NAICU Raises Concerns with Proposed IPEDS Survey Component

In a comment letter to the Department of Education regarding the proposed addition of the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) survey to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), NAICU wrote that it was “concerned that the ACTS data collection is proceeding without thorough review or assessment and respectfully requests that it be deferred until critical privacy, timing, and formatting issues have been resolved.”

The proposed survey stems from a presidential memorandum and ensuing Department directive. Starting with the 2025-26 academic year, the survey would require institutions with “competitive admissions” to report admissions criteria, financial aid, and academic performance data for undergraduates applying to and attending these schools, disaggregated by race, gender, family income, admission type, and other factors. Similar data were proposed for graduate students, further disaggregated by field of study.

Over 30 members of NAICU’s State Executive and Secretariat networks signed on to the comments, which concluded that “Without a realistic view of institutional capacity and a reasonable timeline, the ACTS risks falling short of federal data and privacy standards and undermining public trust in higher education data.”

To inform its comments, NAICU partnered with the Association for Institutional Research to survey higher education professionals about the proposal, receiving responses from more than 300 private, nonprofit colleges and universities. NAICU also convened a working group of institutional researchers, registrars, enrollment managers, and other critical staff to discuss ACTS impact, feasibility, and challenges.

Typically, the Department will review the submitted comments and respond with any changes based on the feedback. NAICU will follow the next steps taken by the Department closely and report further.

For more information, please contact:
Jason Ramirez