The association representing institutional researchers had requested a three-month extension.
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The Education Department could give some institutional research offices a conditional three-week extension on its deadline to submit admissions data that the federal government plans to use to look for unlawful race-based admissions practices.
On Friday, the Association for Institutional Research posted a notice on its website that “institutions may be granted an extension to April 8, 2026, provided they meet two required conditions by the regular March 18 keyholder deadline.” Those include completing all the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement survey screening questions for all seven reporting years and uploading data for any three ACTS reporting years to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Data Collection System.
Starting now through March 18, institutions that meet both of those requirements can contact the IPEDS help desk to request an extension, according to AIR’s website. An Education Department spokesperson confirmed the guidance in an email to Inside Higher Ed Friday, writing that the agency is “granting limited extensions to the reporting deadline where institutions have shown a good faith effort to comply and extraordinary circumstances warranting extension.”
The partial extension comes a week after AIR sent a letter to the National Center for Education Statistics asking for a three-month extension on the deadline for the ACTS survey, which the Trump administration added to IPEDS last year.
While institutions typically have about a year to prepare for changes to IPEDS surveys, the Education Department gave them about 120 days of notice to prepare for the ACTS survey, which represents the largest single expansion of IPEDS reporting to date. But colleges and universities didn't have the final reporting requirements until the department finalized the rule on Dec. 18 and required them to submit all the data within 90 days of that date.
Most selective four-year colleges and universities are on the hook to submit massive amounts of disaggregated admissions data—including the test scores, grade point averages, race, sex and income ranges of applied, admitted and enrolled students dating as far back as 2019.
But a survey completed by AIR showed that as of a month ago, 87 percent of institutional research officers said they needed more time to complete it. The biggest barriers to meeting the March 18 deadline for timely and accurate data submissions, they said, include staffing capacity, data availability or quality, interpretation of definitions or requirements, and timing or uncertainty related to evolving guidance.
(This story has been updated to reflect updated guidance that institutions can apply for an extension from now through March 18, not starting on March 18, and to clarify the timeline for implementing the ACTS survey.)
