Former President Joe Biden passed more than 40 policies surrounding higher education that aimed to ease financial burdens, increase access and protect student rights. These policies tackled student loan relief, expanded federal grants and strengthened Title IX protections — efforts that shaped the college experience for students at Temple and beyond.
Despite these sweeping changes, Biden’s higher education legacy remains in flux following a slew of orders and potential upcoming policies from President Donald Trump.
“The word I would use to describe Biden’s legacy on higher education is ‘unfinished,’” said Mark Huelsman, director of policy and advocacy at The Hope Center, Temple’s research and information center for combating student needs insecurity. “Some folks use ‘complicated’ or ‘complex,’ but unfinished is the word I keep coming back to.”
Here is a look at how Biden’s presidency impacted Temple, its faculty and students.
Student Loan Relief
For past generations, student loans were seen as a manageable investment, with graduates expected to earn a stable income and pay off their debt without major hardship. For today’s students, the financial security of a degree has crumbled beneath skyrocketing inflation and increased living costs.
Average tuition rates have increased by 181.3% after adjusting for inflation since 1989-90, according to the Education Data Initiative. Lower graduation rates and the economic strain exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic have further compounded the crisis.
Biden allocated substantial funds in emergency aid that went directly to Temple for costs incurred by the pandemic in 2021. These funds addressed not only immediate needs, but went toward modernizing infrastructure for future emergencies, Huelsman said.
Additionally, the Biden administration introduced measures to address pandemic-influenced financial hardships for students, including temporary loan repayment pauses.
Biden’s most ambitious relief move came in 2023, with the Saving on A Valuable Education plan, aiming to reduce monthly loan payments, provide loan forgiveness and cut down on accruing interest.
To date, SAVE has wiped out more than $188 billion in student debt. In early 2024, Biden’s final relief package allocated another $600 million for forgiveness, benefiting more than 5 million federal student loan borrowers — including at least 5,600 borrowers in Pennsylvania as of March 2024, WHYY reported. Additionally, more than 4,500 borrowers from New Jersey and Delaware — states many Temple students are from — have received relief.
“Understanding how Biden increased who could be included in relief as part of the SAVE plan, and being a first-gen student, it’s been super important,” said Kiyah Hamilton, vice president of Temple Student Government. “Everybody should have access to higher education if they want to pursue it. I know some of my friends whose parents’ loans were just forgiven, and I think it’s great that people don’t have to go completely broke just to get an education.”
The future of SAVE remains unclear. The court has not yet targeted it, though Trump has suggested opposition to broad debt relief in the past.
Federal Grant Increases
For many low-income students, federal Pell Grants serve as a crucial financial lifeline. During Biden’s presidency, these grants had their largest expansion in years with the per-student maximum award increased by $900.
Temple has felt the impact as 46% of the Class of 2028 are Pell Grant recipients, marking an 8% jump from the previous year and making it the highest percentage in the university’s history, according to university statistics.
In 2023, Biden’s administration also restored Pell grant eligibility for incarcerated students seeking a second chance — the first such renewment since 1994.
“Regardless of life status, education should be accessible to everyone,” said Lourdes Cardamone, president of Temple Democrats. “A good chunk of these policies will be overturned, so obviously it’s not something that will last, but I think it really spoke to how the Biden administration cared for young people.”
Such reversal may already be in motion. On Jan. 28, the Trump administration attempted to pause all federal student aid, including Pell Grants, inciting mass confusion and panic amongst educational, health and non-profit institutions. Under the pause, Federal agencies were instructed to temporarily suspend all federal financial assistance, with the issuance of new grants also on hold.
In a memo, White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth stated that the pause would allow the administration to ensure funding is being used in alignment with the President’s agenda.
The pause was overturned within 24 hours on Jan. 29, though its effect signaled a sharp ideological shift in federal education priorities.
Title IX Preservation Efforts and Updates
Few policies have swung as drastically between administrations as Title IX. The landmark 1972 law, which protects students from sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools, has ricocheted vastly in form between the two presidents.
On his first day in office, Biden ordered a review by the Department of Education of Trump-era Title IX policies on the basis of discrimination. By August 2024, the law underwent significant changes, expanding rights for LGBTQ+ students and extending protections to pregnant individuals and victims of sexual assault. Biden also created clearer protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity pertaining to federal declarations.
One major revision eliminated the requirement for live cross-examinations in campus sexual assault cases. The law was also updated to include an expanded definition of sexual harassment and broader jurisdiction covering off-campus and international incidents.
The change offered institutions greater flexibility in handling cases while striving to better protect survivors from reliving their trauma.
“Considering how prevalent sexual violence is for college aged women specifically, I think the efforts were so powerful, even with the current president repealing them immediately,” Cardamone said. “Knowing it was on the forefront of Biden’s policy-making was important.”
On Jan. 20, the Trump administration issued an executive order rescinding Biden’s updates to Title IX, deeming them “legally untenable” on the basis that gender will not supersede biological sex by definition. As a result, the administration argued that gender identity-based access to single sex spaces is harmful, and that identity must also be null within all federal matters.
“The cultural legacy [of Biden’s Title IX efforts] is going to be felt long term,” Huelsman said. “Students knowing or hoping that if they have been wronged by a college, employer, or anybody because of gender identity, that the government has their back in terms of their civil rights, then that is profound. Even if it wasn’t able to be implemented in a durable way.”
Biden’s Legacy
Biden sought to expand his education reforms in his final months in office. His last budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 included another Pell Grant increase, free community college and additional funding for historically Black colleges, tribal colleges and minority serving institutions.
Among other investments, the administration proposed $12 million for the Open Textbooks Pilot program, a fund that supports projects to create new open educational resources.
As the tides of federal education ideology shift rapidly, Biden’s legacy on higher education faces an uncertain future. Whether they endure will depend on the next chapter of America’s ongoing education debate.
“I don’t think you can underestimate what it meant to have an administration that really took seriously that loan debt is a huge burden on students and families, that it’s holding people back, that the system of financial aid and borrowing is fundamentally broken and needs reform,” Huelsman said.
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