement, Trump’s team added the caveat that the students would be aggressively vetted to “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters, and public charges” and retain only the “most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America.”

Freedom of speech

Campus protests over recent political topics, including the Israel-Gaza conflict, police brutality, and climate action, have brought freedom of speech issues to the forefront of the debate. While both parties recognize the importance of free expression on campuses, their strategies for addressing it greatly differ.

The Democratic candidate has supported student protestors in the past – namely, the Black Lives Matter movement that followed the shooting of an unarmed black man – but has remained unresponsive as students call for the end of the United States military support of Israel.

Harris has not called for the dispersion of any protests but has stated her rejection of their pleas: “There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

Trump’s approach has been far more controversial: in a closed event with his supporters, the Republican candidate vowed to defeat the “radical revolution” by deporting the international participants: “One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country.”

Although deporting US residents for protesting is unconstitutional, international students risk losing their visas if they are suspended or expelled from university.

To avoid backlash in the face of political controversies, some institutions have pledged institutional neutrality and abstained from taking positions in the recent conflict. For some, however, the move is merely a sign of universities’ fear of punishment by donors and politicians.

College affordability

The rising cost of tuition is another pressing issue, with both parties proposing different solutions to make college more affordable.

The current Democratic platform vows to “make public colleges and universities tuition-free for students whose families earn less than $125,000.” It also proposes doubling the maximum Pell Grant award for low-income students—currently $7,395—and doubling federal support for TRIO programs that help underrepresented groups apply to and complete college.

However, Harris has recently recognized that higher education will remain inaccessible to many families and has proposed removing certain degree requirements altogether: “As president, I will get rid of the unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs to increase jobs for folks without a four-year degree.”

On the Republican side, the focus is on offering alternatives to the traditional four-year degree. The idea is to create a free online university called the “American Academy,” which will be funded, according to Donald Trump, by taking “the billions and billions of dollars that we will collect by taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments.”

The candidate guarantees that accreditation from the Academy will equate to a Bachelor’s degree and will be recognized by the US government and federal contractors. He adds that the institution will be “strictly non-political, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed.”

What to expect

Despite their differences, much of the disagreement between Democrats and Republicans regarding higher education stems from the same issue: whether or not a degree is worth the investment in the current socioeconomic environment.

As Jonathan Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, points out, “What you hear from Republicans is we are not sure there is value in the higher-education enterprise. For Democrats, it’s we believe there is value, we just don’t think it’s working well for enough people.”

Regarding Trump’s proposals of complete reform, many are skeptical that such drastic promises will come to fruition. Others, however, remain alert to the risk of severe change affecting the sector should the Republican party emerge victorious.

While these are uncertain times, one thing is evident: the political turmoil surrounding higher education will not cease when this election is over.