CALIFORNIA — The University of California has expedited the timeline to determine whether to reinstate standardized test requirements in admissions. UC Board of Regents Chair Maria Anguiano stated she expects the Academic Senate to submit recommendations no later than June 2027—moving the deadline forward by a full year from the original fall 2027 target.

The UC Board of Regents holds final authority to vote on whether to require applicants to submit standardized-test scores. Under the original timeline, any modifications to admissions policies were to be implemented for students applying in fall 2028. The accelerated schedule now opens the possibility of policy changes taking effect as early as the 2027 admissions cycle.

Anguiano presented a revised timeline for the Academic Senate to review standardized tests, citing "redefining college readiness" as a key priority. She said recent public conversations have "too narrowly" focused on admissions and standardized testing. "As stewards of this institution, we need to ask a broader and more consequential set of questions: What knowledge, skills and experiences best prepare students for success at UC and beyond?" Anguiano said. She added, "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 in a rapidly changing world."

An Academic Senate chair stated the group was revising its timeline while ensuring the review is thorough, evidence-based and informed by faculty expertise. The move follows a June 2026 announcement by UC’s Board of Admissions and Relations With Schools that it would launch a review of SAT/ACT in admissions and high school classes required for eligibility.

Faculty support for reinstating standardized testing has grown substantially in recent weeks. As of Wednesday, over 2,300 UC faculty in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines had signed a petition calling on UC to reinstate the SAT/ACT mathematics requirement for applicants to STEM majors for the 2027 admissions cycle. The petition signatures include seven of nine math department chairs.

About 900 social science, humanities and professional faculty have signed a separate petition endorsing the STEM letter and arguing for the use of the verbal reasoning component of the SAT/ACT in admissions. An open letter regarding standardized testing garnered over 3,000 faculty signatures in total. Faculty signatories to the open letter argue that restoring standardized tests would weed out students who are not prepared for UC coursework.

Supporters point to a November 2025 report from the University of California San Diego Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions. The report revealed that the number of first-year students with math skills below a middle school level increased nearly 30-fold since 2020. The report authors suggested the pandemic and increased enrollment of low-income students as potential drivers for the decline in math scores at UCSD.

Pradeep Sen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Santa Barbara, said he began noticing in 2022 or 2023 that his students were struggling to complete the homework he has been assigning for 15 years. "This means that I need to spend class time teaching students stuff they’re supposed to know already, which is really impacting the ability to cover the stuff that I need to cover because we’re on a really tight quarter system," Sen said. He argued that the UC system needs a "standardized baseline" to measure applicants, which the SAT/ACT can provide.

Opponents of reinstating standardized tests believe scores do not paint the whole picture of how students fare in college. During public comments, critics argued that SAT/ACT requirements disadvantage certain student groups, including those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Denise Luna, director of higher ed policy at EdTrust-West, cited research showing that students’ performance on standardized tests is closely linked to their socioeconomic status.

She also cited research showing that grades are a stronger measure of predicting both first-year grades and fourth-year degree completion than standardized tests. "The reintroduction of SAT and ACT in first-year admissions criteria would revert to a system that inherently disadvantages students from low-income backgrounds, including many Black and Latino students," Luna said.

The debate unfolds against a national backdrop shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred most U.S. institutions to adopt test-optional policies. Since then, most of the Ivy League institutions have restored test requirements after previously adopting test-optional policies. Within the UC system, the Board of Regents voted unanimously in 2020 to remove the standardized test requirement for applicants—even though it sidestepped the Academic Senate’s recommendation at the time to keep the test requirement. In 2021, UC stopped considering standardized testing completely and agreed to switch to a test-blind policy through 2025.

The University of California enrolls hundreds of thousands of students across its ten campuses and plays a pivotal role in shaping higher education policy nationwide. With over 26,000 faculty systemwide and more than 237,000 undergraduates represented by the UC Student Association, the outcome of this review will affect access, equity, and academic standards for a major segment of California’s—and the nation’s—college-bound population. The expedited timeline suggests growing urgency among UC leaders to resolve long-standing tensions between academic preparedness and equitable access, especially as faculty report measurable declines in student readiness since standardized tests were removed from the admissions process.