Results are in for the 2016 presidential election, appointing Donald Trump as the next president of the United States starting in 2017. Regardless of political party, many have been questioning what this will mean for higher education.
Trump has said that he would like to cut college costs. In an Inside Higher Ed article, he was quoted as saying, “[i]f the federal government is going to subsidize student loans, it has a right to expect that colleges work hard to control costs and invest their resources in their students.”
He has declared that college endowment funds, which are usually donated for the purpose of investing, need to be used by institutions “on their students, not themselves. . . [t]hey need to use that money to cut the college debt and cut tuition. . . they should be using the money on students, for tuition, for student life and for student housing. That’s what it’s supposed to be for.”
Furthermore, Trump endorsed plans for repaying student loans that are based on the income of the particular student.
This seems promising for students, but some academic administrators are expressing concern that international students seeking “a Western-style education” might go to other countries that seem less hostile. Trump’s views on immigration and temporarily banning all Muslims from entering the United States would “indeed apply to Muslim international students,” according to the Inside Higher Ed article.
Will U.S. institutions lose some of the income they gain from international students? Only time will tell.