Months after the Education Department fired nearly all of the employees at the National Center for Education Statistics and axed $900 million in contracts at the Institute of Education Sciences, the department has released the first tranche of data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System since President Donald Trump took office in January.

While statisticians are worried that the Trump administration is moving to undermine the credibility of some government data, education research experts told Inside Higher Ed that so far, they have no immediate reason to mistrust the newly released IPEDS data, which colleges and universities submitted before Trump took office in January. And others noted that the release of the data at all is a win, especially given researchers’ concerns earlier in the year that mass layoffs could immediately compromise data from the department.

However, the data NCES, which oversees IPEDS, released Tuesday wasn’t entirely without issues. It came out weeks later than expected. Some of the communication about the data was wrong. Some researchers said they encountered syntax errors that were later fixed.

Department officials told Inside Higher Ed that the data was not delayed and was released during the traditional July-to-September window. Further, the official said that NCES did learn about some users who encountered problems, which were addressed. “The underlying data, as well as the online IPEDS data tools, were unaffected,” a department statement noted.

Those issues in the rollout are raising questions about the future of administering IPEDS, which is the most comprehensive source for reliable data about higher education, especially as NCES looks to move forward with much fewer resources.

“I was not sure if we would see any new data coming out any time soon, so this is a good sign. But looking under the hood, there are clear signs that they’re struggling to do the same quality of data collection and posting as they have in the past,” said Robert Kelchen, head of the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who flagged some of the issues in a Bluesky thread. “I worry about the ability to continue to get data out on time, especially with the changes to the proposed new admissions survey, which is going to be a massive data collection effort.”

Last month, President Trump issued an executive order demanding that colleges and universities submit data on race in admissions starting this academic year, in addition to the other data they’re required to submit to IPEDS. The Education Department followed up that order with a notice that outlined how it plans to collect that data. Comments on that proposal are due Oct. 14.

“The development of new surveys is where the lack of IPEDS staff could be very problematic,” said Diane Cheng, vice president of policy for the Institute for Higher Education Policy. “The process of developing that survey will play a huge role in the quality of the data. Are they being reported consistently? Do institutions have clear definitions of what they should be reporting? Are they being asked to report on something that they even have data on? That’s where we’re focusing our attention.”

IES Reform

Education Department officials have said they want to reform IES—not shut it down—and ensure that educators have access to accurate data. Maintaining IPEDS is also a priority for the agency, as the data helps to inform a number of policies at the department. In a notice published today, officials said they will take public comment until Oct.15 on how to rethink IES to “modernize its programs, processes, and priorities to better serve the needs of the field and American students.”

In the meantime, the IPEDS data released this week is the first of three batches expected to come out of the department’s annual survey of more than 5,500 higher education institutions that receive federal student aid; this batch includes statistics on 12-month enrollment and completion rates during the 2023–24 academic year and some institutional characteristics from the 2024–25 academic year. Information about cost of attendance and tuition is expected to come out in the winter.

“The release of the data is good,” said Cheng. “But the impact of cuts to IPEDS staff is still real, and we’re deeply concerned about how it’s affecting the release of these data and potentially other data.”

Although she hasn’t yet had time to parse the new IPEDS data in detail, Cheng said she has already observed “some apparent errors or oversights in the communication of the data.” For instance, IES’s announcement about data referred to the wrong release date (Sept. 9 instead of Sept. 23), and NCES didn’t immediately post related files and tables on a resource webpage.

That sloppiness has created “some concerns about the rigor with which they’re reviewing this information,” Cheng said. “It’s hard to say exactly what happened within the department, but we’d imagine that the severe cuts to IPEDS and IES staff over all played a role in their capacity to manage all of these pieces.”

Dominique J. Baker, an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, said she’s also concerned how the massive cuts to the Education Department’s research arm will affect the quality of IPEDS data moving forward.

“There’s not enough people at the Education Department that are left working on this,” she said. “Because of that I worry about accidental errors. I’m certain that the institutional knowledge around releasing this type of data isn’t there the way it used to be.”