The Trump administration is using civil rights laws to wage a campaign against the University of California in an attempt to curtail academic freedom and undermine free speech, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by faculty, staff, student organizations and every labor union representing UC workers.

The lawsuit comes weeks after the Trump administration fined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) $1.2bn and froze research funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus and other civil rights violations. It was the first public university to be targeted by a widespread funding freeze. The administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against elite private colleges, including Harvard, Brown and Columbia.

According to the lawsuit, the Trump administration has made several demands in its proposed settlement offer to UCLA, including giving government access to faculty, student and staff data; releasing admissions and hiring data; ending diversity scholarships; banning overnight demonstrations on university property and cooperating with immigration enforcement.

The Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of the UC system’s president.

The coalition is led by the American Association of University Professors union, or AAUP, and represented by Democracy Forward, a legal group that has brought other lawsuits against the Trump administration over frozen federal funds.

“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely,” the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco said.

The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched dozens of federal investigations also targeting K-12 school districts.

University of California president, James Milliken, said the federal government has also launched investigations and other actions against all of the UC’s 10 campuses but offered no details in a statement on Monday.

“This represents one of the gravest threats to the University of California in our 157-year history,” he said, adding that the university system receives more than $17bn each year in federal support, including nearly $10bn in Medicare and Medicaid funding, and funding that goes toward research and student financial aid.

The Trump administration has used its control of federal funding to push for reforms at elite colleges that Trump decries as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism. The administration also has launched investigations into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying they discriminate against white and Asian American students.

This summer, Columbia University agreed to pay more than $200m as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into the government’s allegations that the school violated federal anti-discrimination laws. The agreement also restored more than $400m in research grants.

The Trump administration is using its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation.

One in three parents have sought a special needs assessment for their child, according to a survey that reveals a surge in demand for special needs support in schools across the UK.

The figures were released amid mounting apprehension in England over national plans to reform special needs provision amid rising costs and a severe shortage of dedicated special school places.

The survey of more than 5,800 parents, commissioned by the Parentkind charity and carried out by YouGov, found that 33% of parents with school-age children said they had asked for an assessment for possible special educational needs (SEN) from their child’s school.

In England alone the proportion rose to 34%. Previous Department for Education (DfE) data found that about one in five children were classed as SEN last year, including 482,000 in England with educational, health and care plans (EHCPs) that detail specific support for individual children.

Jason Elsom, Parentkind’s chief executive, said: “Despite the best efforts of our schools, hundreds of thousands of families are hurting because our SEN system is broken.

“Families should not have to wait months or years to receive the support they so desperately need. Our measure as a society should be the way we treat our most vulnerable, and this should weigh heavily on our shoulders.”

Parentkind is the UK’s largest parent-school charity, working with more than 24,000 parent teacher associations and school parent councils.

Half of parents who sought an assessment said it was undertaken by the school and half said that they were still waiting or had paid for a private assessment. A quarter of those waiting said they had been doing so for more than a year.

The survey also laid bare the personal cost that many parents face coping with a child with special needs: 15% said they had given up their job to care for their child, while 20% said they had taken time off from paid work.

A third of parents of children with SEN said they faced “financial strain due to additional costs” and increased tensions at home, while 40% said they had experienced their own mental health problems.

There have been sharp rises in diagnoses of autism, ADHD and speech and language needs among children in recent years, with speech disorders and social and emotional issues increasing rapidly since the Covid pandemic.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has described England’s increases in special educational needs and disabilities (Send) as “staggering”, reflecting “improved recognition of needs that were always there” through greater awareness and diagnosis.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary for England, has said the DfE will publish a white paper outlining its plans for reform later this year. It is expected to expand special needs provision within mainstream schools and encourage the creation of specialist units within them.

But many parents and campaigners fear that the reforms will curtail the use of EHCPs, and a rally took place outside parliament earlier this week.

The DfE said it is “committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools”, but the department faces an uphill struggle with the Treasury for funding for more special school places.

The DfE said: “This government inherited a Send system left on its knees – which is why we are listening closely to parents as we work to improve experiences and outcomes for all children with Send, wherever they are in the country. Our starting point will always be improving support for children.”

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, 39% of existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated within the next five years. For universities and colleges, that raises a practical question: how do we help learners transition into jobs that are evolving as they study?

Our analysis of labour market data indicates that inefficiencies in career transitions and skills mismatches impose a substantial, recurring cost on the economy. Whether you look at OECD research or UK business surveys, the signal is consistent: better alignment between skills and roles is a national growth lever.

A balanced skills strategy has to do two things at once:

• Invest in homegrown capability at scale, from supporting educators with a future-facing curriculum to incentivising businesses to invest in skills development.
• Attract and retain international talent in areas of genuine shortage, so employers can keep delivering while the domestic pipeline grows.

Language sits at the heart of how international talent is realised. English proficiency is not the only determinant of success—qualifications, work experience, employer practices, and student support all matter—but it is a critical enabler of academic attainment and workplace integration.

Accurately understanding what a learner can do with English in real contexts helps institutions place students on the right programs and target support, and it helps employers identify candidates who can contribute from day one. This is not only a UK story. Many international learners return home, where English and job relevant skills increase employability and earning power.

The rise of advanced technology raises opportunities for efficiency, but also makes testing more vulnerable to misuse, so confidence matters more than ever. From our work across the sector, three priorities stand out for assessments:

• First, trusted results. Pair advanced AI scoring with human oversight and layered security. For higher‑stakes sittings, secure centres add the necessary extra assurance: biometric ID checks, trained invigilators in the room, and multi‑camera coverage.
• Second, relevance to real academic life. Assess the communication students actually do: follow lectures and seminars, summarise complex spoken content, interpret visuals, and contribute to discussions.
• Third, fairness. Use CEFR‑aligned scoring that’s independently validated and monitored, so admissions decisions are confident.

Crucially, better measurement is a means, not an end. Used well, it helps inform admissions and placement, so students start in the right place and get in‑sessional support where it will make the biggest difference. And it provides employers and careers services with clearer evidence that graduates can operate in the language demands of specific sectors.

The UK has a window to convert uncertainty into advantage. If we pair investment in homegrown skills with a welcoming, well‑governed approach to international talent—and if we use evidence to match people to courses and jobs more precisely—we can ease the drag of mismatch and accelerate growth. At the centre of that effort is something deceptively simple: the ability to connect in a shared language. When we get that right, opportunities multiply, for learners, for employers and for every region of the country.

The author: James Carmichael, country manager UK and Ireland, Pearson English Language Learning