Trump administration takes aim at Harvard’s accreditation status

Federal agencies ratcheted up the pressure on Harvard University Wednesday, telling the region's accrediting body that the Cambridge school is in violation of anti-discrimination laws and “may fail to meet the standards for accreditation” set by the body.

A university must be accredited for its students to access federal education grants and loans.

This latest action is part of the Trump administration’s sweeping assault on Harvard — and higher education more broadly — in an attempt to reshape academia in line with its political goals.

The move, announced in a joint press release from the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services, follows the results of a federal investigation released in June that found Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by allegedly permitting a hostile environment for Jewish students dating back to Oct. 7, 2023.

In a statement, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the school allowed “anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus.”

Harvard leaders denounced the allegations — and the administration’s latest action.

“Harvard has made significant strides to combat bigotry, hate and bias,” a university spokesman said in a statement Wednesday. “Harvard continues to comply with the New England Commission of Higher Education’s Standards for Accreditation, maintaining its accreditation uninterrupted since its initial review in 1929.”

President Trump said on the campaign trail the college accreditation system is his "secret weapon" for overhauling American higher education. He issued an executive order in April directing McMahon to revamp the accreditation process and hold accrediting bodies accountable by suspending or terminating their authority if they sign off on universities with “diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.”

The federal government cannot strip a school of its accreditation or direct an accrediting body to do so. And a finding of a civil rights violation does not automatically mean a university will lose its accreditation.

But the U.S. Department of Education can investigate schools, and accreditors are required to notify universities if they fail to meet accreditation standards and create a plan for the school to return to compliance, according to the federal agencies' announcement.

Accreditors must also be "recognized" by the U.S. Department of Education.

The federal government sent a similar letter last month to the accrediting agency for Columbia University, accusing the school of violating civil rights laws. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education recently warned Columbia of non-compliance and has required the school to submit a “monitoring report” by November, to be followed by a visit from accreditation officials. The commission said it “anticipates” reviewing the school's accreditation status at its next meeting in March 2026.

There is a longstanding process for addressing a university accused of civil rights violations, said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education. But, he said, the government is not following that process by going after Harvard's accreditation.

“It's really an inappropriate overreach by the administration,” Fansmith said. “They're attempting to impose political goals into a process that's not political.”

The goal of accreditation is to make sure students are getting a quality education, he said. “Nobody” disputes that Harvard is providing that, and it would be “shocking” if Harvard were to lose its accreditation status this way, Fansmith said.

Losing accreditation matters for universities and their students, said Jan Friis, senior vice president of government affairs at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Students would no longer be able to use Pell Grants and federal student loans to fund their education.

“That really impacts the students a great deal,” Friis said. “And over time it impacts the institution because many institutions receive a great deal of federal student aid money.”

Harvard, which is accredited by the non-governmental New England Commission of Higher Education, is due for a review in 2027, according to the university website.