2025-26 academic year brought announcements of new civics degrees, growing student interest

Civics education is having a moment and it shows no signs of slowing.

The 2025-26 academic year brought new plans to expand civics education in a handful of states, including required courses on American history and degree programs focused on liberty, military strategy, and more.

Whether academia had it in mind or not, these plans came around the same time as the nation began preparations for America’s 250th anniversary.

“America 250 has definitely created momentum,” Jenna Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, told The College Fix this week.

“There has been a notable increase in civics efforts in the last year. In particular, more states have either adopted or implemented requirements for college students to take a civics course,” Robinson said. “Many universities are launching new Constitutional Studies programs, lecture series, American history initiatives, and other America 250 programming.”

Along with the nation’s anniversary, another motivating factor may have been data showing low civic literacy among American youth, followed by a Martin Center report last fall that found only 14 states require civics courses for undergraduates.

“A significant first step would be to require all undergraduate students to take a civics course that covers fundamental American documents as part of the general education curriculum,” author Shannon Watkins told The College Fix, previously.

Iowa did just that this spring with a new state law.

Now, students at Iowa’s public universities will be required to take an American history class and a U.S. government class to graduate. 

The result will be fewer “absurd” course options focused on leftwing and progressive ideologies, Iowa state Rep. Taylor Collins wrote recently in a Times-Republican op-ed. 

Collins, a Republican who chairs the Iowa House higher education committee, also wrote that teaching young adults about America, its government and values should not just be a conservative issue. 

“Civic education is not partisan,” Collins wrote. “It equips students to ensure they understand and protect the system that safeguards our rights and freedoms.”

Another “first” this fall, Florida State University will begin offering a new undergraduate degree in “Civics and Liberty Studies” with the goal of creating “ethically grounded civic leaders.” 

The school’s Institute for Governance and Civics created the degree to foster knowledge on constitutional, economic, conscience, and educational liberty, The Fix reported previously. Leaders hope the program will reverse the deteriorating support for free speech and other principles on which the nation was founded.

Meanwhile, other institutions are seeing a growing hunger to learn civics.

The University of Florida’s 4-year-old Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education reported significant enrollment growth this spring; it plans to add two new undergraduate majors in the fall, The College Fix reported in May.

Its first graduating class had three students; now, 146 are enrolled in the program, leaders told The Fix.

Additionally, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University is expanding through a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Announced in April, the graduate program will train students in war, military strategy, and national security leadership.

“Universities have a civic duty to help form the next generation of American leaders with intellectual depth and moral clarity. War involves profound questions of justice, human nature, and the common good,” the school’s Director Richard Avramenko told The College Fix recently.

Others are offering civics education for professors, too.

Last fall, the University of Texas at Austin School of Civic Leadership hosted a seminar about communism for professors. The goal was to encourage faculty to host their own classes on the subject and ensure that, as one scholar told The Fix, the “destructive” nature of the ideology is not “easily forgotten.”

Another project in the works, the University of Michigan revealed details in April about its Center for American Dialogue. 

Slated to open in the fall, the center will “challenge issues faced by society in an era dominated by polarization and eroding civic trust,” according to a university news release. 

The Trump administration has been investing in civics education, too. 

In honor of America’s semiquincentennial, the U.S. Department of Education made $14 million in grants available for programs that equip students with “a deeper understanding of our constitutional republic” and “the knowledge and character needed to uphold the freedoms we enjoy.”

Of course, these projects haven’t been without their skeptics and opponents. 

An Inside Higher Ed report noted that the federal grants prioritize applicants from colleges and universities with civics leadership schools, all of which are located in states that voted for Trump in 2024. 

The harshest criticism came out in a recent expose by City Journal’s John Sailer. 

The report unearthed comments from a leader of the American Association of University Professors’ Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom blasting the growth of schools for civic and constitutional education.

“I would love to strategically map who these f—ers are, and figure out what the weaknesses are, and design a research agenda that just goes through them and tries to knock them out,” AAUP’s Isaac Kamola said.

Some conservative scholars also have expressed concern about projects such as the UMich Center for American Dialogue staying true to their mission. The worry is that the DEI ideology is still deeply embedded in many institutions.

But overall, the expansion plans and heightened interest from students have raised hopes that civics education is on the road toward restoration. 

As Robinson at the Martin Center told The Fix: “The challenge will be to keep the momentum going forward. I’d love to see a sustained effort as we prepare for the 250th anniversary of the Constitution in 2037!”

MORE: Preserving America: Scholars argue for mandatory college civics