Biden administration unveils college admissions roadmap

The Biden administration on Thursday 28 September issued guidance on how colleges can continue to diversify in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s seismic summer ruling invalidating race-conscious admissions, writes Jeremy Bauer-Wolf for Higher Ed Dive.

Colleges continue to confront the fallout of the decision, which overturned decades of legal precedent enabling them to consider race as one factor in admissions. Most institutions accept a majority or all of their applicants, and have no need to factor in race. But the higher education world has already observed the ruling’s ripple effects – including institutions eschewing racial considerations in other areas, like scholarships, which the high court did not address in June.

The US Department of Education’s recommendations, released in a 66-page report, emphasise the avenues colleges can legally explore to bolster socio-economic and racial diversity in their classes. Ideas range from strengthening programmes that offer historically under-represented students a path into higher education, to abandoning admissions policies shown to favour white and wealthy applicants. Critics in recent months have pounced on legacy preferences, which give advantages to students with a family connection to an institution, but disproportionately benefit the affluent in the process.
Full report on the Higher Ed Dive site