Senior College Leaders Experiencing Uncertainty

College and university leaders are experiencing unease as they work to address looming financial concerns, reassess their programs and confront mounting public skepticism, all while implementing a host of new policy changes—a new report from the American Council on Education shows. 

Conducted in July, the survey produced 328 responses from presidents, provosts, deans and more. What their feedback illuminates, ACE explains, is “a sector entering the academic year under heightened uncertainty.”

For example, nearly half of respondents (45 percent) indicated they felt unprepared to address state and/or federal policy involvement in matters of academic freedom—which ranked as the third-most-frequently selected pressing concern for the higher ed sector at large and fourth for individual campuses. Another 36 percent said they feel unprepared to navigate visa revocations.

So “while the concern is widely felt, institutional capacity to respond remains limited,” the report says. 

Other pressing sectorwide issues include public perceptions of value (61 percent), long-term financial viability (53 percent) and policymaker perceptions of value (49 percent).

But as previous Inside Higher Ed surveys have shown, issues that college leaders marked as highly pressing for the sector over all were often listed as less urgent matters on individual campuses. For instance, though 61 percent of respondents said public perception was a critical issue for the sector, just 39 percent said the same for their own institution. 

The report also touches on specific policy issues like financial aid, implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, federal research funding, international students and accreditation. More than 80 percent of those surveyed reported a reduced ability to provide accurate and timely financial aid offers due to the current policy environment, while more than 70 percent said their institution was unlikely to change accreditors.