The Trump administration has been squinting and scouting its way through the nation’s higher education system since a while now—figuring out how those unaligned with the ideological priorities of the White House can be smoothly shown the door or safely stopped from being let in. “Higher Education has lost its way, and is now corrupting our Youth and Society with woke, socialist, and anti-American ideology,” Trump took to his social media Truth Social in an attempt to justify yet another move aimed at policing US colleges. “My administration is fixing this, and FAST, with our great reform agenda in higher education,” he added.
In a development that has sparked fierce debates and outrage, the US government has sent a memo to nine universities asking them to meet certain criteria if the universities wanted access to federal funds. The 10-point memo, sent at the beginning of this month, mandates that the US colleges cap international students at 15 per cent of total enrolments. It further says that no more than 5 per cent of total students enrolled on the campus can come from a single country; a move that is likely to significantly impact aspiring students from India.
It was in June of this year, the peak month for student applications, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly suspended processing of student visas as he issued orders that the US embassies vet applicants’ ‘social media’.
The memo—reading between the lines
Sent to the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas, University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, the memo seeks feedback from them by October 20, while luring with the promise of preferential funding in exchange for certain policy changes. As per the requirements, outlined in a nine-page document titled Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the signatories must commit to “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully belittle, punish, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” It also says, “institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forgo federal benefits.” Those reading between the lines, opine that the memo tries to leverage the effectiveness of both a bait and a threat. In the past, withdrawing federal funding to slashing diversity-related grants – these have all been tactics adopted by Trump’s administration to prevail over the educational authorities.
Rules or crackdown?
Many of Trump’s critics read into the latest move in context of all the recent developments and call it a masked crackdown and war on dissent, free speech and left ideology. Days after it was sent, Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the first to publicly reject the proposal for being, “inconsistent with core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.” While not legally binding, however, those in the know are well aware that forgoing federal funding isn’t the only con that ‘non complying' universities potentially face.
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In the recent past, there have been several reports and concerns of US universities collecting information of international students and sending them to the government. If anyone’s social media and political ideologies do not align, the aspirants could face major problems with visas, or be even deported back. The applicants also have to undergo a ‘political loyalty assessment.’ What started with illegal immigration to stricter visa rules, in no time extended to aspiring students and the higher education system. After all, a month after he was inaugurated as the President this year, his administration pulled $400 million of federal funding from Columbia University over allegations of antisemitism. A part of the funding was restored after the university authorities agreed to a few policy changes—this has not been the only instance where the Trump administration has tried to barter federal funding in exchange for policy changes. In the past, his administration has also attempted to influence Harvard and block it from enrolling international students for non-compliance with demands of the Oval Office.
There was a time under the Clintons and Obamas when grants for science, research and education were considered sacrosanct; unthinkable of being tampered with. During the first term of Trump, the backrooms in Washington developed a playbook—nearly all universities depend on federal funding; some for merely surviving, others for thriving. There’s grants, diversity grants, student aid, research money—and that’s how collectively federal aid amounts to a quarter of the revenues or maybe more. Even Harvard University, known to have the country’s largest endowment (valued at over $50 billion) and the world’s wealthiest university, cannot afford to turn its back on federal funding. It received nearly seven hundred million dollars for research in 2024.
The playbook took shape and says hitherto sacrosanct universities can be pressurised to align. Is this what JD Vance exactly meant in 2021 with his speech titled Universities are the Enemy? Perhaps, yes, as he added, “We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”
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