Elite universities audit their legitimacy

A growing number of top universities are commissioning internal, public reviews to diagnose why mass public confidence in higher education has fallen. These audits openly admit governance, admissions, and cultural failures and signal that elite institutions may either reform or become focal points for political backlash. — If elite schools formalize self‑audits, they change the political terrain: admissions, free‑speech, and funding debates will now center on explicit institutional admissions rather than outsider grievances.