The chair of the University of California Board of Regents said Tuesday she expects faculty leaders to issue a recommendation by June 2027 on whether the system should restore an SAT or ACT test requirement in admissions, a new and accelerated timeline following an abrupt decision last week to shelve a widely criticized longer plan to study the question.
Speaking at a regents meeting in San Francisco, Chair Maria Anguiano called on the admissions board, a committee of the influential Academic Senate, to take on broad questions of college readiness, which has been at the heart of the SAT debate. First-year students, according to thousands of professors, are arriving severely deficient in math and weak in writing skills. The study will also look at the high school courses UC requires for admission.
The work ahead represents a major policy review that could change the way tens of thousands of students are admitted to the nation’s premier public university system. The regents must ultimately approve any changes.
Recent debates, Anguiano said, have focused “too narrowly” on standardized testing, a UC debate that has been among the most closely watched issues in American higher education for months. She said she was “grateful to the Academic Senate for undertaking a comprehensive approach … the goal of this review is not to rehash old questions or data, but an opportunity to take a fresh look at how we define and evaluate college readiness.”
The announcement came days after UC’s faculty admissions board pulled back on its study plan without offering alternatives or giving a public explanation as to why it rescinded its vote on the original plan. Anguiano’s remarks set a deadline for the work for the first time.
The morning meeting at UC San Francisco kicked off with an hour of public comment focused on standardized testing. Most speakers were science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, professors who urged the board to bring back the SAT and ACT. They described students arriving on campus without the skills to keep up with their peers, and being too far behind to catch up. They attributed the decline to UC dropping the tests six years ago.
“I’ve noticed a steep decline in the ability of students to do work in my classes,” said Pradeep Sen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Santa Barbara. He said he now spends class time teaching material students should already know. “Since high schools can vary so much, we really need a standardized baseline to measure students coming into the UC system.”
Anguiano said faculty would lead the work “while the board deepens its own understanding of the broader questions at hand.”
In a statement, Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu said the senate’s review of testing “will align with the Board of Regents’ timeline.” He said a separate review of the high school course requirements for UC admissions “is not tied to the same timeline” and a new plan will be available after the UC Academic Council meets July 22.
Leaders press for a quicker review
UC President James B. Milliken pressed for speed. “We must approach our work thoughtfully, but without delay,” he said Tuesday.
The urgency is a sharp change of pace.
Under the plan the admissions board approved in June and then withdrew Friday, a faculty work group would not have delivered written recommendations until May 2027, with further review by senate members, Milliken and the regents to follow.
That plan said students applying in fall 2028 would be the earliest cohort that could be required to submit test scores. Faculty advocates for testing complained that the timeline could, in reality, leave UC test-free until the fall 2029 application cycle. A recommendation next June could allow the university to require scores as soon as the fall 2027 application period.
Palazoglu said faculty were ready to take on the question. “A thorough review of our own admissions policies and standards is overdue,” he said.
“Great universities don’t cling to old decisions simply because they were once the right ones,” Palazoglu said. He said the senate would not rush. “Our processes may be perceived by some as slow, but they will certainly be deliberative.”
The debate has drawn national attention because UC now stands nearly alone among many elite institutions — in particular, private ones that it often ranks alongside for research prowess and undergraduate education. A UC faculty task force recommended keeping the SAT in 2020, but the regents overruled it and voted to develop a UC-specific test that a committee later determined would take too long to create. UC went test-optional and then test-free in 2021.
Ill-prepared students
Faculty pushing to restore testing say the classroom evidence is clear. More than 3,000 professors signed open letters calling for the SAT or ACT to return. Speaking during a public comment period Tuesday, Umesh Vazirani, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, said “the academic case for reinstating the SAT is, in my view, overwhelming.”
Opponents say the tests measure wealth and race more than college readiness, and they point to student outcomes that have held steady without them. Jessie Ryan, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, spoke Tuesday to urge the board to reject any effort to bring back the SAT. She said UC’s own research showed retention rates have remained stable and graduation rates have risen since the system went test-free.
“This is absolutely the wrong solution to an undefined problem,” Ryan said.
Others who spoke argued the university should focus on preparing students earlier for college rather than screening them out.
“Reinstating standardized admissions tests is not a solution,” said Pamela Burdman, executive director of Just Equations, a California organization focused on math and equity in education. Burdman said better math instruction, not new admissions criteria, would close gaps.
UC faculty have increasingly complained about student preparation for years, although the current review is unfolding under growing political pressure. The Trump administration has opened multiple investigations into UC admissions practices, alleging racial discrimination, and has demanded UC use and turn over test scores to prove it is admitting the most qualified students. UC officials have denied wrongdoing.
The regents will discuss — but not vote on — the 15 high school classes required for UC admission, known as A-G, in a public session Wednesday. Any eventual changes to admissions policies would require approval from the board.