Top US universities face pressure to adopt Trump’s higher education compact: Here’s why academic freedom is at risk

The Trump administration has sent letters to nine leading universities, urging them to sign a new “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” in exchange for priority access to federal funding. The compact outlines specific demands including freezing tuition fees, limiting international student enrolment, and banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in hiring and admissions. Among the universities contacted are the University of Texas at Austin, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University, University of Arizona, and University of Virginia. The letters, signed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Vince Haley of the White House Domestic Polic