USA offers funding benefits to unis for conditions including international student limits

A Compact For Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which has been published by the Washington Post, outlines conditions across 10 areas that institutions must meet in order to be considered for priority on grants and federal funding on research and contracts.

In a section on ‘foreign entanglements’, the government states that for institutions that commit to the contract, no more than 15 per cent of the undergraduate student population shall be international students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), and no more than five per cent shall be from any one country.

The government states that permission for student visas is “intended to further America’s national interest” for students who “exhibit extraordinary talent that promises to make America stronger and more economically productive”.

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“Universities that rely on foreign students to fund their institutions risk, among other things, potentially reducing spots available to deserving American students, and if not properly vetted, saturating the campus with noxious values such as anti-Semitism and other anti-American values, creating serious national security risks,” it said.

If institutions sign the compact, they will also pledge to select international students on the basis of extraordinary talent rather than financial advantage to the university, and share all known information on international students, including discipline records, with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State.

Other measures required in the contact include a freeze on tuition fees for domestic students for five years, equality in admissions, a commitment to a marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and student equality.

Signatory universities will also ensure that they don’t permit demonstrations that disrupt study, block access to parts of the campus based on race or ethnicity, or allow demonstrators to heckle individual students or groups of students.

It is not clear from the Compact which funds or benefits might be withheld from institutions if they choose not to sign the contract.

The letters were reportedly sent to solicit agreement and feedback from: Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia.

The University of Southern California was the fifth largest host of international students in the USA in the 2024/25 academic year with 17,469 enrolled, according to the last Open Doors report by the Institute of International Education (IIE), while the University of Pennsylvania and two sub-campuses of the University of Texas were among the top 25.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was one of the nine institutions to be contacted.

In a short message, Sian Leah Beilock, President of Dartmouth College, said, “You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better. At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves.”

Presidents of some of the other institutions have acknowledged receipt of the Compact and the deadline of 20th October for them to respond with feedback.

American Council on Education (ACE) President Ted Mitchell said that the move was another instance of the government weaponizing federal funding to achieve ideological and political aims.

He told the New York Times that if institutions agreed, it would set “a horrible precedent to cede power to the federal government”.