9 top US universities face White House push to sign this higher education policy agreement

 

 

The White House has asked nine of America’s most selective universities to sign a sweeping policy compact that ties compliance with federal education priorities to enhanced funding access.

On Wednesday, institutions including MIT, Brown, Vanderbilt, and the University of Pennsylvania received the ten-page Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. The document outlines requirements on admissions, tuition, sports, and campus governance. In return, signatories would receive priority access to federal grants and White House forums.

Key Terms of the Compact

The proposal requires universities to eliminate race, gender, and demographic factors from admissions, reinstate mandatory SAT/ACT testing, and apply the government’s gender definitions for sports and facilities. International enrolment would be capped at 15% of the undergraduate population, with no more than 5% from any single country.

Financially, U.S. student tuition would be capped for five years, while the wealthiest institutions would have to eliminate tuition entirely for selected “hard science programs.”

Enforcement and Penalties

Compliance would be tracked through annual surveys of students and faculty under Justice Department oversight. Universities that fail to comply risk suspension from compact benefits for at least one year, extending to two years for repeated violations.

A White House official emphasised that overall federal funding will remain available to all universities, but compact participants will enjoy preferential access.

Reactions from Universities

Texas Board of Regents chair Kevin Eltife welcomed the initiative, saying it was an “honoured” opportunity with “potential funding advantages” for the University of Texas at Austin. Other universities named in the proposal have not yet responded.

The Trump administration has used funding leverage before, notably withholding research funds from Harvard and Columbia while pressing for governance changes. The compact also links compliance to protecting free speech on campus, requiring universities to “transform or abolish institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”