The University of Arizona has become the seventh university to decline to sign a set of policies put forward by the administration of US President Donald Trump in exchange for an offer of preferential consideration for federal funding.

In a statement shared on Monday, the university said it had decided not to sign the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, citing its commitment to principles including “academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence”.

The university said some of the recommendations deserved “thoughtful consideration”, but “many of the proposed ideas are already in place at the University of Arizona”.

The Tucson, Arizona-based university is the seventh university to turn down the compact, out of an initial list of nine elite

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