Officials in the department said during negotiations this week that they believed the current preponderance-of-evidence standard did not sufficiently protect taxpayers and institutions.

But Joseline Garcia, a negotiator on the panel and the president of the United States Student Association, said she believed the new standard swung too far in the opposite direction.

“I think that switching to ‘clear and convincing’ does the opposite for students,” Ms. Garcia said. “It doesn’t protect them at all.”

She added: “Although the institution may have made an honest mistake, the harm is still the same for the student. And people’s lives are greatly impacted by that harm.”

Ms. DeVos has cast the Obama-era regulations as taxpayer-funded money grabs. In announcing the repeal of the rules, she said that institutions of all types raised concerns about “excessively broad definitions of substantial misrepresentation and breach of contract, the lack of meaningful due process protections for institutions and ‘financial triggers’ under the new rules.”

The United Negro College Fund, which has joined the chorus of criticism over the Trump administration’s lack of tangible commitment to historically black colleges and universities, has long been among the most vocal opponents of the Obama-era rules.